Calling fanboys, seniors and all members here

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Din

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I am not new to TE, but I am not active in this forum. Hope you do not mind lol.

I was thinking about this for a long time. Now I think its time to share it with you and ask your help and suggestions.

Some of you might be knowing, I completed my 10th grade in a village school (10th grade in 1992). A remote place near Kerala and Karnataka border. We have an old house there. I go there once in three months or so and stay there for two months. I visit my school whenever I go there.

When I was there (17 yrs back), it was like no power, no phone lines, no public water supply, not enough buses or other public transport facilities. But now things has changed a lot. IT has became a subject in high schools, they have broadband at school, mobile phone coverage and all.

Coming to the matter lol

After my visits (two times last year and two times this week) to my old school and talking to the students and teachers, I think it is time to give them some kind of training in IT. The students as well as teachers are new to IT, internet and all these new technologies. They learn a lot from the books, but not much in the practical side. For example, they do not know what spam email is. They do not know we can book train tickets online (broadband is there and banks are there which provide online banking !), they do not know what a forum is. At the same time, many know whats Orkut, Youtube and google map, but do not know the ethical use of those. Those were just examples, what I meant is, they do not know the basics and do not know how to use these technologies and new facilities carefully.

I listed some points which are very basic, nothing complicated, and at the same time useful for them if not today in the near future itself. For example, using an email client, using an online storage site (example : skydrive), using google docs, online banking basics, cash transfer, bill payments, unicode fonts and its use (creating a website in regional language), twitter and things like that. Programming, databases or script modifications are not planned for this phase, but if they are doing very well and interested, it can be added as phase 2. Not going to repeat things thats in their text books, as it will be quite boring for them.

As you know, the Govt in Kerala gives more importance to opnesource, which is good. But my plan is triple main lol. I mean let them learn the win way, lin way and mac way. If they are learning how to use an email client, let them learn Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express and Apple mail. So that it will be future proof.

Now I know it can't be done as a -one man show. To make it good, I need your help and suggestions. What we can teach them (as I mentioned, the basics only), what points we should give more stress etc.

What my plan is to setup a wiki somewhere and give access to people interested to spend some time (not too much time, just 1 hr or so per week) to add the points to make it a good syllabus. I am planning to start the training (or whatever it is called lol) in September. So three months time is there.

And finally, there is no personal or business interest behind this. I am not going to charge anything for the training. It will be 1 hr every day or every alternate days.

People who think its not that bad and willing to help in this matter, please post your suggestions and comments here. Please pm me if you have time to write the points in the wiki and I will get back to you after setting up it.

Thanks a lot - in advance :)
 
Is there any LUG (Linux User Group)? (of course there would be, on the open source land :D ) Groups can do really constructive stuff. Scheduling technical talk meet ups in certain schools/venues and explicitly inviting the target audience can be a God sent opportunity for many.
 
I got what you meant. I am an ILUG (Cochin, Kerala) member, but there are no such groups where the school is. I will sure check whether I can bring someone, may be for a short period. Or even some over voice / video chat.
 
are macs available cheap there?

nothing can be future proof. i say just teach the basics properly so they get a good understanding and can teach others. if they get the flow of things for one app it will be easy for them to get the same thing done in other apps too. most progs you talk about have almost same user interface and menus. just the style is different.
 
@6pack

Thank you for the reply.

The school has 16 PCs in the lab. And a good multimedia room. So resource is not a problem. And mac, one can be arranged somehow.

I agree on the other point, like programs are similar. So teaching them will be easy. I mean people know how to configure Thunderbird will be able to configure Outlook Express easily.
 
What I think of:
One can learn good, if he owns a computer & free to do anything to do with it.
Finding things ourselfs & implementing, is always better than teaching.
It's good that you will be contributing 3 months for them. What you need is to teach basics, kids will get knowledge about what they want themselves(If they are really intrested).

Now, that just a 1 point of view.
 
i think office skills are important. Either on Open office or win. This could alone help them get through with a living.
 
@Sudarshan_SMD

Thank you.

@Joel Toms

Place is Kabanigiri, 10Kms away from Pulpally, Wayanad district of Kerala.

@SharekhaN

Thank you, it is sure a good idea. But open office is already included in their syllabus.
 
^^ Sorry, I didnt count on that. As I recollect my earlier days, I studied MS office when I was in 10th standard. However, I did forget those skills pretty soon, Only to master them again in engineering.

I think the most important skill we can teach them at basic level is working with an operating system, multiple if possible and just get them aware to the possibilities. They should certainly be not held down by the singularity of MS Windows.
 
What age group or class is this aimed for ?

If its school level, then instead of apps, or OS which their syllabi might already cover....

How about trying to teach them to learn from online resources ?

You would have to come up with a course and exercises that drills this. Learing how to learn. Use that as your theme and devise a course around it.

