During the 21st century, there has been an increased interest in the field of computational thinking as a consequence of the ever faster technical development. However, educating future generations in programming and computational thinking is not trivial. Many different platforms and teaching approaches can be used for this purpose. Inspired by the UK initiative with BBC micro:bit, this paper strives to identify what may be important to consider when designing teaching materials with the BBC micro:bit for training Swedish primary school learners’ computational thinking skills relating to mathematical and technical school subjects. This has been investigated in an iterative process, by conducting 21 workshops with the goal to support primary school teachers in developing BBC micro:bit teaching materials. The contribution of this paper is the Scope of autonomy model, which is based on the relation between learning potential, the risk of feeling overwhelmed, and the amount of choices provided in exercises. The model aim to support teachers in developing and appropriating material for teaching programming and computational thinking with individual progression in accordance with the new curriculum.

Digital fabrication and making has received a growing interest in formal and informal learning environments. However, many of these initiatives often start from a grassroots perspective, with little coordination on a national level. This paper illustrates and discusses a study from an ongoing large-scale national testbed in Sweden named Makerspace in schools (Makerskola). The project embodies a series of considerations that arise when a maker approach is applied to a geographically widespread national education context. The results of this study are based on an analysis of the extensive project documentation and first-hand experiences from initiating and running a large-scale national testbed in Sweden, involving more than 30 formal actors and more than one thousand active partners in a national educational setting. The main contribution of this paper is the identification and discussion of five different considerations that have emerged during the project, and include Procurement practices, The teacher and leader perspective, Informing national policy making, Creating equal opportunities, and Progression in digital fabrication.