Week-Long Free-Software Class for Kids?

mmol_6453 asks: "I have the opportunity to submit a plan for a week-long class about 'Alternative Operating Systems' to our local community college's Computer Camp. The students will be aged 8-16. We've had classes attended by students who used Linux, but we've never set up a class with alternatives as options. We've found that students in this age range, when interested in the material, can absorb a great deal of information in a short time. This means there's a lot of potential to teach them about Linux, *BSD, and open-source. We often get extremely bright students here, the kind who are likely to go out and earn $80,000/yr in a post-90s economy. Some of them are even on Slashdot. I want to give the rest a boost in the right direction."

"Considering that the great deal of material to choose from, I need to ask the Slashdot Community its advice:

1. Do they need to know how to install the OS first, or should I let them look that up on their own while I make them power-users?
2. What distributions of Linux and BSD should they be first introduced to? (I'm only familiar with Debian, and I know virtually nil about *BSD.)
3. Initially, do they need to be more adept at the GUI, or do they first need to know how to use the shell?
4. Should I give away Debian CDs no-questions-asked, or should I talk with the almighty Parents so little Daniel doesn't install Linux over Dad's 'work computer.'
5. Are there any other key issue I need to think about?"

Comments

Uh Oh

[JJAnon]

Some of them are even on Slashdot. I want to give the rest a boost in the right direction."

Aren't the kids in the first group the dangerous ones?

Re:Uh Oh

[cybermace5]

Heh, you don't need to be twelve years old to be dangerous. Just tired, bored, and slightly mischeivous.

Kind of like the other week, when I was just idly poking around my linux box. I started looking for little tricks with devices, and tried various things like cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp. Which of course resulted in a satisfying white-noise sound. The next, fateful step, was typing cat /dev/urandom > /dev/mouse. I was using a terminal emulator in KDE, and my cursor starting skittering and swooping around the desktop as if posessed. That was funny, until it started violently clicking random things, dragging windows around...at the same time it opened my "home" folder, I realized that the terminal window was logged in as root. The mouse frantically clicked items in my folder while I frantically tried to kick out of X, kill the process, reboot, anything! As the mouse jumped up a few directories and starting roaming, clicking and right-clicking at root level, I lunged for the power button. Before I reached it, the mouse closed its own terminal window, and the cat process.

That was the closest thing to terror I have experienced while using a computer. It won't happen again...to me. ;-)

Re:Uh Oh

[notNeilCasey]

I've had a Beowulf cluster working on

cat /dev/urandom | grep "Elsinore. A platform before the castle."

for about a year now. No luck yet, but much less feces to clean up than my last project.

Week-Long Free-Software Class for Kids?

[medscaper]

Week-Long Free-Software Class for Kids?

Who takes a whole week to teach kids Gnutella?

Oh...Free OS. Sorry. My bad.

$80,000?

[Ribo99]

...the kind who are likely to go out and earn $80,000/yr in a post-90s economy.

Do you take 27 year old students?

Alternative Operating Systems?

[gpinzone]

The title of the course reminds me of the term "Alternative Lifestyles." In that case, give 'em macs.

Re:Don't compile the kernel until Thursday

[Apathy costs bills]

Keep it fun. End of story.

Right. So, TuxRacer Mon-Thursday, Friday Esc-X-doctor?

Re:well, my two euro-cents worth:

[Machine9]

I fart in your general direction.

Re:CLI

[Apathy costs bills]

Start with the CLI, back when I started work on appleII and dos machines, CLI was all there was.. and it was a good thing, because I learned early on, that you don't ask "what am I supposed to do", but rather "what can I do".

What I learned from starting on a CLI was that if you type everything correctly, nothing happens. You only get feedback if you do something wrong. This was not only excellent preparation for a career in computers but also for dealing with women...

Re:Give them Knoppix

[Anonymous Coward]

A compressed filesystem perhaps... Nah thats unpossible

Re:Issues

[LinuxHam]

Please don't inflict your treacherous upbringing on the next generation. If they start off learning how to use computers the "easy way", who knows what comfort level they'll achieve after just a few years. They might actually grow up and teach *us* a thing or two about what computers are "supposed to do". By God, man, don't just sit there and say "no GUI for the newcomers". It's safe to say that you (nor I, nor anyone) don't know *everything* there is to know about computers, and how all people interact best with them. Some kids may not (will not) work well with the CLI, but I still welcome them to our community.

And yes, I started on the Commodore PET some 22 years ago and fully understand that which you speak of.

Re:Don't compile the kernel until Thursday

[bheerssen]

I seem to get lots of Flamebait mods, but no corrections. I guess truth hurts. If I'm wrong, post.

No, you're wrong. It's just that most people don't respond to trolls and assholes. I'm making an exception in this case.

Re:8 - 16 year olds

[MisterFancypants]

Make sure that they understand that Linux can be a great gamming PC. Be sure that you demo Linux on a decent PC with an accelerated graphic card, the correct drivers for it and then demo Quake 3.

Yeah, a great gaming PC!!! If you want to play 4 year old games!!