Hello Linux folks, As promised, further details on Tuesday's Linux workshop.
Where: Franklin County Technical School, same lab as the summer training
When: Tuesday, 10/24 from 4 to 6 PM
Who's teaching it: Rich Roth of the Western Massachusetts Linux Users Group
(and other ventures)
What you should know: The focus of this class will be a review of the
summer training, or "So You've Installed Linux, Now What?" The intention is
to take everything you've been shown so far and get a clear conceptual
understanding of how it all fits together, as well as to fill in the gaps
that may still exist for you.
To that end, and to help Rich better understand the background of the participants, please take a moment to do TWO things in the next day or two:
1. What key Linux questions still exist from you that you would like to see covered in this next class or subsequent classes? What still stumps you? (E.g., David from Mohawk would still like to see a Mac connected to a Linux box.)
2. How would you rate your level of expertise/experience with Linux? Please provide SPECIFICS, e.g., "I'm an Apache pro," or "The three-day summer workshop was my first exposure to Linux and I'm still feeling like a newbie."
Please e-mail your responses to these items to gcclinux@on-the-net.com.
Other things to think about:
The tentative schedule for the rest of these trainings and for the duration of the project looks like this:
November 28: File server
January 23: Mail server
February 27: Web server
March 27: Security
April 24 & May 22: Advanced topics
Early June: Linux "fair"
Remember that the "deliverables" we're supposed to produce at the end of this grant are a) a curriculum unit and b) an operations manual documenting the process of configuring and installing Linux for the K-12 environment. We may re-evaluate these goals and possibly combine the two projects based upon what seems most realistic given our timeframe and the subject matter. However, because process documentation is crucial--not just for the deliverables, but for your own understanding as well--we are asking that individual school "teams" take responsibility for one of the five workshop topics described above, focusing on that component of the curriculum/manual for their individual school project. What this entails:
Meeting regularly at your school to prepare your piece of the curriculum/manual
Being the PRIMARY notetakers and documenters at the workshop that focuses on your topic
Preparing a presentation on your topic for a poster session at the June Linux fair
and possibly: Meeting with a member of the Linux Users Groups who is particularly skilled in your area for additional training/consultation with your school team
Eventually, each school team will post their progress/project on a web site that links to the Linux Project site (soon to be up and running at http://www.tep.k14.mass.edu).
Mohawk has already volunteered to take on file server and Amherst is taking on web server. That leaves mail server, security and advanced topics for the other schools to choose from. "Advanced topics" will be topics that come out the next few sessions--some of our expert teams may want to think about taking this part of the project. Please come to next Tuesday's class with an idea of which topic your school would like to focus on.
I know this is a lot to digest. We'll spend some time at Tuesday's workshop going over general expectations of participants and the organization of future sessions. Until then, PLEASE e-mail your responses to those key questions above (what still stumps you and how well do you know Linux) to Rich so he can be well-prepared for the class.
Let me know if you have any questions--and, again, the Linux mailing list is in the process of being updated, so check with your students to make sure they have all of this information!
Erica Goleman Regional Technology Partnership Coordinator Greenfield Community College One College Drive Greenfield, MA 01301 Tel: 413.775.1491 E-mail: goleman@gcc.mass.edu