[Wftl-lug] Open Source in My Classroom

[Marc Lijour]

Great job Patrick!

And thank you for the tips.

Marc

> Hi Everyone,
>
> It's been awhile since I have written anything of substance her.  I have
> started a new adventure.  I am teaching cs201 and cs202 at a small
> Christian
> College in Mount Prospect Illinois.  Today was the first day of class.
> This
> place is my alma mater and one of my fellow students works there now.  He
> helped me pimp out my class.  I wrote up a little blurb and in it I not
> only
> explained my philosophy and goals but I also included a list of the free
> software they will be receiving since I feel it is important for the
> students to have the proper tools to succeed in college and apply what
> they
> are learning.
>
> The textbook for this semesters class will be Marcel Gagne's Moving to
> Free
> Software.  My justification for this was the college wanted this semester
> to
> have a strong focus on power use of MS Office.  I told them that removing
> the experienced user from his comfort zone would level the playing field
> and
> using an alternative like OOo will teach them the PRINCIPLES of word
> processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software without being
> dependant
> on a version of software that can change.  They approved of the approach.
> Almost all the free software they are receiving is coming from Marcel's
> book
> along with some other things that are more geared to the Christian/Church
> application since most of these students are theology, ministerial
> students.
>
> Today we just sat and talked about licensing, ownership, ethical use of
> software, the importance of security, and I learned about where the
> students
> sit.  I currently have the most popular elective in the school.  I had 2
> non
> registered students sit in and they signed up on the spot.  Some of them
> are
> also talking to their fellow students now that they sat in and learned
> what
> this class will entail.  They are excited about this new adventure and
> there
> will be a lot of FOSS and licensing education included in the class.
>
> The school is also having a lot of server and networking issues.  Their
> tech
> support is currently the librarian and he is outside his element.  I am
> looking at all the specs and software on the server....I can switch this
> bad
> boy to a Linux server and set er up my way and teach the librarian what he
> needs to do his thing.  I was also invited by the students to hang out in
> the dorms and improve things there network wise.
>
> This is gonna be a great adventure.  Today was day one and it was a
> success.
>
> Cheers
>
> Patrick
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