Introduction to Linux Seminars
Hi, In conjunction with the CS Department at Waikato University WLUG is organising a series of seminars aimed at introducing first and second year students to Linux and OSS in general. We are currently in the process of planning these seminars and are looking for comments on what to include and what to leave out. The seminars will run in weeks 2 and 3 of semester A for 3 nights each week. Each seminar will be around 1.5hrs long. Below is a brief outline of what we are currently planning on covering in each seminar. If you have comments or suggestions please let us know. Seminar 1: (Tue 9th Mar) - Introduction to Linux / OSS - What is OSS - What is Linux - What is GNU - Why use Linux - History of Linux - About the Linux Distributions Seminar 2: (Wed 10th Mar) - Bash - A general introduction to bash, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks. Seminar 3: (Thu 11th Mar) - Emacs - A general introduction to emacs, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks. Seminar 4: (Tue 16th Mar) - Processes - An introduction to process control in unix systems. We will cover how to start, stop, suspend and kill processes. Seminar 5: (Wed 17th Mar) - Applications - An introduction to useful OSS applications that can be used under linux. This will focus on what is installed in the TSG labs and will probably cover (pending confirmation) - ssh / scp - Mozilla - OpenOffice Seminar 6: (Thu 18th Mar) - Summary / Q&A - A summary of how to put everything that has been taught together, followed by a question and answer session. The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix. Comments welcome :) Regards -- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544
... The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix.
If you are tight on resources, the cheat sheet could be made available on the web; students could print it out. It would also mean less work for wlug. Perhaps the cheat sheet could go on hoiho ... students would find it easier to find than a URL deep in the Dept. webspace. Further, wlug would see more traffic and possibly more members :-) Sid.
Matt Brown wrote:
Hi,
In conjunction with the CS Department at Waikato University WLUG is organising a series of seminars aimed at introducing first and second year students to Linux and OSS in general. We are currently in the process of planning these seminars and are looking for comments on what to include and what to leave out.
The seminars will run in weeks 2 and 3 of semester A for 3 nights each week. Each seminar will be around 1.5hrs long. Below is a brief outline of what we are currently planning on covering in each seminar. If you have comments or suggestions please let us know.
Seminar 1: (Tue 9th Mar) - Introduction to Linux / OSS - What is OSS - What is Linux - What is GNU - Why use Linux - History of Linux - About the Linux Distributions
Seminar 2: (Wed 10th Mar) - Bash - A general introduction to bash, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks.
Seminar 3: (Thu 11th Mar) - Emacs - A general introduction to emacs, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks.
Seminar 4: (Tue 16th Mar) - Processes - An introduction to process control in unix systems. We will cover how to start, stop, suspend and kill processes.
Seminar 5: (Wed 17th Mar) - Applications - An introduction to useful OSS applications that can be used under linux. This will focus on what is installed in the TSG labs and will probably cover (pending confirmation) - ssh / scp - Mozilla - OpenOffice
Seminar 6: (Thu 18th Mar) - Summary / Q&A - A summary of how to put everything that has been taught together, followed by a question and answer session.
The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix.
Comments welcome :)
Regards
Well done Matt. This is an excellent way to get more Linux users. The students would get much more benefit from workshops than seminars. The best way to get to know about Linux is to use it. If there aren't enough workstations in the lab then limit the numbers to suit and run the workshops throughout the year. Once a program is set up it is easily repeated. Workshops would require a couple of experienced users to assist the students in addition to the tutor, but I'm sure some members would be willing to help. I am an ex teacher with a lot of experience in practical teaching and would be happy to assist organising a program. Gun Caundle
Well done Matt. This is an excellent way to get more Linux users. The students would get much more benefit from workshops than seminars. The best way to get to know
They would, and a similar sentiment was expressed in the comments submitted the last time we ran these tutorials (two years ago). With this aim we could perhaps talk to the department about ongoing funding/resources to keep doing this, however at this stage (fairly late in the piece for a set of tutorials to be run in the first few weeks of semester), they'll stay as tutorials. One thing we did consider however was making available some practical tasks the students can perform in their home directory, and be "marked" by running a script over the resulting output. We've also considered supplying students with an electronic copy of the RUTE linux tutorial, and perhaps having a paper copy or two available in the library.
easily repeated. Workshops would require a couple of experienced users to assist the students in addition to the tutor, but I'm sure some members would be willing to help. I am an ex teacher with a lot of experience in practical teaching and would be happy to assist organising a program.
