10:27 p.m.
I'm soon to run a "lunchtime club" at the school which I work at. It's
30
mins or so once a week on practical computing.
Would you like to contribute some suggestions? Here's what I plan to do:
I certainly will be covering PC architecture (I don't have other hardware
like MACs) - Disassembley and reassembly, other physical stuff. Networking
too, ending up with 5 machines on a LAN running web servers.
I plan to get them to code some simple "hello world" php, then connect to
their server and view their pages.
Chris.
1:59 a.m.
You should look into LTSP using either Edubuntu (seeing as it's a school)
because it's got it pre-built in or Ubuntu 7.10 desktop as it's easily
implemented on that.
Other possible stuff to look at which has a networking slant is m0n0wall and
pfsense. With pfsense and m0n0wall you can look at captive portals and how
they work etc...pfsense allows you to look at QoS and packet shaping.
You might want to have a post on http://www.edugeek.net/. It's an excellent
website for ICT in education (for techies). They will most certainly give
you some advice (and i'll probably be there).
On 07/12/2007, Chris Snow <cr.snow(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I'm soon to run a "lunchtime club" at the school which I work at. It's
30
mins or so once a week on practical computing.
Would you like to contribute some suggestions? Here's what I plan to do:
I certainly will be covering PC architecture (I don't have other hardware
like MACs) - Disassembley and reassembly, other physical stuff. Networking
too, ending up with 5 machines on a LAN running web servers.
I plan to get them to code some simple "hello world" php, then connect to
their server and view their pages.
Chris.
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10:31 a.m.
On Fri, 2007-12-07 at 22:27 +0000, Chris Snow wrote:
I'm soon to run a "lunchtime club" at the school which
I work at. It's
30 mins or so once a week on practical computing.
Hello Chris,
This sounds a great idea :-)
Would you like to contribute some suggestions? Here's what I plan
to
do:
I certainly will be covering PC architecture (I don't have other
hardware like MACs) - Disassembley and reassembly, other physical
stuff. Networking too, ending up with 5 machines on a LAN running web
servers.
This is useful stuff - network knowledge is shamefully neglected
in preparation for a world that can't exist without TCP/IP.
However while disassembly/re-assembly is great fun (in pre 8-bit
computer days I spent my youth building wirelesses and analogue
synthesisers :) - I'd say you may need to broaden it to get
non-geeky kids, and particularly girls, to join in. Which is why...
I plan to get them to code some simple "hello world" php,
then connect to their server and view their pages.
... web stuff is such a great idea. It's instant :-)
I'd be more inclined to start the kids off with Python, for all
sorts of reasons, but if PHP is what you know well then it makes
sense to start with that.
Once they've got the idea of scripting languages and dynamic
webpages, you could move on in the following term to some
Ruby-on-Rails if there are a few solid geeks emerging - writing
some blogging software with a few lines of code should open
their eyes to the possibilities of today's web frameworks.
Before you know it, they'll all be dot com billionaires. ;^)
On a more serious note, once they have a bit of IT knowledge how
about linking up with a local community group or two who need
IT help? It needn't be hardware/networking stuff; they could
help set up and admin a CMS for example.
Best of luck with this, and I'd be interested to hear how it
goes, whatever you decide to do.
Cheers,
- Richard
--
Richard Smedley, rs(a)m6-it.org
Technical Director, www.M6-IT.org
M6-IT CIC +44 (0)779 456 07 14
Sustainable Third Sector IT solutions. PRINCE2 [TM] Project Management
Training * Certification * Support * Networking * Web * Database * CRM
M6-IT is a Community Interest Company, limited by guarantee.
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11:52 a.m.
Thanks for the suggestions.
As it's only 30mins and I have to set it up and put it away each time, I
want to keep any install time to a minimum once we do get into OSs and
software. I don't plan to have them use a GUI much. I expect I'll use a hard
drive install of DSL at runlevel 2
They could be some year 7s for all I know so I'll I don't think I will be
able to get too complex on the networking side. Nothing more than
configuring interfaces and using ifconfig.
Perhaps if I had a permanent lab I could have switching and routing etc etc
- fat chance!
I have an edugeek account.
On 08/12/2007, Joe Zambon <joe.zambon(a)jznet.org.uk> wrote:
You should look into LTSP using either Edubuntu (seeing as it's a school)
because it's got it pre-built in or Ubuntu 7.10 desktop as it's easily
implemented on that.
Other possible stuff to look at which has a networking slant is m0n0wall
and pfsense. With pfsense and m0n0wall you can look at captive portals and
how they work etc...pfsense allows you to look at QoS and packet shaping.
