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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:
- 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?
- 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.)
- Initially, do they need to be more adept at the GUI, or do they first need to know how to use the shell?
- 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.'
- Are there any other key issue I need to think about?"
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?
You shouldn't assume that they know how to install operating systems. The main thing is that it takes a long time to install software, let alone an entire operating system.
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.)
The one that they are most familiar with, in terms of GUI.
Initially, do they need to be more adept at the GUI, or do they first need to know how to use the shell?
As mentioned above, the one with the GUI will produce better results.
Which do people learn first: How do drive, or how to rebuild a car's engine?
Show the kids the cool things they can do with the software first, and once they're interested, then they will understand why they need to learn how to install it and do that on their own.
I wouldn't teach them installation, I think it's far more important to get them using the system. I would start them out with some command-line stuff, though. That'll give them some historical perspective, and reduce the fear-factor if they ever need to go into command line to recover from a crash. I would definitely warn the parents about the CDs.
Brevity is the soul of wit
-- Polonius
- Start off by explaining "FREE". Explain both free as in speach and free as in beer... though maybe not in those terms considering the age group.
- I would stay away from an install of Linux, you could be there all week answering questions on it alone (What does this package do?). Also, stick with a distro you know, but point out all the others. Nothing worse than not knowing right away where that config file is.
- Next up, make sure they're familiar with whatever editor you plan to use. Leave it open to use more complicated editors (vi) if they know it, but otherwise stick to simpler ones.
- Give lots of handouts/links to sites with further information
- Pick a few languages that you are very familiar with, be it PERL, PHP, C, etc.
- Get some interesting projects for them to work on, be it a webpage, game, utility, etc
That's about all I could come up with quickly.LFS
That's where I wish I'd started.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
Stick with what you know. If you've never used anything besides Debian, don't teach the class using RedHat. The slight variations might make you seem uneasy. Remember, they can smell fear :)
Don't bog yourself down in installation. A coworker took a Linux class where they did nothing but install for the first two days! If at all possible, have the computers pre-installed before day 1. If some of the kids have prior knowledge, they could assist before the week starts.
As far as which features to learn, ask yourself, "what excites me about *nix". Steer the course towards the answer. You will have to start with the basics no matter what. If you tailor the basics toward a goal, particularly one you enjoy, you're much more likely to inspire somebody.
You can never equivocate too much.
That's a pretty wide range of ages to cater for. An 8 year old would probably get bored with the shell pretty quickly, and opt to play a few games of xbill (Free games, a great way to learn about the benefits of OpenSource), whereas a 16 year old would probably be more interested in nmap and gcc (You'd better not produce a legion of script kiddies).
:)
And as far as the one who are on slashdot, the best directions you could give them is "Quit trolling"
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
Is this course supposed to be about "Alternative Operating Systems" or "Free Software Evangelism"?
I'm not suggesting you ignore Free Software at all, but give a little time at least to the non-free alternatives. OS/2, or whatever it's called now, would be a good example of something technically well-designed, but which failed in the marketpalce. Pre-OS X MacOS has a very long and interesting history. There are buckets of sites out there that'll give you enough material for a few hours on each one.
It might also be worth spending a little time on the differences between the various Windows incarnations, at least from 3.1 to 95 to NT.
You've got a great concept here - don't go turning it into a sermon. The merits of the Free stuff will be obvious, so there's no need to avoid mentioning the competition.
Wasting your time since 1997.
"Knoppix."
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
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.
That should get their attention.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!