Thanks for your offer, we'll definitely keep this in mind. As well as the topics Matt mentioned, we've talked about running more advanced topics later in the year, such as use of CVS, Makefiles, advanced bash scripting, and so on. Real lifesavers for students, yet so few of them know about them. Daniel
An admirable idea. However.... It's unclear from your email whether this is just for CS students or the wider university population at large. I'm assuming the latter. If it's the former then don't bother reading on and apologies for wasting your time.... What is the aim of it all? It seems to me you wish to turn 1st. and 2nd. year students onto Linux and suggest that there are other operating systems other than Mac and Windows - dare I say even to convert some of those students. I'm a tertiary level lecturer of over a decade (including at present Waikato University) and most of that teaching has involved the use of computers (audio, video, web applications mainly and some Perl- scripting etc.) Assuming that the seminars are aimed at students not just from the CS Dept. (where one can safely assume they know one end of a mouse from another - do they?), I think the ordering of your seminars is back to front. 1/ If I were someone who had a few years surfing the internet on Windows, using IRC/chat programs, Microsoft Office and the virus-bait Outlook and came to this seminar, I'd want to know what Linux has to offer that replaces the above and that won't cost me anything. Perhaps it's even 'safer' than Windows? Bash? Emacs? What do I want to know about command-line stuff? Windows allows me to just point and click? Clearly Linux is just for geeks. No thank you. 2/ If I'd never had any experience of computers but 'knew' that something called a mouse allowed you to easily interact with applications, write essays, spellcheck and hunt down dubious sources on the Internet to plagiarise for my assignments, again, what would I want with bash, emacs, process control ("you mean Linux crashes?") etc? I want to know how I can use Linux (freely!) to accomplish those tasks. 3/ Perhaps I'm a student who has a preconception of Linux as just for geeks - your first few seminars are going to reinforce that image. What about flashy multimedia applications that, let's face it, are going to be far more attractive to the average University student: Gimp, Cinelerra, Ardour, Audacity, etc. etc. etc. Did I mention it's all free? On 13 Feb 2004 at 10:46, Matt Brown wrote:
Hi,
In conjunction with the CS Department at Waikato University WLUG is organising a series of seminars aimed at introducing first and second year students to Linux and OSS in general. We are currently in the process of planning these seminars and are looking for comments on what to include and what to leave out.
The seminars will run in weeks 2 and 3 of semester A for 3 nights each week. Each seminar will be around 1.5hrs long. Below is a brief outline of what we are currently planning on covering in each seminar. If you have comments or suggestions please let us know.
Seminar 1: (Tue 9th Mar) - Introduction to Linux / OSS - What is OSS - What is Linux - What is GNU - Why use Linux - History of Linux - About the Linux Distributions
Seminar 2: (Wed 10th Mar) - Bash - A general introduction to bash, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks.
Seminar 3: (Thu 11th Mar) - Emacs - A general introduction to emacs, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks.
Seminar 4: (Tue 16th Mar) - Processes - An introduction to process control in unix systems. We will cover how to start, stop, suspend and kill processes.
Seminar 5: (Wed 17th Mar) - Applications - An introduction to useful OSS applications that can be used under linux. This will focus on what is installed in the TSG labs and will probably cover (pending confirmation) - ssh / scp - Mozilla - OpenOffice
Seminar 6: (Thu 18th Mar) - Summary / Q&A - A summary of how to put everything that has been taught together, followed by a question and answer session.
The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix.
Comments welcome :)
Regards
-- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544
_______________________________________________ wlug mailing list wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
An admirable idea. However....
It's unclear from your email whether this is just for CS students or the wider university population at large. I'm assuming the latter. If it's the former then don't bother reading on and apologies for wasting your time....
