Calling fanboys, seniors and all members here

[din]

[Update - Sep 24 2009]

Went to School yesterday, small presentation plus intro session. Was nice and students are really interested. Will be starting the regular class from next week - hopefully. More details on Page 6

[/Update]

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 year) 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

[EDIT - Added on June 24th]

The wiki is up and running, we have 9 people as members there, yet to start on all categories though.

Please have a look - http://www.itjalakam.info/Main_Page

If any other members interested, please create a username there and please let me know and I will upgrade the status to admin.

[/EDIT]

[rhitwick]

Wow!!! Thats a very nice and noble initiative.
I would like to do the same for my village someday.

To begin with it I would like to ask you some questions.

1> Can u give dedicated time for this?

2> Resource? (Computers? MACs? I guess u won't use hackintosh with triple boot)

3> Target audience? Not everyone can learn or understand everything. If u do it class wise, say a prt for class V, other part for class vi etc. B/W which age group of students are ur target. Seniors?
If ur intention is to teach them all, then u need diff. time slots, as seniors may not feel free to ask those n00b questions infront of their children.

4> Fund? U need it right? At least to set-up things.

5> Any course material in ur mind. With course material it would be more organized and people can reproduce things they would learn at u. I guess distributing course material is a bad (costly) idea, they can note it down when u say. But at least u need one for ur-self, right?

6> How long? Suppose u've net-literated one generation, what about the upcoming? Recruit from the existing or what?

[din]

@ rhitwick

Thanks for the quick and great reply. Sure, I will answer.

1> Can u give dedicated time for this?

I guess you meant - how much time I will spend for this? Actually I am not very sure, but planning to spend 1 hr every working day (Mon to Fri).

2> Resource? (Computers? MACs? I guess u won't use hackintosh with triple boot)

Resource, the school has 16 computers and a good multi media room now. No, I will not use hackintosh I will no way promote piracy, hacking (I meant the bad side) or stuff like that.

3> Target audience? Not everyone can learn or understand everything. If u do it class wise, say a prt for class V, other part for class vi etc. B/W which age group of students are ur target. Seniors?

Planning for grade 10 only. As they can understand things better.

4> Fund? U need it right? At least to set-up things.

As I mentioned, the school has PCs.

5> Any course material in ur mind. With course material it would be more organized and people can reproduce things they would learn at u. I guess distributing course material is a bad (costly) idea, they can note it down when u say. But at least u need one for ur-self, right?

That is why I am planning to use the wiki. I will be well prepared (I have to !) before every class.

6> How long? Suppose u've net-literated one generation, what about the upcoming? Recruit from the existing or what?[/QUOTE]

Again, I do not know ! Now I have time and I think it is time to give something back to the school But idea of recruiting from existing - sure a good one.

Once again, thanks a lot for the reply.

[jain_pranav]

vry gud idea din.
I'm willing to help u out.
I stay in delhi & u let me know what all i can do.
I cn give 2-3 hours daily!

[harryneopotter]

I am in with wat ever i can help .... me too from delhi ..... and i must say ... nice initiative Din uncle (dnt mind haan... ) !!!!!!

[max_demon]

i can compile video tutorial for some applications ,

and make a useful websites link

[max_demon]

i can compile video tutorial for some applications ,

and make a useful websites link

[din]

@jain_pranav and @harryneopotter

Thanks a lot. Much appreciated.

I will setup a wiki online soon and will send you the details. Nothing complicated or too much time spending. Write your points, suggestions and details in that. That will be a great help.

Thanks again.

[din]

Max, video tutorials is sure a great idea. That will sure help. Thanks a lot.

[The_Devil_Himself]

din: drop the apple mac side tbh, too much hassle.They serve niche customers anyways.Just go with lin and win.

[ico]

Originally Posted by The_Devil_Himself

din: drop the apple mac side tbh, too much hassle.They serve niche customers anyways.Just go with lin and win.

true.

[din]

Sure, not giving much importance to mac. Just added that as an OS. Didn't want to keep apple fans away

[desiibond]

Have that school/college subsribe to atleast two magazines. My pick would be Digit and Linux4You. They come with lot of stuff and tutorials.

Not everyone can be a geek or interested in computers an technology and those who want to be geek/techie and go forward will get attracted to these mag and we can get them into this forum.

This way we can filter out those who really have interest in learning these things.

Just my two cents.

[din]

@desiibond

Great, actually I was about to post that as a separate thread. I mean I was planning to subscribe a mag for them. My first choice was Digit, only thing is the adult kinda ads lol. Or Digit stopped those kinda glamor pics ?

