Re: Edu howto idea.

[Roman Suzi <rnd@sampo.karelia.ru>]

On Sat, 12 Dec 1998, Bill Tihen wrote:

Yes. I agree there is a strong need for

Linux-In-Education-HOWTO!

>These ideas are great.  I'll start experimenting.  It sounds like it will
>be quite a bit of work to come up to speed on the various issues.  It's
>been a dream of mine to have a website that offers set-up instructions
>(How-tos) for schools.  In otherwords, not how to set up dosemu, but it
>includes how to setup dosemu, how to secure it -- special considerations
>for specific educational programs.  In otherwords how to accomplish a
>project and administer it.  Does this sound like a good idea?  Is there a
>place we could collect these How-tos?  It seems to me that this would be a

In fact, I have a web-site for  Russia,  on  which  I  want  to
collect every Linux aspect interesting  for  educational  users
with special stress on school education.

But then I  understood  that  there  almost  nothing  to  offer
schools (no software for desktop use).

So, I was very glad to see seul-edu startup.

But due to time/space  limitations  I  have,  I  can't  support
international         users         on         my          site
(sampo.karelia.ru/~rnd/linuxplanet.html)

>good way to encourage schools to use Linux.  Make it easy to setup from the
>perspective of teachers/administrators -- and even if it's not easy, at
>least spelled out.  


I think, that Linux setup must be done by specialists.
Teachers are to receive 'turn key' solutions with all
material provided...


>Would it also be appropriate to collect curriculum, lecture notes and
>meaningful questions here?  (I guess that is pushing the limits of what
>this list/group is for -- but maybe Linux specific curriculum -- for
>example.  A classroom tutorial for Gimp or StarOffice, CorrelOffice, and of
>course the educational programs we create).  Just ideas.

>If there is interest and a place to store it, I could document what I
>discover as I set up my equipment.

Well, I can store it on my site for one year (I can't guarantee
more). Along with my setup-diary. (Its a good way, to  write  a
diary along doing Linux setup  -  helps  a  lot  for  repeating
setups).

But I am too lazy to translate my diary into english ;-) and my
friends say its for computer specialists with at least 2  month
of intensive Linux experience ;-)

*

I don't know about other  countries,  but  in  Russia  we  have
computer science (CS) as standalone subject. And the  tradition
on this subject is to use  Turbo  *  products  for  DOS  on  CS
competitions/contests, along with QBasic.

DOS will be dead soon. If we loose the chance to establish  new
UNIX-based traditions... There will be lots geeks unborn :-(

*

I myself lead a special course on programming (using Linux,  of
course). We use MiniLinux installation to have good  telnet  to
Linux server, where all development is performed.

The result is so far  unclear:  I  can't  understand  how  they
understand why I use Linux while all  around  use  Mac  OS  and
Windows 95..!

I mention this because as soon as they  master  C  language,  I
will give them some  tasks  to  solve.  I  think,  it  will  be
something for CGI.

Why I am not teaching  them  Perl!  Its  so  easier  for  their
beloved text-processing... (they already asked how to work with
strings - and in C it is not for the weak hearts!)

I foolishly shown them lynx... Now, I sometimes sit
at the teachers terminal and issue

killall lynx 

just in case ;-)

And children aren't aware that if they

mkdir ~/public_html
cat >~/public_html/index.html <<SOMETHING

SOMETHING

- they will get their own web-page!!!

And if they type

pine

or issue

cat somefile | mail somebody@everywhere

- they will send it right away...

*

My though is, that if you have young programmers, its  a  crime
not to show Linux to them!

And these little geeks can be very helpful to make  some  small
projects. Don't neglect this resource!

Programming puts mind in order, improves logical  thinking  and
raises IQ.

*

When there will enough experience on Linux in schools I am sure
O'Reilly will publish good books on it!


Sincerely yours,
Roman A. Suzi

 -- Petrozavodsk -- Karelia -- Russia --
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