I don't think anyone will mind if the wider univerisity population comes along, however they are primarily focussed at CS undergrads who are required to use linux for courses from second year onwards, yet often find it alien and confusing. As an example, it's really painful watching people type out long gcc commands every time they wish to compile a program. They don't know about make, or even about up arrow in bash! Perhaps you have a point regarding the ordering of the tutorials - maybe it is worth bringing the application one earlier on. However, we still have to cover at least the basics of bash, processes/security, a "typical" editor (we choose emacs, vi is a bit mean). We've had a request to include more information about GNU/OSS in general. And so on. Your comments are appreciated :) We are considering throwing in more content to pump linux up a bit to those who aren't familiar with it. Your other suggestions seem to fit fairly well with the general style of monthly meetings WLUG has anyway. The improvement in multimedia apps under linux in particular is probably worth doing a meeting on. Daniel
My 2cents, I agree, I think you might need a "cross over" component that explains how to migrate your existing windows into Linux. I would think most of them would be using mickysoft, and probably been using it for some time. At 11:01 14/02/2004, you wrote:
An admirable idea. However....
It's unclear from your email whether this is just for CS students or the wider university population at large. I'm assuming the latter. If it's the former then don't bother reading on and apologies for wasting your time....
What is the aim of it all? It seems to me you wish to turn 1st. and 2nd. year students onto Linux and suggest that there are other operating systems other than Mac and Windows - dare I say even to convert some of those students.
I'm a tertiary level lecturer of over a decade (including at present Waikato University) and most of that teaching has involved the use of computers (audio, video, web applications mainly and some Perl- scripting etc.) Assuming that the seminars are aimed at students not just from the CS Dept. (where one can safely assume they know one end of a mouse from another - do they?), I think the ordering of your seminars is back to front.
1/ If I were someone who had a few years surfing the internet on Windows, using IRC/chat programs, Microsoft Office and the virus-bait Outlook and came to this seminar, I'd want to know what Linux has to offer that replaces the above and that won't cost me anything. Perhaps it's even 'safer' than Windows? Bash? Emacs? What do I want to know about command-line stuff? Windows allows me to just point and click? Clearly Linux is just for geeks. No thank you.
2/ If I'd never had any experience of computers but 'knew' that something called a mouse allowed you to easily interact with applications, write essays, spellcheck and hunt down dubious sources on the Internet to plagiarise for my assignments, again, what would I want with bash, emacs, process control ("you mean Linux crashes?") etc? I want to know how I can use Linux (freely!) to accomplish those tasks.
3/ Perhaps I'm a student who has a preconception of Linux as just for geeks - your first few seminars are going to reinforce that image. What about flashy multimedia applications that, let's face it, are going to be far more attractive to the average University student: Gimp, Cinelerra, Ardour, Audacity, etc. etc. etc. Did I mention it's all free?
On 13 Feb 2004 at 10:46, Matt Brown wrote:
Hi,
In conjunction with the CS Department at Waikato University WLUG is organising a series of seminars aimed at introducing first and second year students to Linux and OSS in general. We are currently in the process of planning these seminars and are looking for comments on what to include and what to leave out.
The seminars will run in weeks 2 and 3 of semester A for 3 nights each week. Each seminar will be around 1.5hrs long. Below is a brief outline of what we are currently planning on covering in each seminar. If you have comments or suggestions please let us know.
Seminar 1: (Tue 9th Mar) - Introduction to Linux / OSS - What is OSS - What is Linux - What is GNU - Why use Linux - History of Linux - About the Linux Distributions
Seminar 2: (Wed 10th Mar) - Bash - A general introduction to bash, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks.
Seminar 3: (Thu 11th Mar) - Emacs - A general introduction to emacs, what it is, how to use it and tips for performing common tasks.
Seminar 4: (Tue 16th Mar) - Processes - An introduction to process control in unix systems. We will cover how to start, stop, suspend and kill processes.
Seminar 5: (Wed 17th Mar) - Applications - An introduction to useful OSS applications that can be used under linux. This will focus on what is installed in the TSG labs and will probably cover (pending confirmation) - ssh / scp - Mozilla - OpenOffice
Seminar 6: (Thu 18th Mar) - Summary / Q&A - A summary of how to put everything that has been taught together, followed by a question and answer session.
The popular cheat sheet will be given out again and we are looking at providing each attendee with a copy of Knoppix.
Comments welcome :)
Regards
-- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544
_______________________________________________ wlug mailing list wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
_______________________________________________ wlug mailing list wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
On 14 Feb 2004 at 12:37, DrWho? wrote:
My 2cents,
I agree, I think you might need a "cross over" component that explains how to migrate your existing windows into Linux.
