Ultimate Edition Forum

Hello everyone!

I am the Director and teacher in our High School's I.T. Academy. I have added a Linux/Alternate O.S. class to my schedule. What I am looking for is some great curriculum or projects for high school kids interested in open-source (basically anything not MS). All students are familiar with DistroWatch and have loaded a few different Linux Distro's - including Ultimate Edition 3.0 - but I need to go beyond this.

Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated! I did not find any good pre-built curriculum for this age group so I will be building the class myself.

Thanks!

jonluc1

jonluc1 wrote:Hello everyone!

I am the Director and teacher in our High School's I.T. Academy. I have added a Linux/Alternate O.S. class to my schedule. What I am looking for is some great curriculum or projects for high school kids interested in open-source (basically anything not MS). All students are familiar with DistroWatch and have loaded a few different Linux Distro's - including Ultimate Edition 3.0 - but I need to go beyond this.

Any ideas and suggestions are appreciated! I did not find any good pre-built curriculum for this age group so I will be building the class myself.

Thanks!

jonluc1

As far as good distros for a learning environment, I have to recommend openSuSE Edu-Life and UberStudent. They can also build their own distros, using SuSEGallery/SuSEStudio.

You might want to browse the Open University web site. They have a course T155 - Linux an introduction. Which looks at the whole Linux idea through to building a system.
I intend taking this course myself later this year even though I have been working with Linux since the nineties.
I feel I don't have enough ground rules drilled into me to be disciplined enough to start looking at Linux problems the way others do.
My method has often been try this or try that and I am hoping that this course will set me straight once and for all.

Good luck with your venture - it sounds very exciting getting the next generation of entrepreneurs and engineers and even house wives and house husbands into totally free software with the where-with-all to effect computing the way they see fit and not the big companies way of profit first never mind what the people want.

Sorry, rabbiting on again...
It will be interesting to see where the journey takes you - and the kids.

Thanks for your suggestions!

I work in a school with 60% reduced or free lunches and an 18% homeless student rate. (Homeless means they do not have a permanent address - they are usually moving from relative to relative - not that they are outside on the street...) I have rebuilt older systems so students can have technology but there is no way I/they can afford MSFT. Open source is the obvious answer.

If you have any other ideas send them on!

Thanks!

Sorry Jon - completely missed your drift...
I haven't looked into it much otherwise. I plumped for the OU course because I have done a couple of others and they were easy to follow.
I'm sure I have seen what you are looking for somewhere. If I can remember, I will check it out and come back to you.

Good luck with your very worthwhile efforts.

as a project i would get the students to install arch linux or gentoo . i personally love arch but to set it up initially can be challenging, get them to install it and get it up and running and maybe explain step by step what they are installing and how it is affecting the system
you could take them through same basics of compiling as well

Hawks-SOAD wrote:as a project i would get the students to install arch linux or gentoo . i personally love arch but to set it up initially can be challenging, get them to install it and get it up and running and maybe explain step by step what they are installing and how it is affecting the system
you could take them through same basics of compiling as well

Too hard, right off the bat, IMO. Let them each build their own distro with openSuSE`s studio, easy to do and, most of all, fun. Then go from there. I can`t stress openSuSE Edu-Life enough.

Well you can teach them the basic principles of Linux and the it's history. I have many different Videos on GUN/LInux Documentaries, in which open the mind up to opensource. Watching Videos are always a Super Plus when it comes to kids. And eventually down the line you can talk about different career paths they can take in the IT field. Such as myself wanting to become a pentester which lead me to computer security. But I think Videos at first will keep the kids minds to what you are trying to teach them, but just like a few ppl just said OpenSuSe will be the best distro to go with cause when you go and take a Linux course they use OpenSuSe as the distro of chose for all the students in the class. Good luck, I hope Linux/opensource will change they lives just as it has changed mines for the better..