[K12OSN] Advocacy in Curriculum

[Shane Sammons]

I am probably one of the younger ones in the list, I am 25. I personally
agree with Todd. You can teach at any age they can type comfortably.
However, like he said best to have a reward/purpose they can see. I myself
am a very hands on visual learner. For me this field and profession is only
fun because I can "see" my results. I despise using the command line because
it does not suit my personality/style but I use it regardless because of the
power it holds. If all I had was the command line or script interface I
would likely go nuts.

It took me years of coding in HTML, Perl, PHP, Visual Basic, etc. to just
get past the code and realize the goal I was trying to achieve. It was only
once I got to see a website, GUI interface or results in the GUI I felt
excited. I know this is common, but I have met people who get a thrill
writing perl scripts and such that simply swap Apache installations or
something totally unseen from visual perspective only known if you
investigate the system. I think most kids are like me with attention spans,
they need to see fruit of their labor.

Then you pick your top kids make a club, and have them dive in deeper and
become the next series of IT people to come into the world :D.

On 12/20/06, Todd O'Bryan <toddobryan at mac.com> wrote:
>
> I'm getting a thin terminal lab after break and am interested in
> developing a curriculum that would exist in parallel with the
> programming classes I teach so that students learn a little bit more
> about Linux each year in my class. Ideally, by the third year, they'd
> be able to take and pass the Linux+ exam that CompTIA offers (because
> our state vocational ed department is just gaga over industry
> certifications).
>
> I'll let you know what I come with, assuming I actually manage to
> come up with anything, but would be very interested to see anything
> other people have developed.
>
> Todd
>
> P.S. I think you can teach command line stuff as soon as they can
> type fast enough that it's not frustrating. The key, though, is
> motivation. They're not going to want to use the command line to do
> something they can do easier with the GUI. Finding tasks that are
> easier with a few typed commands would be key to making it
> interesting for students.
>
> On Dec 20, 2006, at 1:03 AM, Robert Arkiletian wrote:
>
> > On 12/19/06, Kari Matthews <karisue at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Wow.
> >>
> >> At what age/grade should we start them on command line, in your
> >> (anyone's)
> >> opinion?
> >
> > My intro Python/Linux course is offered to students starting in
> > grade 10 and up.
> >
>
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