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...people need to understand the concepts of bits, bytes, words, longwords, binary/octal/hex numbers, thinking sequentially and logically,
what an operating system actually does, what an IO system is and does, how a computer actually does math, etc., etc., etc.

I think there's a careful distinction to be made in such a discussion, between fundamental concepts and implementation details. For example, I think knowing binary is an important skill for a casual (non-professional) programmer, whilst hex isn't so much since it's just used as a more compact form to displaying binary in for humans*. Similarly bits are important, bytes not so much since the notion of 8 bits in a byte is just an arbitrary standard. Knowing things like the distinction between float and double, short and long, etc. isn't IMHO suitable for such an age group. This is because learning such things enough to be second-nature is often difficult since they're arbitrary and thus will probably rely on rote-learning (ie. they're boring) but more dangerously, since they would always be in the student's mind when they're taking the course it would distract them from the actual concepts being taught.

At University every computing course I took was based in Java (though I learned C and C++ from my Physics classes too), and it showed: Masters level students would struggle to grasp important steps in straightforward algorithms, yet their incorrect coursework implementations would show a clear appreciation for such irrelevant details as serialise versions (in code destined to never have a subsequent version), extraneous exception handler definitions (most of which would actually leave the state in a broken way) and elaborate layering of objects for streams, readers, writers, buffers, builders, factories, etc. to get data into and out of their wrong, one-method implementation of the algorithm, in a text-book-exact way (sometimes not even changing the variable names).

My recommendations for things to include:

Message-passing Object Oriented programming; no throwbacks from structured programming like if/then/else, for/foreach/while/dowhile, etc. Stick to one concept that has no special-cases, and languages with as few reserved keywords as possible (since lots of keywords implies that some things need to be achieved via some non-pervasive concept, usually hard-coded into the compiler/interpreter). Here I would recommend Smalltalk ( http://www.smalltalk.org/main/ ), since it's been taught to children for years all over the world, so there's lots of experience to build on. It's based on objects with classes which send and receive messages, and essentially defined OO programming as it's known today. There's very little syntax to learn, if/then/else are messages sent to objects (eg. myCondition ifTrue: myTrueCode ifFalse: myFalseCode), loops are also messages (myListOfObjects do: myLoopBody) and so on. The distinction between classes and instances might be unnecessarily confusing, so you *may* want to look into languages like Self ( http://selflanguage.org/ ) which use prototypes in a similarly pervasive way. Smalltalk also has Etoys ( http://www.squeakland.org/ ) to play with, which is a prototype-based 'ultimate LOGO' and really makes the message-passing concept of OO explicit via the menu structure. DrGeo ( http://community.ofset.org/index.php/DrGeo ) runs in Smalltalk, which provides an incentive to kids to learn the system (since it would give those students who learn it an advantage in Maths classes, since they'd have access to a really sophisticated geometric calculator). Scratch ( http://scratch.mit.edu/ ) is built in Smalltalk too, but bears little relation to the underlying system (whereas with Etoys it is a simple step to pure Morphic, then to classes/instances, then t

Freeduc Live CD for primary schools

Yeah but ... FreeDuc got there first! FreeDuc is a Knoppix-based educational LiveCD. http://www.ofset.org/articles/29

My 6 year old daugther really likes GCompris.

http://www.ofset.org/gcompris/

From their site:
GCompris is an educational software which proposes miscellaneous activities to kids from 2 to 10

Some activities are game oriented, but always educational. You will find activities in the following topics:

        * computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
        * algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
        * science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, ...
        * geography: place the country on the map
        * games: chess, memory, ...
        * reading: reading practice
        * other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, ...

as a matter of fact yes Not quite as complete a selection what you might find with the ReaderRabbit series but it's getting there.

Geometry drawingprogram.
Very nice.
http://www.ofset.org/drgeo

This one is amazing too.
http://math.holycross.edu/~ahwang/current/ePiX.htm l

Freeduc-cd, Web Interactive Math Server, and 'knosciences' again from OFSET will do you fine. All run from CD; relatively little danger of being rooted; you can throw away the hard disks if you want.

Starts here http://gcompris.free.fr/ and works up, you may get here http://wims.unice.fr/wims/wims.cgi before you know it.

It doesn't require money. It does require a desire to help. You help your brother, you help others, others help you.