You might want to have a post on http://www.edugeek.net/. It's an
excellent website for ICT in education (for techies). They will most
certainly give you some advice (and i'll probably be there).
On 07/12/2007, Chris Snow <cr.snow(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm soon to run a "lunchtime club" at the school which I work at.
It's
> 30 mins or so once a week on practical computing.
>
> Would you like to contribute some suggestions? Here's what I plan to do:
>
>
> I certainly will be covering PC architecture (I don't have other
> hardware like MACs) - Disassembley and reassembly, other physical stuff.
> Networking too, ending up with 5 machines on a LAN running web servers.
>
> I plan to get them to code some simple "hello world" php, then connect
> to their server and view their pages.
>
> Chris.
> _______________________________________________
> Staffslug mailing list
> Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk
> http://lists.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug
>
>
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12:44 p.m.
May I suggest one or more lessons are used to run through the various
operating systems available? Windows is as much a part of everyday
computing for the majority as Linux is to us. You have an ideal
opportunity to show young impressionable minds the differences between
open source software and closed source. The upsides of Microsoft's
system and the downsides together the with the same for open source.
For example, there are common misconceptions regarding hardware. It
is generally assumed that hardware will just run on Microsoft Windows
but it may be a problem with Linux. Well, I can prove that it can
equally be the other way round. The Creative Zen Micro is real pain
to get working in MS Windows XP. It is not automatically recognised
by the OS and I have found that you need to go through hoops to find
the correct drivers. I believe it is simply automatically found in
most Linux distro's.
--
==============================================
Kevan Farmer
Linux user #373362
Staffordshire
2:02 p.m.
Like the idea. There is going to be an emphasis on the practical so I'll
probably speak briefly about various popular operating systems and more
generally about the main software development models.
On 08/12/2007, Kevanf1 <kevanf1(a)gmail.com> wrote:
May I suggest one or more lessons are used to run through the various
operating systems available? Windows is as much a part of everyday
computing for the majority as Linux is to us. You have an ideal
opportunity to show young impressionable minds the differences between
open source software and closed source. The upsides of Microsoft's
system and the downsides together the with the same for open source.
For example, there are common misconceptions regarding hardware. It
is generally assumed that hardware will just run on Microsoft Windows
but it may be a problem with Linux. Well, I can prove that it can
equally be the other way round. The Creative Zen Micro is real pain
to get working in MS Windows XP. It is not automatically recognised
by the OS and I have found that you need to go through hoops to find
the correct drivers. I believe it is simply automatically found in
most Linux distro's.
--
==============================================
Kevan Farmer
Linux user #373362
Staffordshire
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3:07 p.m.
On 08/12/2007, Chris Snow <cr.snow(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Like the idea. There is going to be an emphasis on the practical so
I'll
probably speak briefly about various popular operating systems and more
generally about the main software development models.
Brilliant idea, I'm not sure about the systems build bit seems to me
kids today are not that interested in building physical stuff and we
seem to be hurtling towards the "Throw it away and get another"
society anyway.
Now coding, networking ect will be fun you could chuck in some ssh
stuff and remote admin, do the old [shutdown -h now] routine on a
machine the other end of the classroom, "Ow'd you do that then sir?"
Good luck.
P.S. ruby-on-rails is the object of the Devil
--
Regards
Dick Turpin
http://www.cannon-linux.co.uk
Arch Linux is an independent i686-optimized community distribution for
intermediate and advanced Linux users. Utilising a Rolling Release
System packages are regularly updated and an ISO release is just a
snapshot to the stable packages at that time. So there's no need for a
fresh install the command 'pacman –Syu' upgrades the whole system.
3:47 p.m.
It's going to be publicised before hand so the kids that turn up will have a
good idea of what awaits, hopefully then they will enjoy the spanner
twirling.
Like the remote admin, think I might include that.
On 08/12/2007, ArchLinuxUser dick_turpin <dick_turpin(a)archlinux.us> wrote:
On 08/12/2007, Chris Snow <cr.snow(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Like the idea. There is going to be an emphasis on the practical so I'll
> probably speak briefly about various popular operating systems and more
> generally about the main software development models.
Brilliant idea, I'm not sure about the systems build bit seems to me
kids today are not that interested in building physical stuff and we
seem to be hurtling towards the "Throw it away and get another"
society anyway.
Now coding, networking ect will be fun you could chuck in some ssh
stuff and remote admin, do the old [shutdown -h now] routine on a
machine the other end of the classroom, "Ow'd you do that then sir?"
