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Teaching Computer Lit. in Developing Countries?

Posted by Cliff on from the non-physical-reading-material dept.

Pro777 asks: "I am a US Peace Corps volunteer currently teaching 'Computer Studies' at a High School in the Republic of Samoa, in the South Pacific. Anyways, myself and other IT teachers are having a difficult time finding a good digital textbook to teach basic skills such as basic computer architecture, word processing, and using spreadsheets. Real textbooks are cost prohibitive, and a lot of what is found is too high level for our students. Any suggestions?"

4 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. MIT Open Courseware by DisasterDoctor · · Score: 3, Informative

    MIT is putting all of its course materials online.

    There should be plenty of stuff in there to cull for your introductory courses.

    http://ocw.mit.edu/index.html

    1. Re:MIT Open Courseware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Are you kidding? He's asking for a tutorial on how to turn on a computer and open a new Word document. Do you see anything in the MIT EECS curriculum that looks remotely like that? Don't you think that's the sort of thing MIT freshmen are expected to know already?!?

      Anyway, to throw in something positive with my empty criticism -- this looks like a potentially helpful site. And if you Lunix weirdos want to complain about the Microsoft focus, well, you have vi so write your own.

  2. try wikibooks by reverius · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think this is the perfect (and intended) use for Wikibooks.

    One book that might be useful: Windows XP for Beginners.

  3. GCF Global Learning's free tutorials by sohojim · · Score: 3, Informative
    I work with nonprofit computer training programs in the US, and I've always been impressed by GCF Global Learning's free computing tutorials, at www.gcflearnfree.org.

    Originally funded by the local Goodwill in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, GCF offers instructor-led online classes, as well as free training materials, for all sorts of classes, from "Computer Basics" to "Access 2002." The best part is that they also offer free materials for OpenOffice.org software!

    The UN-funded International Open Source Network has an excellent "Intro to Linux Desktop" course at http://www.iosn.net/training/end-user-manual/. That page also has links to other free software training materials.

    You should totally write up a detailed account of what you're doing and submit it as a Slashdot story -- I'd be interested to hear more. Or do you have a (shudder) blog?

    Good luck!