Model Engineering College Association of Computer Students (MACS) conducted a Workshop on GNU/Linux for CBSE school students on 19th and 20th of JULY. Around 50 students of standard XI from various CBSE schools in and around Ernakulam attended the workshop.
This is the second time we are organizing such an event for school students. Considering the huge response that we had for our workshop last year, it was decided to conduct separate workshops for CBSE and state schools, to provide room for more students to attend. Also we decided to go for a 2 day event this time, since we felt a shortage of time in our previous single day event. The classes where held at the Computer Centre in the college campus & students from various semesters in college handled the different sessions. The workshop started off with an introduction on Free and Open Source Software. A basic introduction to the GNU/Linux environment was provided to the audience. A comparison between Windows and GNU/Linux was made, and motivation behind the gaining popularity of GNU/Linux was explained. This was followed by familiarization of the GNOME desktop and various applications genuinely used in GNU/Linux. Also they where given an idea on the Linux File system and its various hierarchical levels. Installation of GNU/Linux was demonstrated using Ubuntu 7.10. Ubuntu was chosen as the distribution for this considering that it is one of the distributions that doesn't make much problems for the new user. Hand-on sessions on GNU/Linux installation helped students to have a first hand experience on the the installation procedure and clarify their doubts. An overview of the commonly available GNU/Linux distributions was also given. Later they were given an introduction to the 'shell' and 'terminal'. The purpose of using the 'terminal' and its advantages were explained which gave the students an insight into the power of the 'shell'. Various commonly used command line tools were explained and hands-on session was given for them to try out the various command line tools. The eye candy visual effects of compiz-fusion, which was demonstrated, made a very good impact on the students. This made even the most non-techie student attend the workshop with great interest, to know more about GNU/Linux. The classes were interactive and students cleared all doubts they had about GNU/Linux. And the feedback we got from the students were pretty good. Students were given Ubuntu CD's and printed notes. Some of our contact numbers were also given to them for future support. The students were given participation certificates at the end. The workshop for state schools is scheduled on August 16th & 17th. Hoping that it will also be a big success and thus create an awareness about the free software movement and GNU/Linux among the school students in Ernakulam. -- Cijo George Chairman MEC Association of Computer Students (MACS) Model Engineering College, Kochi Cell Phone : +91-9846192885 Land phone : +91-484-2761101 Email ID : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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