If you're looking for a good "geometer's sketchpad" like program try drgeo

http://www.ofset.org/drgeorg/

Hi dude :)

i didn't read all of the comments and i apologize if someoneelse has already told you about ofset.

http://www.ofset.org/

Igghibù Zwandir

IMHO, I think you should just install Knoppix 3.4 to the harddrive, (hint: use the 'knx2hd' utility from a root prompt once you've booted from the cd)

Then, send along a few live educational CD's, such as Freeduc. Freeduc appeals to a broad age group and includes quite a bit of nice packages on a bootable cd. For instance, it includes gcompris and the aforementioned Celestia.

See the Educational group of Live CD's for other cd's that you may be interested in cooking up and sending them.

But, if you really want to torment them with dealing with an old version of windows and allowing it to be turned into a spam zombie the moment it's connected to the net without a firewall, then you'll not be doing them any favors, nor any of us for that matter. 8)

-Vizionary

IMHO, I think you should just install Knoppix 3.4 to the harddrive, (hint: use the 'knx2hd' utility from a root prompt once you've booted from the cd)

Then, send along a few live educational CD's, such as Freeduc. Freeduc appeals to a broad age group and includes quite a bit of nice packages on a bootable cd. For instance, it includes gcompris and the aforementioned Celestia.

See the Educational group of Live CD's for other cd's that you may be interested in cooking up and sending them.

But, if you really want to torment them with dealing with an old version of windows and allowing it to be turned into a spam zombie the moment it's connected to the net without a firewall, then you'll not be doing them any favors, nor any of us for that matter. 8)

-Vizionary

I was expecting this to have been posted already, didn't see it anywhere though ... didn't look at the age range (did you mention one?) but this is good stuff for primary ages (under 11).

http://www.ofset.org/gcompris

They also mention: http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/

Plus, I'd make sure they have KStars, it's awesome and the Ugandans are likely to be very familiar with alot of constellations (I'm assuming light polution there is low).

I am the author of gcompris and it's definitly worth including it if you target kids. http://www.ofset.org/gcompris For example, even older kids may appreciate it because it gives a good 'first computer contact'. Look at the freeduc content. It's a good selection of educational software. You can even install the live cd on your laptop drive. BTW, with gcompris, we are currently investigating to modify it with a Burkina Fasso IT team. The plan is to make it closer to Africa culture.

If you go the windows route (which frankly I don't recommend) I'd go with OpenOffice, TheOpenCD and Gnuwin II for lots of free software.

Dave.

Second-guessing who's behind it is a waste of valuable time. Unless you believe in fairy tales, it will almost surely never be known who exactly is financing the effort. We can infer that whoever it is, they have a desire to influence public opinion. That is, after all, why people write books.

A better use of time is to think what your Windows-running friends might like: burn copies of OpenOffice for Windows or Freeduc or KnoppiXMAME, all of which will run or boot from Windows machines.

Help someone new fall in love with free software...today!

I started my kid at 18 months. I setup my file server to start up gcompris automatically. I highly recommend it. It has age-based programs from coloring programs, to advanced math skills.

I started off with him just adjusting the monitor and sitting on the keyboard. 4 months later, he's still doing some of that, but he's much more interested in the sounds, using the keyboard, and moving the mouse around. I have him using a cheap $20 trackball (the crappy one with the lights in it) and he still hasn't broken it.

I fully expect to have him doing basic tech support for his mom when he's 3. by the time he's in school, he'll probably be the only toddler with his own laptop.

I am leveraging XML all around in gcompris
We have inline documentation in xml and is is being translated to HTML or OO with xslt.

Look at:
html version
oo version

Yes it is great, yes it works.

I am leveraging XML all around in gcompris
We have inline documentation in xml and is is being translated to HTML or OO with xslt.

Look at:
html version
oo version

Yes it is great, yes it works.

Knoppix for schools

there's plenty now...

GLUE

Knoppix for kids
Freeduc
The list is growing as more people experience the advantages of the Knoppix concept and make their own specialist version.

Check out the knoppix based bootable CD, it includes the most valuable edu apps (freeduc cd)

This CD is an excellent add on to any LTSP based school. For example, teacher can use it at home to prepare exercise without having to install GNU/Linux at home)

This article includes references to educational linux software. Overall it's a great article.

You may also try looking at the Linux Journal topic Linux in Education.

In addition, there is a Knoppix remaster that's intended for schools.

Have you tried Wine?

