On Mon, 29 May 2006, SAFFRON.8MOON wrote:
I am trying to get help with about 4 high school children in my Gifted and Talented Group, aged about13 14 to get them into the linux scene.
Suggestions.... 1. Linux is a child of the 'net. It was created on and grew up in the 'net and lives in and is now a vital component of the Internet. Therefore make sure you kids have Good and Easy access to the 'net and are encouraged to read AND POST to discussion forums such as this where they can ask questions and learn. Yes, sometimes they will get flamed for being stupid. That is the nature of the 'net. Teach them that this will happen, and to take the (small) kernel of truth from the flame and to ignore / killfile the flamer. http://www.linuxquestions.org is another excellent resource. What I'm saying is very simple and very direct. Cut them off from the 'net and they won't learn Linux. They can't learn Linux. No way. Not a chance. Encourage them to use the 'net, they will learn and learn and learn. 2. The Joy in Linux is in the Doing and the Making. Encourage and support any initiative to try out programming / controller / networking ... projects. The Inner Geek always gets a swift, "Oooh that's cool" reward when he/she see's something working, doing. With the scripting languages it's easy to get remote computers passing data, there is always a Good "ooo-lookithat" factor in your first client server program. (Even if it is only a few lines of Ruby...) http://www.devx.com/enterprise/Article/28101 The kids are very welcome to ask questions here whenever they are stuck. 3. School computers tend to have a "Whew! It's working at last, don't muck with it" feeling to them. Linux always has had the attitude, if you have root, you're welcome to peek, poke, investigate, hack and try make a mess, hack your way out again and if all else fails, reformat reinstall. If your kids are really Gifted, give'em root, encourage them to muck around and try things, but have all the important settings written down somewhere and a fresh install disk / rescue disk on hand. ie. The pain of making a mistake should be the pain of having to fix it, not anything more... 4. Fun project. Place a file of the Kids marks on a 'networked drive somewhere with lowish protection on it. Set all the marks to 0. Tell them they will get bonus mark of whatever they can crack it to... That will teach them a lot about user / file / directory permissions. Increase the protections week by week.
Is there anyone out there who is prpared to spend some time with them to teach them about Linux?
Answer: Most Linux geeks in the world are prepared. We're all, without exception, continuously on the 'net. Let'em loose, give them guidance, give them encouragement. The 'net is a very robust place, so their egos _will_ get dented from time to time. The trick is to support them over that and teach them to learn from those you can teach them, and ignore those that just flame. Teach them to keep asking, keep trying, keep doing, keep having fun. John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639 Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632 PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] New Zealand Carter's Clarification of Murphy's Law. "Things only ever go right so that they may go more spectacularly wrong later."
From this principle, all of life and physics may be deduced.
