A few things worth considering in this thread ...
1. Support and Training are the cash cow for the
linux business model
2. We have a forum for informal training via an
invitation from SLUG to give "presentations". All you
need to do is develop something and schedule a time to
give the presentation
3. I have seen several really good ideas presented on
the list that fall short of their potential because
not everyone can agree on "what should be done" or
"how it should be done". This is to be expected in an
open community like this, but we do need a process to
be able to work past this. Here's my two cent
suggestion:
Anyone out there wanting to take the lead and develop
a presentation ie course please do so. Go to
Sourcforge or something like it and develop it,
recruit people to work on it, and then present it to
SLUG in an appropriate form. SLUG needs to have a
process setup where projects like these can be
associated with the group ... ie Branding. Everything
else that I've read of in this thread can sprout up
from there.
As for what I would want in a Linux class or
Presentation: I would like to see more presentation
given that address the firstly the basic home use of
Linux, "how to set it up" "how to config it" "how to
get printers working" "how to share a connection"
...etc. One of the major problems I've seen is that
once the presentation is given, the group seems not to
want to do repeats. In an educational setting
attendence, and signup lists are use to determine when
to give another presentation. So SLUG needs to have
... someone in charge of presentation, someone in
charge of scheduling, and someone in charge of
managing the whole process .. ie forming the
associations with course projects refered to in the
above paragraph. I am eager to be a part of this and
will volunteer to give the presentation ... my wife is
a teacher, she can help me draw up content and lesson
plans... the question is "what topic"? Any
suggestions?
--- Paul M Foster <paulf@quillandmouse.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 28, 2003 at 05:45:11PM -0500, Levi Bard
> wrote:
>
> > > Now here's an idea,,, why doesn't SLUG sponsor
> training and use the
> > > money to advertise Linux?
> > >
> > > We have plenty of experts on this list.
> >
> > Then we have to reconsider opening this can of
> worms: what qualifications
> > does someone have to have to be an expert, how do
> we verify those
> > qualifications, and how do we do this without
> hurting anybody's feelings?
> > Additionally, there's the issue of accreditation.
> When a prospective
> > employer reads, "Completed Suncoast LUG Linux
> training" on a resume,
> > is s/he going to care?
>
> Naturally, SLUG training would be of no "official"
> use to any employer.
> However, you could design a training program that
> would get a person
> through LPI exams, which are dirt cheap as these
> things go.
>
> A weekly study group has been suggested. But
> geographically, I don't
> think this is feasible. It's also worth considering
> that where you have
> a group of people moving at the same pace through a
> study group, some
> will be absolutely bored to tears, and others will
> struggle to grasp the
> simplest concepts. Some will consider certain
> information completely
> irrelevent to their needs ("I have one machine. Do I
> really need to know
> Samba?"). And you still need a coordinated plan for
> _what_ to study, and
> people there with sufficient expertise to teach it.
>
> At one point, the original SLUG president, Henry
> White, was running a
> Linux course online. I believe it was primarily
> based on the "Running
> Linux" book (not, in my opinion, a great book for a
> newbie). Something
> like this could be done, but perhaps better. I would
> envision a set of
> chapters online, written by members of the group.
> Learners could ask
> questions on the list, or another list could be set
> up just for this.
> Frequently asked questions could cause us to alter
> the text to
> accommodate them. Testing probably wouldn't be
> necessary. You can
> probably get a sneak peek at sample LPI tests.
>
> With this scheme, here are some things to consider:
>
> 1) An outline must be written to determine _what_
> will be taught. The
> outline has to take into account what kind of
> product you want at the
> end-- do you want a power user, system
> administrator, what? You're
> probably looking at a "stratified" series of
> courses, really. If I'm
> trying to train someone to run a small home network,
> they probably don't
> need to know all there is about RAID and LVNs. Samba
> and NFS would be
> important, though. It also has to take into account
> what you're testing
> toward. If it's the LPI test, then you'd better know
> what's on it. Those
> who have taken the test could help to some extent.
> Sneak peeks at sample
> LPI tests could help as well. You would also need to
> consider what your
> minimum requirements for taking the course would be.
> Do you want to be
> training someone who has to have the functions of a
> mouse explained to
> them?
>
> 2) Someone(s) would have to volunteer to write
> "chapters". The advantage
> here is that the work is spread among (hopefully)
> many people, instead
> of just one or a few. Though I'm inclined to think
> this would eventually
> all end up on the shoulders of a few. It usually
> does.
>
> 3) Someone would have to edit the material and
> format it for the web. I
> can do this, as I do web work and I essentially do
> the editing for my
> company. But "editorial control" is more than you
> might think. It also
> involves telling authors that their prose is poor,
> their thinking is
> muddled, or that they're trying to explain cooking
> eggs in terms of
> calculus. It also means calling on people to come up
> with illustrations,
> many of which are likely to be needed.
>
> 4) Timing is important. All the content has to be
> read at once, or you
> _have_ to have new material ready each week.
> Students eager to learn
> will not tolerate slack response time from those
> writing the text.
>
> 5) Meeting leaders could go over thorny issues at
> meetings, but should
> be aware that if more than one person has the same
> question, it's
> probably something where the text needs to be
> updated to reflect
> common questions.
>
> This approach has a drawback that some people
> require live communication
> to learn things; reading text simply won't do for
> them. My experience in
> college was that if you couldn't learn from reading,
> you were in
> trouble; profs and TAs mostly didn't care that much
> about your struggles
> with the material. The closest we could get to live
> communication in
> this scheme would be questions about the material on
> the list.
>
> Anyway, those are just some thoughts. This is quite
> an undertaking, if
> you stop and consider what's really involved. I've
> just scratched the
> surface. But it would be great to have such an
> online course.
>
> Paul
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 13:54:10 EDT