Re: Teaching Linux this summer

[Randy Edwards <redwards@golgotha.net>]

> if you don't capture their interest, they will reboot into windows to
> play games.  perhaps you can align w/ that interest and let them do some
> game programming.  at the least you can show them some linux games.

   This is an important point.  A high school class I recently taught got
pretty burnt out on command-line Unix (Linux) during what I call the
"knowledge" portion of my course.

   I found two remedies: First, I showed them text filters (Valley Girl,
Cockney, etc.).  For some reason these kids just thought those text filters
were amazing.  I fent sorry for the poor teachers who from that point onward
got two versions of student research papers and reports: One ran through the
Valley Girl filter for laughs, and then the student's "real" report. :-)

   The other amazing "fun" thing for the students was VNC.  I have
absolutely no games installed on Windows machines, but there are some on the
Linux servers.  Once they learned VNC and realized that they could turn
their Win95 client machine into an X terminal and play games, they were
psyched.  Both exercises proved to be a nice diversion from what can
otherwise be dry.

-- 
 Regards,                | Why would anyone want to run an operating
 .                       | system that is open source and is developed
 Randy                   | by hundreds of hackers worldwide? Find out
 (redwards@golgotha.net) | why at http://www.golgotha.net/why-linux/