Good luck.
P.S. ruby-on-rails is the object of the Devil
--
Regards
Dick Turpin
http://www.cannon-linux.co.uk
Arch Linux is an independent i686-optimized community distribution for
intermediate and advanced Linux users. Utilising a Rolling Release
System packages are regularly updated and an ISO release is just a
snapshot to the stable packages at that time. So there's no need for a
fresh install the command 'pacman –Syu' upgrades the whole system.
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5:24 p.m.
On 08/12/2007, Chris Snow <cr.snow(a)gmail.com> wrote:
It's going to be publicised before hand so the kids that turn up will have
a good idea of what awaits, hopefully then they will enjoy the spanner
twirling.
Like the remote admin, think I might include that.
On 08/12/2007, ArchLinuxUser dick_turpin <dick_turpin(a)archlinux.us> wrote:
>
> On 08/12/2007, Chris Snow <cr.snow(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Like the idea. There is going to be an emphasis on the practical so
> I'll
> > probably speak briefly about various popular operating systems and
> more
> > generally about the main software development models.
>
> Brilliant idea, I'm not sure about the systems build bit seems to me
> kids today are not that interested in building physical stuff and we
> seem to be hurtling towards the "Throw it away and get another"
> society anyway.
>
> Now coding, networking ect will be fun you could chuck in some ssh
> stuff and remote admin, do the old [shutdown -h now] routine on a
> machine the other end of the classroom, "Ow'd you do that then sir?"
>
> Good luck.
>
> P.S. ruby-on-rails is the object of the Devil
>
> --
> Regards
>
> Dick Turpin
> http://www.cannon-linux.co.uk
>
> Arch Linux is an independent i686-optimized community distribution for
> intermediate and advanced Linux users. Utilising a Rolling Release
> System packages are regularly updated and an ISO release is just a
> snapshot to the stable packages at that time. So there's no need for a
> fresh install the command 'pacman –Syu' upgrades the whole system.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Staffslug mailing list
> Staffslug(a)staffslug.org.uk
> http://lists.staffslug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/staffslug
>
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You could also cover such things as installing OS's too...
--
Kris Douglas
Softdel Limited Hosting Services
Web: www.softdel.net
Mail: kris(a)softdel.net
5:34 p.m.
On 08/12/2007, Kris Douglas <kris(a)softdel.co.uk> wrote:
You could also cover such things as installing OS's too...
:-) He, he, "right kids, this is Linux, pop the disk in and click a
couple of buttons...now go and make a cup of coffee. Lovely, that's
all done then let's look at all the lovely software we've got to play
with." Next, "ok kids this is Windows, hand me that disk, now that
one, wait while I reboot, now pass that disk over there again, oh,
another reboot..hang on...bugger, my coffee's gone cold now, oh, time
for yet another disk....... well you get the picture don't you kids?"
:-)
--
==============================================
Kevan Farmer
Linux user #373362
Staffordshire
6:26 p.m.
On Sat, 2007-12-08 at 15:07 +0000, ArchLinuxUser dick_turpin wrote:
P.S. ruby-on-rails is the object of the Devil
Well, I have my own criticisms of it, but I wouldn't
go that far ;-)
Seriously, Django or even CherryPy are arguably better
(ie more sane), but Rails is a reasonable enough way of
doing things. And the kids can make a lot of money with
it, as Rails developers are in high demand ;)
Aside from that, as long as the kids are taught good
semantic code and CSS, it doesn't matter so much how
they generate it.
- Richard
7:30 p.m.
That's not been my experience sadly!
On 08/12/2007, Kevanf1 <kevanf1(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 08/12/2007, Kris Douglas <kris(a)softdel.co.uk> wrote:
>
> You could also cover such things as installing OS's too...
>
:-) He, he, "right kids, this is Linux, pop the disk in and click a
couple of buttons...now go and make a cup of coffee. Lovely, that's
all done then let's look at all the lovely software we've got to play
with." Next, "ok kids this is Windows, hand me that disk, now that
one, wait while I reboot, now pass that disk over there again, oh,
another reboot..hang on...bugger, my coffee's gone cold now, oh, time
for yet another disk....... well you get the picture don't you kids?"
:-)
--
==============================================
Kevan Farmer
Linux user #373362
Staffordshire
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11 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
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ArchLinuxUser dick_turpin -
Chris Snow -
Joe Zambon -
Kevanf1 -
Kris Douglas -
Richard Smedley