And compatibility - "I can't use Linux as I need to be able to read and write Microsoft Office documents". "OF course I won't be able to play WAV or mp3 files on linux will I?". "I need to be able to open Windoes images (by this they usually mean GIF or JPEG) so linux is no use to me". "Linux is Unix isn't it? I couldn't function without my mouse and a window". (Hence my worries about the first few seminars.) All comments I regularly hear.
I agree, I think you might need a "cross over" component that explains how to migrate your existing windows into Linux.
And compatibility - "I can't use Linux as I need to be able to read and write Microsoft Office documents". "OF course I won't be able to play WAV or mp3 files on linux will I?". "I need to be able to open Windoes images (by this they usually mean GIF or JPEG) so linux is no use to me". "Linux is Unix isn't it? I couldn't function without my mouse and a window". (Hence my worries about the first few seminars.)
While we may need to show people answers to these questions to make Linux more attractive, we are not trying to convert these people. They are going to use Linux, they have to and have no choice if they are to complete their courses. What we are aiming for primarily with these training is to help the students use Linux more effectivly for their course requirements (hence the focus on bash, editors etc). Hopefully if we do a good job of that we will get students interested in Linux in general. We will make sure that they realise that WLUG is there for them when/if they want to make the transition to Linux on machines at home. Teaching them some things like Linux gaming, wine and even gimp and mp3 players isn't going to be achieving our goal of helping them with their course related requirements. On the other hand, we have talked about the March WLUG presentation being an intoductory presentation, perhaps going through installing a distro, setting it up and showing off solutions to the common issues you have discussed. Perhaps if we have time and enough interest / help we may follow this up with an installfest. Jamie
I always found the labs at Uni annoying to use so I did most of my projects/assignments at home. First using Watcom C++ under DOS/Desqview and then with Linux once I had seen the light :). A lot of CS undergrads probably have PC's at home. Why not encourage them to install Linux at home... Give out distro discs at the presentations. I would suggest something friendly and easy to use (ie, not Debian or Gentoo). Fedora Core 1 is probably an OK choice. But one of the KDE centric distros might also be nice. If people want to "try" Linux before they commit to installing it (and potentially blowing their Hard Disks away) then Knoppix discs would be good. Regards On Sun, 2004-02-15 at 06:35, Jamie Curtis wrote:
I agree, I think you might need a "cross over" component that explains how to migrate your existing windows into Linux.
And compatibility - "I can't use Linux as I need to be able to read and write Microsoft Office documents". "OF course I won't be able to play WAV or mp3 files on linux will I?". "I need to be able to open Windoes images (by this they usually mean GIF or JPEG) so linux is no use to me". "Linux is Unix isn't it? I couldn't function without my mouse and a window". (Hence my worries about the first few seminars.)
While we may need to show people answers to these questions to make Linux more attractive, we are not trying to convert these people. They are going to use Linux, they have to and have no choice if they are to complete their courses. What we are aiming for primarily with these training is to help the students use Linux more effectivly for their course requirements (hence the focus on bash, editors etc). Hopefully if we do a good job of that we will get students interested in Linux in general. We will make sure that they realise that WLUG is there for them when/if they want to make the transition to Linux on machines at home. Teaching them some things like Linux gaming, wine and even gimp and mp3 players isn't going to be achieving our goal of helping them with their course related requirements.
-- Oliver Jones » Director » oliver.jones(a)deeperdesign.com » +64 (21) 41 2238 Deeper Design Limited » +64 (7) 377 3328 » www.deeperdesign.com
Hi, Most of what I want to say has already been covered by Daniel, Jamie and Perry while I was enjoying a weekend at the beach, but I'll sum up anyway and address a few other comments that came up further down the thread. On Sun, 2004-02-15 at 00:01, Mark Grimshaw wrote:
It's unclear from your email whether this is just for CS students or the wider university population at large. I'm assuming the latter. If it's the former then don't bother reading on and apologies for wasting your time....
The seminars are heavily focused on teaching 2nd (and 1st) year CompSci students the very basics of what they need to know to operate in the lab environment. Other people are most welcome to attend, including students from other parts of the University, and other WLUG members who want to beef up their linux knowledge.
What is the aim of it all? It seems to me you wish to turn 1st. and 2nd. year students onto Linux and suggest that there are other operating systems other than Mac and Windows - dare I say even to convert some of those students.
