Realm project: 5 part Linux training course

[Lord Raiden]

Ok, here's a project that I think the Realm should do and I'd love to get help from you guys on constructing it, because once it's done, I plan to release it for everyone to use.

There will be 3 parts to the course packet.

1.  A powerpoint presentation for each lesson.  (Yes, we all hate powerpoint, but OO can run them and they are useful teaching tools)
2.  A PDF "handout" that can be either printed, or handed out to people on a CD.  This must be easy enough that a total newb can use it, yet advanced enough that we're not insulting more experienced users by dumbing it down too far.
3.  A CD and/or DVD with a distro of choice on it, or possibly a dvd with several.  Maybe even have a stack of them, and let the user choose based on the type of machine they have.  We might even need a selection to fill numerous different needs.  So we'd have to figure out what that list of distros would be.

Now, of the above choices, we can either go for an all in one inclusive newbies course, or we can do it in levels.  IE, complete newb, user with experience, and power user looking to switch.

This also has to be teachable by as many people as possible.  Because when we're done, I want others to be able to take this and teach it in their communities and schools.

The five courses I was considering, each of which should be about an hour for just the lecture, or 3-4 if hands on is included are:

1.  What is Linux and how can it benefit you?
2.  Introduction to Linux distros (teach them about the various distros and their advantages, history, etc)
3.  Introduction to FOSS (teach them about free software, the principles behind it and it's benefits)
4.  Installing Linux
5.  Troubleshooting Linux and FOSS.

That's the basic outline.  Feel free to chew on it, suggest changes, adjustments, additions, etc.  

[bigbearomaha]

It is interesting you bring this up.

For a while now, I have been mulling over the notion of doing something similar under the auspices of a Business Linux User Group ( yeah, I know it leads to being called a BLUG, but it could work.)

In BEL Project forums, I am offering to work with people to create a similar 'teachable' or group experience or presentation where using a community conference room such as in a local library, etc.. one could set up a couple computers, laptops, etc in various configurations, ( ie a server, a workstation , etc..) using different distros.

In BEL Project, this could be a 2 hour presentation where they listen to information for the first part and get hands on for the second part.

I think your idea has merit, applied, I assume toward the home or student user as opposed to the business or school admin we work with.

Big Bear

[burfoot]

Next month I am teaching classes on linux..Right now I have no idea what i am going to teach -luckily i only have 4 signed up at the moment.  I'm pretty sure i can teach them how to turn the comp on enter their name and password and open up firefox.. beyond that I'm lost... Seriously I'm all for this project - count me in for anything you need

[ClareOldie]

[Lord Raiden]

OO can do a native slideshow, or powerpoint.  I simply call it powerpoint because that's what everyone knows them as.  It's like saying "bandaid" and everyone knows what it is, even though that's actually a brand and not a name.

Anywho, I'm not gonna be able to tackle this till monday, but if you guys have ideas on what to do to get this started, by all means, chime in.

[Lord Raiden]

Ok, just so we don't forget about this, I've been working on the outline of the course today and did a peliminary "lesson one" covering the history.  It's a bit more than history, but it was whatever I could come up with off the top of my head.  I kinda got a little "advocacy" stuff in there too.    But it's a start.  I'm waiting for my laptop to boot right now (it's doing an automatic disk check right now), but when it's done, I'll post the first pages I came up with.  We can then discect them and go from there.  I also kinda cover items 1 and 2 on the agenda in the paper.  Heck, we may even just use it as the outline for doing the first two parts.

Either way, have a look at it (as soon as I get it uploaded here in a second) and let me know what you think.

[Lord Raiden]

Here we go.  

[blackbelt_jones]

This isn't my Realm , and I'm the new guy besides, so I'm going to shoot off my mouth-- and then I'm going to get behind your project.  

1.  Every Linux book begins with a chapter entitled "What is Linux?", and then starts out telling you how to install it.  I would go to these books knowing what Linux is, and already having it installed.  So I would skip over these parts, and I find that I was lost, because so much basic information has been mixed in with the dull rote stuff.  There are many many places to find this info,   I'd skip over that stuff very quickly.

2. Get ready to throw vegetables at me.  Ready?  The command line, man! (ducks!)

 We need a desktop user's guide to the commnad line.  Everyone who has ever written a guide to the CLI is a programmer or a system administrator, and even some of these people don't seem to understand how helpful the CLI can be to an everyday end-user. We need a desktop user's guide to the commnad line.  Everyone who has ever written a guide to the CLI is a programmer or a system administrator, and even some of these people don't seem to understand how useful the command line can be to an everyday end user.    It is vastly misunderstood and maligned, and so much easier to use than people think.  It's also a big part of the desktop, in that every GUI that's worth anything employs shell commands in keyboard shortcuts and desktop launchers.

