As of June 30, 2006 we are running a 3 hour Linux Education Session at the Upper Riccarton Library in Christchurch for GAT students and teachers from Riccarton High School and Oxford Area School. 

The aim of our weekly session is to teach the student about Linux, what it can do, how it does it and how to do it.

The training will be hands on with student participation.

In week one we will identify what students already know and design a program based on their needs.

Getting Linux
Students will learn where to obtain Linux on the Internet.  There are many different version of linux.  We will focus on two or three of the main choices.

Installing Linux
In addition to learning how to install linux on a machine dedicated to Linux, students will learn how to use a program called QEMU which allows them to install Linux on a windows machine without modification of the existing windows system.

Linux as a server operating system
Students will learn how to set up a file server, mail server, web server, VPN tunnel server, ssh server and other key server systems such as DNS, DHCP.

Linux as a desktop operating system
Students will leanr now to set up a machine as a desktop system.  They will learn about the different window manager options such as KDE and Gnome.  How to network their machines and about typical Open Source GNU applications.  They will also learn how to install business and home applications from the Internet.

Linux as a wireless platform.
Students will learn how to set up linux to act as a wireless access point to share Internet access in a home or work place.  They will learn to use the the wireless tools that linux has to offer.

Linux as a development platform.
Students will learn about a range of development tools for linux to write programs for the desktop and Internet deployment. 

Linux resources
Students will learn what Linux resources are available and how to tap in to the wealth of community resource including local resource such as the library and local on line user group support.
 

It is my intention that while prototyping this program we will develop a formal structure so we can then test learning out comes and present students with some merit for their efforts.

Forums detailing our weekly activity can be found here...