I know of a distro at ofset.org that is available. It is being used at quite a few places in india to demonstrate linux and its capabilities for school children.

use redhat, icewm, mozilla, openoffice, guncash, and gcompris.....works very nice for all.... :)

Whoaa! Exactly what I use. Nice and simple icewm rocks... no?!?! My 2 1/2 yr old LOVES gcompris... ok... I do too!

This iso image is full of great stuff for the little kids and the big kids.
http://www.ofset.org/projects/edusoft/edusoft.html (done by the gcompris folks.)

I saw an earlier post for linuxforkids, but I thought gcompris deserved it's own mention even though it is on the linuxforkids.org site. Gcompris contains a nice suite of educational games for Linux. All GPL of course.

A wise man once told me to use the preview button and I ignored him. :(

Bammkkkk

I saw an earlier post for linuxforkids, but I thought gcompris deserved it's own mention even though it is on the linuxforkids.org site. Gcompris contains a nice suite of educational games for Linux. All GPL of course.

A wise man once told me to use the preview button and I ignored him. :(

Bammkkkk

Logically, I agree with you. OTOH, MS might be trying to discourage reuse of donated machines -- knowing that Windows pre-loaded systems don't usually ship with media. By doing so, they are more likely to get a new sale, either in the form of a boxed copy of Windows or on a new machine.

Anyway, who cares? If the OS license is somehow wrong or expired, then wouldn't this be an opportunity for the linux horde to march in? I don't see why this is bad.

Agreed. I'd like to see more native educational software -- like GCompris and others for young kids through teens. Baring that, Codeweavers and Transgaming should consider support for Windows programs under Wine. There are ways Windows programs can be installed using Wine that just aren't available or are prohibitive using Windows.

Example: Creating a VNC-style applet to embed in a web page -- webifying an existing Windows program: Signtopia's use of Wine to embed thier Windows app in a web page. Here's an excerpt;

1. "David Hawkes of Cadlink technologies made the next presentation, "A unique application for wine". His company, Signtopia, has a product called Signlab, which is a windows application for designing signs. They wanted to make it available to their customers over the web. They looked into many other solutions such as terminal server, Citrix, Graphon, and a rewrite in Java. Due to licensing concerns, they decided to use Wine and VNC. Some of the limitations were Wine's slow startup and some visual glitches. To get around this, they use a number of pre-started wine sessions and they removed the UI and made the application work from a web form. To improve the performance, they moved to Tight VNC and provided some sponsorship for the development.

The Windows box is still a necessity. I have a 4 year old who likes educational games and without Windows, they simply don't run.

• Debian Jr. Project
• GNU and Education
• Schoolforge
• Linux For Kids
• KDE Edutainment Project
• Organization for Free Software in Education and Teaching
• SEUL/edu

When I was a kid I used my father's computers, but he didn't know much about OSes, he was just buying what they told him in the computer store.

As a resuld, when I was still a kid, I used to know the most important functions of MS-DOS interrupts 10h and 21h by heart. When I was about 12, we were writing programs for computers class, some simple calculations. It was boring, so I wrote a TSR, which after taking over the clock interrupt, and after few minutes from ending, was starting some virus-like visual effects on the screen. My teacher phoned my home that night, asking how to turn it of.

My point is that I really mastered the MS-DOS, and everything I had was a DOS box and lots of free time. I often wonder, what if I had Linux when I was 10 years old, instead of DOS? Would I know Bash and Perl, like I knew Command.com and QBasic? Would I know low level Unix system calls, like I new the DOS interrupts? Would I master Emacs and GCC, like I mastered Borland IDE? Unfortunately, I will never know that. But I would have much easier start as a Unix sysadmin, that's for sure.

I assume that this is sarcasm in light of the track record of one EU country's leader.
However some European countries are flying the flag for Free Software and open standards :-)

- Derwen

It's great when we see articles on Linux in Schools but I wish they would at least get the links right:

http://www.riverdale.k12.or.us/linux/index.html >> Main Linux in Schools project site, links on using Linux as a server for schools. Many examples and how-to's.

http://www.k12ltsp.org/ >> K12 Linux Terminal Server Project - 20 minute install, RH7.1 based terminal server with links to $200 clients. Very cool!

http://www.ofset.org/ >> Free Software in Education and Teaching - Some good work with software for schools happening here...

http://www.k12ltsp.org/educational_software.html >> Thoughts on educational software...

Bottom Line... We use Linux in our schools because it works well for what we need to do. It's free and support from the Linux community is the best. We're always happy to answer questions. ;-) Paul