The primary aim as Daniel said is to give students the knowledge of the tools that are available to stop them from having to repeat mundane tasks over and over again. I think a lot of the "geek" image comes from people expecting linux and other unix like OSes to be Windows. The fact is they are not, they come from quite a different model of operation and getting students to recognise that is a secondary aim. Hand in Hand with that is the fact that things will be done in different ways in linux (ie. using the command line, rather than a GUI for managing files). Perhaps we should state that we are not directly trying to convert people to linux through these seminars, our primary goal is to enable students to survive in the labs. If through that they come to see linux as a better operating system for their daily tasks then hopefully we will have exposed them to WLUG where they can find many more resources to help them move to linux.
I'm a tertiary level lecturer of over a decade (including at present Waikato University) and most of that teaching has involved the use of computers (audio, video, web applications mainly and some Perl- scripting etc.) Assuming that the seminars are aimed at students not just from the CS Dept. (where one can safely assume they know one end of a mouse from another - do they?), I think the ordering of your seminars is back to front.
I've also had this comment (ordering of the seminars) made to me off list as well. I guess on reflection it does make sense to start with the "basics" (Mozilla / OpenOffice, etc) before we get down to the really useful (but more complex) things like bash and process control. Do you think the following order would be more appropriate? 1. Intro to Linux / GNU / OSS 2. Applications 3. Emacs 4. Bash 5. Processes 6. Summary / Q&A On the topic of installfests, We (the committee) have been actively discussing organising one for quite a while now, and it is on my list of things to start planning for in the next week. I wanted to get the bulk of the organisation for the Intro to Linux Seminars out of the way before I started on something else. But while people are talking about it I guess it's worth sharing my current thoughts. 1) We will hold the installfest seperately to a regular WLUG meeting, most probably on a Saturday, simply because it gives us much more time and hence more capacity for installing / troubleshooting peoples machines. 2) It will be held after the Intro to Linux Seminars and after the Intro to Linux March Meeting. So probably early April sometime. Perhaps the first weekend. 3) We should standardise on a distribution to install on peoples machines. Dangerous territory here, it's not worth starting a distro war over, but I think having a standard platform for new users is an excellent idea, then when they have a problem we can know how their system is meant to be configured and make much better guesses as to how to fix it. Besides the standardisation we also want to make sure that it's something pretty like XD2 or Fedora. Obviously we still need to discuss a lot of this and work out a lot more details, but we do have ideas in planning. Phew, that will do for tonight. Regards -- Matt Brown Email: matt(a)mattb.net.nz GSM : 021 611 544
Hi, Notwithstanding the fact that I suggested you ignore the rest of my email if the seminars were aimed at CS students, I think the order you suggest is much better. These are not yet (at least not all of them) computer professionals and, even if they have to do this as part of their course, a bit of psychology is involved in weening them from one OS to another. Might I even suggest switching the order of 1. and 2. below or perhaps merging them into two seminars so that you plunge straight into using the GUI aspects of Linux. This will have the benefit of persuading those who are more wary of non-windows OSs that, at least as far as the desktop is concerned, there is little difference for the average user these days. That will probably make the succeeding seminars more likely to hold their interest when they see that not only can they do everything Windows can do but they can do a whole lot more (at least far more easily) as well. Demonstrating Mozilla etc. will also allow you to introduce the students to How Tos and other sources of on-line help for less GUI-related Linux usage as required for the course. On 15 Feb 2004 at 22:01, Matt Brown wrote:
On Sun, 2004-02-15 at 00:01, Mark Grimshaw wrote:
It's unclear from your email whether this is just for CS students or the wider university population at large. I'm assuming the latter. If it's the former then don't bother reading on and apologies for wasting your time....
I've also had this comment (ordering of the seminars) made to me off list as well. I guess on reflection it does make sense to start with the "basics" (Mozilla / OpenOffice, etc) before we get down to the really useful (but more complex) things like bash and process control.
Do you think the following order would be more appropriate? 1. Intro to Linux / GNU / OSS 2. Applications 3. Emacs 4. Bash 5. Processes 6. Summary / Q&A
participants (8)
-
Daniel Lawson -
DrWho? -
Gun Caundle -
Jamie Curtis -
Mark Grimshaw -
Matt Brown -
Oliver Jones -
s swami