I stumbled  along for two years in Linux out of sheer stubbornness before I forced myself to use the CLI to organize my porno collection.  I figured if I'm going to spend time with something this stupid, I was going to learn something.  It was the moment when Linux suddenly made sense.

[Lord Raiden]

Yeah, those are good ideas.  But this is more an introduction than anything.  The "What is Linux" books that toss you right into the OS without any background info just don't work unless you're a techie type.  I'm taking it from the soccer mom/average joe perspective.  IE, they're "users" but aren't tech savvy, so they need to be brought in the door at the bottom level and understand what this stuff is.  We take a lot of it for granted, but they don't.  Kind of a "show, don't tell" perspective to teaching.

[ClareOldie]

[Lord Raiden]

Yep.  Now I just need to break it out into a lesson plan and a slideshow.  Plus I got a little linux advocacy mixed in there, so I need to kinda fix that up and stick to just the tech stuff.  

[TesserId]

[Lord Raiden]

Holy homework, batman!  Tesser, that's awesome!  I've been looking into a way to outline the whole project, and you have a great outline to start with that we could work off of!

On the technical notes one, maybe just an overview of wired vs wireless networking would work.  USB networking blows in Linux, and pretty much every OS, so we'd advise them to avoid that at all costs.

Under Samba we may want to cover security, as well as creating an intro to the desktop where we could cover desktop basics, window managers/desktop environments, and basic usage.

Under the "connecting portable devices", you might want to cover, albeit briefly, file systems, since those will affect how portable between OS's their devices will be.  Maybe give the advantages and disadvantages of them, where and when they can be used, and maybe why they'd want to care.  We're not talking about a complete file system 101, but rather just "here's the basic, most common file systems and why you should be concerned with them."  A full filesystem 101 would then be built into course 2, which would be somewhat of the intermediate intro stuff, the things that "minivan mom" wouldn't care about, but the more tech savvy might.

This part 2 could also have some kind of "maintenance" section, with a brief intro to this in part 1, and a bit more in depth version in part 2.

[TesserId]

Ponder it a bit; there's a lot to consider.

[Lord Raiden]

Ok, been thinking this through and have taken your points, exploded some of them, and added to others.

[TesserId]

Very good.  

Maybe the next level in a divide and conquer is to create a separate discussion thread for each section.  We'd further subdivide the sub sections later as needed.  And, each thread will need to be aware of the others, at least, with regards to style and flow, since we'll want the full collection of material maintain cohesiveness.

Then again, maybe it's too soon to divvy up the process, and a little more needs to be fleshed out here on this thread.  The decision of when and how to divide is greatly a matter of how much participation we are getting versus how fragmented things might get.

Ya know, if the next version of phpBB wasn't giving you such headaches, I'd suggest looking for more of a Wiki environment.  But, I think it will be interesting to see how things flow from this environment.

Maybe, as this grows, it would be worthwhile to have a front-page progress box for the project, giving it some prominence and standing as a reminder that participation would be good and healthy for the Realm.

[TesserId]

On, second thought, let's write introductory paragraphs to each top-level section, and use a tone and wording that describes the areas of interest to our audience.  Let's write it as if it's a brochure for the class.

I'll see if I can't do a bit of this today, but don't wait for me if you already have ideas that you can write out.

[Lord Raiden]

Well, I'm trying to keep this intro to two hours.    One of the ideas for cementing this outline before we try it in the wild (a little field testing will be needed to see what we may need to work on still) is to break this out into sections, subsections, points, and subpoints.  Then on each of them give a brief paragraph or sentence on what they should talk about, and then more or less leave it up to the individual to decide what they want to say in that part.  We could maybe even put approximate talking limits on each (just a note like "2 minutes" in parenthesis next to the point) so that it stays at or under two hours.

Now I'm not saying we need to go that way, but it is one idea I had that I thought was worth tossing out here.

[TesserId]

Ever notice how most school courses never cover the entire text book?

While I know we want to steer clear of more technical topics and keep the thing light and purposeful, I don't have a problem trimming things down if it grows a bit.  I certainly won't have an ego crisis if my little pet pieces and rococo flourishes don't make the final cut.

Also, some people like having some take home reading if they have that kind of appetite.  The notes section that goes with each page of a presentation doesn't have to include information only for the one giving the lecture (though you do want to make sure the lecturer's notes come ahead of any supplemental information).

I had one additional idea to keep in the back our heads if we should happen to end up with lots of surplus material.  Since instructors often like to be able to cover only portions of the overall material, we could mark portions of content as being more relevant to specific portions of the overall audience.  That is, it might be convenient that if an instructor was confronted with only soccer moms, no soccer dads, kids, or dogs (arf arf), then the this would make it easy to see which portions could be given less attention and detail.  Then again, maybe some soccer moms relieve stress by firing up an FPS, going online, and fragging the neighbors kids (bang bang).

[Lord Raiden]