Introducing the ARCHIE Pi
Some of our recent work has involved creating an offline web server that can be used to deliver educational content in remote locations where no internet access is available. This work has culminated in the ARCHIE Pi (ARCHIE is an acronym for Another Remote Community Hotspot for Instruction and Education and Pi refers to fact that it is built using a Raspberry Pi). The idea behind the ARCHIE Pi is not novel. The word another is included in the acronym to acknowledge that it was inspired by other projects, particularly the RACHEL Pi project.
The ARCHIE Pi implements makes use of a variety of open-source software (such as Linux, nginx, and kiwix) and is itself an open source project under GPL v3. In a nutshell, the ARCHIE Pi provides an "internet in a box" in the form of an open wi-fi access point that can be accessed by locally connected web browsers. This access point uses a local web server to deliver educational content which may include a wide variety of creative commons content such as Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. We have also packaged some Christian education resources for the ARCHIE Pi with permission from the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning.
This project was created by students and faculty in the computer science department at Calvin University and was motivated by experiences with various overseas service projects. The code to setup and install an ARCHIE Pi is freely available on GitHub.
Features
The ARCHIE Pi is compatible with the latest Raspberry Pi operating system and hardware versions. The project includes a script to setup the ARCHIE Pi on a fresh image of Raspberry Pi OS Lite and another script to install selected open education resources.
The developers of this project were concerned about robustness. This is crucial since the ARCHIE Pi is intended to be deployed in remote locations without ready access to replacement parts or IT support. Of particular concern is the reliability of the microSD card under conditions in which power may be suddenly lost. Sudden power loss can lead to SD card corruption if it occurs during a write operation on the microSD card. To address this, various adjustments are made to the system configuration to mount the microSD card in read-only mode, eliminating the possibility of any microSD card writes. Consequently, the ARCHIE Pi does not require a formal shutdown procedure and may be simply unplugged.
Requirements
The ARCHIE Pi platform requires a recent version of Raspberry PI OS Lite and runs on any recent model of the Raspberry Pi (including the latest Raspberry Pi 5). A suitably sized microSD card is required, depending on the amount of content you want to install (we have used 64GB and 128GB cards). Note that not all microSD cards are created equal in terms of speed and reliability. It is recommended that you select a high-speed microSD card, such as cards rated for UHS Speed Class 3, or a class A2 microSD for the Raspberry Pi 5.