Re: Show me some good newbie intros to GNU/Linux
Alan Davis wrote:
>I am trying to write this myself. I have found nothing that explains GNU/Linux adequately to my students. I teach Biology at a public high school on the island of Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands, a commonwealth of the United States. Many of my students have never used computers before. The highest level computer course at our school is computer literacy, which I think is an introduction to M$ Works (call that literacy?).
No way would I call that computer literacy! :)
But in a sense, you are in a very lucky position: you're teaching students who
have yet to start their wade in the computer world, and are not yet by the
crooked "Microsoft only" dementia. Like teaching the young something new as
opposed to teaching the old dog new tricks...
>I have a four machine GNU/Linux (Debian) net in my classroom, for student use. Many students have gotten to know the basics---which consists of how to start up Galeon or Netscape, even how to log on as "students". (I set up one account, so far, for most students, and leave the machine logged on to that account. Comments?)
As far as security is concerned, having one account for all of them isn't quite
a good idea. there might be a remote chance that the students may screw up with
each other's files and data. Try making separate accounts for each of them, each
with you as super-user. Then maybe you can set user quotas, or other sysad stuff.
>This is a demonstration/proof of concept project. This is a Biology class; I don't have the free reign to spend two weeks on computer basics. I have the students read Sterling's Brief History of the Internet, give them a few pointers of web searching, show them galeon, and let them search. Some students do quite well.
This is one heck of a complication indeed. If these were computer science
students, or even just a computer literacy class, it would make sense that the
students are given the terse books... anyway, a good manual made by you would
at least give supplementary reading or give the students some idea where to
start searching.
Anyway, this also reminds me of our situation here in the state university I
attend. The university I attend is a health institution primarily (housing the
state NIH and public hospital), and though there is a computer science unit,
the doctors are even more adept in computer matters than us computer science
people, and are even volunteering to teach us, and giving us the time when they
teach us in Medical informatics.
>But I CANNOT FIND any single good introduction to GNU/Linux that is geared to this leverl. Here is a typical opening paragraph:
>
> Linux is a POSIX compliant, UNIX-like operating system, with a kernel written by a Finnish graduate student, and etc., etc., etc.
If you can't find one, make one! I think it's a good that you are making a
teaching material.
I think it would be nice if the students would be taught in the history of
computers and operating systems so that they'd understand that before there
was Windows there were this so and so operating systems, but the greatest one
err, the one that made much impact in advancing operating system development
was UNIX. That should present some curiosity factor in students. That can
be placed in your custom-made learning material. Quite better if you'd place
some pictures too. Then add a brief history of the Free Software Movement
and the development of Linux. I think it would cover about 2 pages of text,
but at least it would open their minds even further...
>Con someone point me to some documents that actually attempt to explain what the differences are, from Windoze and the Mac (the two computers with which students are obviously acquainted)?
I'll recommend operating system books, complemented by the tons of documentation
from the internet for your reference. I found the following books real
enlightening: "Operating System Design and Implementation" by Andy Tannenbaum,
"Operating System Concepts" by Silberschatz and Galvin, "Operating Systems
Internals and Design Principles" by William Stallings, as well as the lots of
documentation from the internet. Of course, you'd have to condense them to the
level that high-school students would understand. [these are terse readings,
and I'm just as bewildered when I read them even though I'm already four years in
college...]
Good luck!
paolo falcone
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