And yes, I am planning the training for a small group only. Not everyone will be interested in this. It will be like selecting 20 or so from the 10th grade. Those who are really interested and can spare the time (1 hr or so per day).

[max_demon]

another suggestion : dont you think the school may be in data plan or even if it is unlimited the tutorials will srely waste bandwidth . better idea is to download a bunch in one time and install it locally in each computer .

the stdents can go live and access faqs and ask questions in the board .( i mean forum specilly desined for them (with no rules whatever )

[din]

Max, related to your post, I downloaded the safe-wikipedia (thanks to NucleusKore) last year and gave that to them.

[MetalheadGautham]

I suggest you get yourself a free wikidot.com wiki website. It has around 300mb storage for files, 25mb per file and ofcourse, a free wiki type website. The only problem is learning wiki language, but you can find free software which work like Nvu does to HTML - you type rich text and it codes it to wiki script. It also has an in-built forum for your students to discuss lessons.

I'm sure you can find somebody willing to theme the site for you. We have many noble minded in-house theming experts here.

Anyway, you can add a few of us to the wiki and we keep helping you with course content, like adding articles, editing language, etc.

Include computer-lifestyle related topics like:

1. BB Code ===> start with this. its easy.

2. Wiki Scripting - language - optional since its too advanced.

3. GMail, Yahoo! Mail, Windows Mail - usage

4. Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome, Apple Safari - usage

5. Mozilla Thunderbird, Windows Offline Mail software (dont know its name) - usage, configuration

6. VLC Media Player, MPlayer, Xine, Windows Media Player, Quick Time Player, K-Lite Codec Pack, Real Player - usage.

7. vBulletin, phpBB, MyBB, FluxBB/PunBB, SMF - usage not admin

8. Wordpress, Blogger, Wikidot - creating account and using

9. Joomla, Drupal, etc - CMS usage only. No administration.

10. Interfaces - Windows XP, Windows 7/aero (skip vista), Xfce4, KDE4, Gnome2, LXDE

[din]

@MHG

WOW, thats great, cool list.

Regarding wiki, I am planning it for us only, I mean TDF members can add content to it. Students will not be using it. So, shall I install tikiwiki (http://info.tikiwiki.org/tiki-index.php) in my site ? Is that ok ? Or creating wikidot.com wiki website is easy for you (I mean for TDF members who will help me) ? Please suggest.

[max_demon]

imo students must be taught this in sequence -

1.windows UI/linux ui and working with files and folders (managing )
2.Changing basic windows/linux settings (setting up wallpapers , changing time etc etc .
3.Uses of essential softwares like media player (winamp , VLC ) and scanniing with antivirus (v.imp) , Web Browser (Start With Basic ones like IE8 or Opera)

3a. (Optional ) Installing applications in windows or Installing packages from Sympatic Packege manager (something like that in ubuntu )

[ Creation Of Online Accounts and filling forms ]
4.Useing of Google and Google services (so they have single ID for almost all web services .

5.Uses of Gmail , Yahoomail .. Or Mail Client . (Webmail should be convinient )
6.Privacy and Identification Theft Lesson +Security Online (It is important ) and idea about recognizing phishing mail /scam pages . (for virus trojans see pt. 3 )

7.Social Networking and Blogging (easily set up post by email in blogspot )

8. Online Applications : Google Docs , Photoshop Express etc . This will surely bring them up - to the mark with Web 2.0 Apps

9. Obtaining information to the latest . (any info . online news , new services etc . )

IMO . Students must not be confused with many app same function . and switching from os to os may be problem . So each student should choose their personal suite like VLC +FFx+Gmail+Blogspot etc . like that .

[max_demon]

imo students must be taught this in sequence -

1.windows UI/linux ui and working with files and folders (managing )
2.Changing basic windows/linux settings (setting up wallpapers , changing time etc etc .
3.Uses of essential softwares like media player (winamp , VLC ) and scanniing with antivirus (v.imp) , Web Browser (Start With Basic ones like IE8 or Opera)

3a. (Optional ) Installing applications in windows or Installing packages from Sympatic Packege manager (something like that in ubuntu )

[ Creation Of Online Accounts and filling forms ]
4.Useing of Google and Google services (so they have single ID for almost all web services .

