RE: Free GNU/Linux intro class for teens advice? Purchase box? Squeak/Smalltalk programming
Hi.
> To: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> From: mronell@alumni.upenn.edu
>
>
> I am working toward teaching a free introductory class to teens on
> GNU/Linux and the philosophy of free software at the Newton Free
> Library in MA this coming September.
>
> For the class, the participants will need access to GNU/Linux. After
> reviewing some options, including sdf.org, virtual machines,
> Chromebooks, etc., I am considering just asking participants to
> purchase a dedicated laptop and installing the OS. I may be able to
> direct students to install fests in the area before the class starts.
> I am not sure that this is the best idea, but it offers significant
> advantages including a potentially working box as part of the results
> of the course.
All suggestions offered are fine, I would add one more: use live disks.
This allows your students to bring their own device without the risk of
bricking it. And you can have a few single-board devices for those
without an own device. Having an RPi as a demo model also helps
illustrate that there's no functional difference between a "pc" and
what the hardware in their phone/tv/gadget can do.
> As a test, I purchased a laptop (Toshiba Satellite C75-B7180) on sale
> for $350 at our local Microcenter in Cambridge and was able to load
> GNU/Linux for my son. I am thinking of working some programming
> assignments in Squeak (Smalltalk), but maybe C is a better choice for
> an OS class?
Choose a language with an interactive interpreter. Bash, Python, Ruby,
Haskell all come to mind. But are you planning to teach OS basics or
programming? Because for an OS class, I would focus more on shell tools
(grep, cut, tail) than programming languages.
> Has anyone tried running a GNU/Linux intro class for teens? Can
> anyone share their experiences, thoughts or suggestions? Feedback
> based on actual experience would be most helpful, I think, but I would
> appreciate any insights.
I am an instructor, but not at that level. For programming, I would
probably use the following progression:
- shell commands
- shell scripts (i.e. sequencing shell commands)
- interactive evaluation
- functions
- source files
- compilation
Something like Haskell would be ideal for the latter steps, as it has
the ability to both interpret a source file (through runghc) and compile
it (though ghc). Not sure if e.g. Go has a similar mode?
Regards,
Arno
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