The info is always out there but the skills to find it are rarely present. You can see this even in adults let alone school kids. The biggest problem you will face here is comprehension, unless their english is above average.
 
@blr_p

Thank you for the post and suggestions.

Age group - 10th grade (14 -15 yr old students)

Yes, they learn many things in school - like open office, basics of internet etc. But there are lot of things which they will not get from text books and which will be useful.

Also, can't depend on online resources too much. I mean they have a broadband connection, but may not be able to use it all the time.

Learning how to learn - I totally agree with you. Sure a nice concept. I will sure keep this in mind while preparing for it.

Sorry if I was not clear in my first post. I will explain more. For example, they learn all basics of open office. But they never learn the installation of open office. They use Linux as the OS in all computers. But they never get a chance to learn the installation procedure or using even a live CD. They do not know how to burn a CD or DVD.

95% (or even more) of the students do not have a PC at home. They can't afford it, even on a sharing basis. Many poor families, but ready to learn and brilliant students.If they have PC at home, it will sure help them a lot, like learning things themselves. But rt now, the only option is to learn maximum from school.
 
@Din, its a nice initiative you are taking. I think that the following are necessary when you teach someone computers or technology.

It is crucial that you make people realize that computers are not some fancy machines only for the elite, the rich, the young or the modern. You have to highlight the fact that technology is for everyone and makes life easier. For example you can demonstrate how activities like attendance in school can be made easier by the use of Excel. Or how marks of each student can be stored and calculation make easier by the use of formulas.

Once you give them a basic idea and teach them the required softwares, they will be free to explore and involve technology in their day to day lives.
 
@hammerhead

Thank you.

The point you made about IT, loved that. Very valid point and the students should know it first. I mean things like PC is not a fancy machine thats meant for elite n rich people. If technology can't help the common man, then theres no point supporting it. I will sure mention the points you listed during the training.

I am going to install mediawiki in my website. Memebers who are interested and can spend lil time every week, please let me know (just to add their points and details directly in the wiki) and I will send the wiki link and details to them.

Thanks again.
 
hammerhead said:
@Din, its a nice initiative you are taking. I think that the following are necessary when you teach someone computers or technology.

It is crucial that you make people realize that computers are not some fancy machines only for the elite, the rich, the young or the modern. You have to highlight the fact that technology is for everyone and makes life easier. For example you can demonstrate how activities like attendance in school can be made easier by the use of Excel. Or how marks of each student can be stored and calculation make easier by the use of formulas.

Once you give them a basic idea and teach them the required softwares, they will be free to explore and involve technology in their day to day lives.
Click to expand...

^^ +1 for this.

A lot of people have this barrier to thinking of the computer as another appliance. It's an expensive magic box that they can break easily.

One thing that you could do is that for every group, at the start of the course, strip down the computer to it's components and build it up again. Show them the components they would have just read about in theory class, and that a computer is just another piece of machinery. That there is no need to look on it with awe.

I had seen people in my college (Engineering College!) say things like 'You open your computer. I don't dare do that'. :no:
 
Everything is setup and site is up now.

The script (back to mediawiki !) and domain name were selected based on majority of the pms I received. I set it so that it is open to all but edit by admins only. Admins in the sense all TE members interested. Those who already registered on the school site, need not register again as the same username / password will work here. Also set a redirection from school website to avoid confusion.

So here is the site - Nothing much now, just basic install only. No content yet. And most of the page links goes to same page, those links were added as part of my test lol.

[url]http://www.itjalakam.info[/url]

Stands for - IT Jalakam - Jalakam - Window in Sanskrit.

I think we can continue the discussion in the thread itself instead of pms. Please feel free to suggest / comment / criticize and contribute :) Always open to all suggestions and criticism.

Those who want to add / modify articles, please create a user account in the wiki and please let me know and I will change the status to admin immediately.

Those who are new to wiki (like me !) please have a look - MediaWiki User Guide

And as I mentioned before, even a single post or a single page in the wiki matters and it helps a lot. So please do not think that this is something for which we need dedicated time every day / week. Nothing like that.

Thanks again.
 
Eight people joined so far.

Any other members from TE want to join and help us in making the syllabus, please pm me.

Thanks again.
 
Update - Aug 3 2009

About 60% of the wiki is done. Many sections are copied form Wikipedia giving proper credits. Some are from the member blogs, again giving credits. Wiki is set as a guideline only and not as a textbook replacement.

Planning to finish adding content by 15th and use rest of the days for editing and re-arranging everything and finally formatting.

We are 25 members strong with half of them contributing regularly. Anybody wants to join, please register in the wiki site.

If you have any suggestions or comments, please post them in this thread. even small suggestions will be valuable.

Thanks again.
 
OMG, village school with 16pcs and a mac? I wish I grew up in that village. Also, how safe is it to include internet transactions in studies? If they mess up then they are going to blame the teacher.

I don't really understand need for learning to use e-mail clients when even the websites do a decent job, especially for beginners.
 
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