Will teach computer stuff to kids in poor area

[ndefontenay]

Hi guys,

I live in Mauritius (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mauritius&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=38.554089,107.138672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mauritius&z=7) and this morning I went to a volunteer group called Caritas which tries to teach agriculture, reading and a few over things to people in a neighbourhood.

I just happened to be there and they have 10 computers, given by a company, there's windows XP on it but nothing else, some of the computers just got stuck at the welcome message. They asked me if I could teach.

So here I am.

I offered to the people leading the project to use ubuntu instead (or edubuntu) for all the good reasons we know.

I'm pretty excited to teach ubuntu to them.

I don't have much experience in teaching. They asked me how I should organise the group. I gave it a little bit of thought and came up with a young group aged below 10 who will use the computer pretty freely, playing Gcompris stuff.

The over group is a very large group aged 11 and above including adults who will learn stuffs like open office, toy around with gimp, use the Internet and so on.

I've also asked them to find someone willing to learn, about ubuntu, installation. Somebody willing and a bit more serious, who will be able to take other in a year when I leave. (Staying only a year in Mauritius)

I need some help with the organisation above. Is splitting the group like that ok considering I have only 2 hours per week?

Is any of you used to teaching this kind of classes? Anybody has some sort of program or calendar I could use?

Any idea or extra thoughts would be welcome.

Nico

[Sporkman]

No experience in this sort of thing, but I'd suggest teaching students how to search for things on the internet & sort through the results. Since agriculture is the vocation they are focusing on, it would be good if the students could search for tutorials, commodity prices, suppliers, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

[SeijiSensei]

I suggest you read up on the "One Laptop per Child (http://laptop.org/)" project and its Linux-based operating system XO with the "Sugar" interface. I don't know about how well XO is supported by Ubuntu, but it's well-supported on Fedora (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/OLPC).

Even if you don't use any of the project's software, some of the articles on the OLPC site might be relevant to your teaching needs.

[chessnerd]

You should teach them practical things, like how to:

- Use search engines to find information
- Properly format common document types, like letters, resumes, and essays
- Type
- Keep their computer files organized

These skills will help them no matter where they end up.

My only teaching-like experience comes from when I headed a computer science study group, but that was focused on teaching college students Java programming. The skill sets are similar, but very different.

[Sean Moran]

Hi guys,

Any idea or extra thoughts would be welcome.

Nico
Fisrt of all, give them Galaga.

Then introduce them to mahjongg solitaire...

... then when you have them interested, move onto the boring stuff that kids don't find all that entertaining, and then get back to the Galaga every ten minutes or so.

Children's parents are not interested in anything that their children do not have fun.


---o0o---

Fun enough to go home and talk about it all that fun they had over dinner at night to their parents. That is the foundation of third-world education.

How many kids raced home to call out "Oh Mummy, Mummy! Today I learned all about the quadratic equation!"

No, they will but the memory part of it comes back to good fun and friendy competiton so that the kids can remember what they did that day in a good academic sense over dinner that night. That is where the money for tuition stems from.

[NightwishFan]

Perhaps a lesson, and then let them play frozen bubble, supertux, or supertux cart if the machines handle 3d. I agree with the above. If you go see them more than once they will be interested. :)

[ndefontenay]

All very sound advices :)

Thanks a lot for the response. I'll get a bunch of games installed and I will stick practical learning in the middle of it.

For the older group, I had in mind that sort of thing indeed.

A little correction: If the association teaches agriculture it's not its vocation to be totally centred towards agriculture however.

I knew about the one laptop per child project and I'm definitely looking into it.

Thanks a lot for all the help.