5.Uses of Gmail , Yahoomail .. Or Mail Client . (Webmail should be convinient )
6.Privacy and Identification Theft Lesson +Security Online (It is important ) and idea about recognizing phishing mail /scam pages . (for virus trojans see pt. 3 )

7.Social Networking and Blogging (easily set up post by email in blogspot )

8. Online Applications : Google Docs , Photoshop Express etc . This will surely bring them up - to the mark with Web 2.0 Apps

9. Obtaining information to the latest . (any info . online news , new services etc . )

IMO . Students must not be confused with many app same function . and switching from os to os may be problem . So each student should choose their personal suite like VLC +FFx+Gmail+Blogspot etc . like that .

[infra_red_dude]

I'm really elated reading this thread. I applaud your selfless initiative and the service you are doing to the community. I've been following you since a long time (no, I am not a stalker! ) and I think you've given back to your school more than any of us and continue the effort

I don't haf much suggestions as the erudite TDF members haf said it all. You can prolly teach them something about troubleshooting common/simple hardware and/or software issues. This will be helpful to them in case they mess up something while experimenting on the computers.

I also wanna tell you that as always, you are one of the persons for whom I haf a lot of respect. You surely are - Sir Din!

[Rewspase]

If they all stopped right now, there probably wouldnt be too much of an impact right away. Current student members of the forum recognize who they are, and their wisdom, and they appreciate their insight. Their previous posts are still around and will still be taken seriously, as will their

[Coool]

WoW...Gr8...

[din]

@infra_red_dude

LOL I am honored, I mean flattered I know you wrote all that thinking I will not bug you any more with lot of questions. No way I will keep bugging you. I am UB.

Anyway, nothing great about it. All you people are still studying. I am getting old and for me, its the time to give something back to the society and my school. So I am trying to do something which I can.

Back to the topic. I am going to install mediawiki in my website. And will pm the details to members interested. Together we can make a good syllabus.

I will keep you updated. Once again, thank you all for the valuable suggestions.

[thewisecrab]

Nice initiative. I hope it does well.

IMO you'll first need to clear the air about what "being good on computers" means. There is a lot of misconception about it. Some might say that just being capable of running a few progs means you are good on the PC (many of us will laugh at that) while some are really elite g33ks. Maybe you can look into that.

Also, it will be insanely grateful if you can clear the misconceptions of Linux and Apple on the grassroot level.
My friend (who considers himself a geek, beleive me, he is not. Heck even I'm not, but I'm more well informed than him) first thought the Linux is a virus and Apple only made iPods. (I dont know from where he got it)

He refused to believe that I used Ubuntu's live CD to recover his PC, and that I just fancied up an XP CD. He thought he could see the same apps installed on his Windows drive if we install Ubuntu in another partition (you know, he thought he could play CoD4, WMP, Winamp, Dead Space installed in XP on Linux, thinking Linux is an application, not OS)
These are just some misconceptions he (and I'm sure many others) has about the whole OS world. A little article on that, or a lecture on what is an OS will go down a long way in bringing about a very well informed bunch of students.

Just my 2 paisa. I hope you got the idea.

[din]

@thewisecrab

Thank you. Yes the point you mentioned is surely a valid one.

I installed the wiki - Finally ! I am also new to wiki language, but as MHG mentioned, it is easy to learn.

I sent private message to people who were interested. As I mentioned before, it need not be any specific time per day or per week. Even a one time post or a single page matters. So please let me know if anybody interested to add some points (if you are busy no need to write it in detail, just listing the main points will do) and I will make admin accounts for them in the wiki.

Once again, thanks a lot.

[hullap]

nice initiative din uncle
just my 2 cents, you should teach them about word processing and presentation using softwares such as MsOffice and Open Office. teach them about cross compatibility and extensions. and if possible, about online solutions too, like google docs and zoho.
maybe after they understand the basics, you should teach them markup languages like html and css(following the standards, not like cbse which teach only stuff that works on ie).
im interested in the wiki thing

[MetalheadGautham]

Hmm... found it. Wikia.com offers free wiki hosting which is better than from wikidot.com. Din, remember the pm ? Now hunt for a name for this project.

[din]

I agree with you, I mean if we put the wiki on a public domain, more people will be interested and the syllabus we prepare may benefit a much wider audience.

But I hate the ads and restrictions these free wiki sites put

Whatabout this - I can register a .info domain with a name not related to the school or anything. Then we can install any good script there and continue there.

Good idea ? Want to keep it neat and simple.

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by din

Whatabout this - I can register a .info domain with a name not related to the school or anything. Then we can install any good script there and continue there.

Good idea ? Want to keep it neat and simple.

I think this really is a good idea.