[Ilugc] [OT] Volunteering - ways and means
- From: sivaji2009@xxxxxxxxx (sivaji j.g)
- Date: Thu Jun 19 23:14:48 2008
/** The sad part is that many
students, who in their college days embrace FOSS, loose interest in it.
because the foobar company which recruits the students has got nothing to do
with FOSS, obviously he/she will loose interest .Most of job related thread
appearing in this mailing list are focusing on experienced guys , this
shows that you are not going opportunity to newbies so don't raise this
statement again :P
I would like quote yet another new method i followed in introducting FOSS
to
my relative who is studying 3rd year in mahendra engg college..
Initially, for the first two days i was introducing him about open source,
linux, linux commands, web server, html, php, wiki.. at the end of the
second day, i observed, that he dont understand any of those things..
Then i made him use some of the basic linux commands, like ls, cd, etc..
he
too practiced it..
This statement sound like you are forcing him to learn Linux ,surely this
will not work if he is not interested he cant learn anything .
On the third day, i downloaded xxamp stack, and demonstrated how to
install.. i patiently made him do all those things.. ALAS.. he doesnt
remember the ls and cd commands that he practiced before..
I again taught him those, and linked those commands to some practical
situations, like moving to a particular folder to start xampp server etc.
Then he learned about how to start xxampp server, .. till now, he did not
have any idea of web server.. then i demonstrated, how we can access the
webserver from browser as localhost..
dont blame him , this is situation of most of the student .they read just to
score marks in examation .our formula for mask is
mark=subheadings + diagram + presentation .
Mark has got nothing to do with concept .Even the student who scores more
90% dont remember / understand any concepts .Even the staff member who
correct our papers forcing us to use the examples/diagram given in the
prescribed book .
now he could get some idea.. but not fully..
Then on the third day i guided him to create a folder for him under
htdocs
of xampp folder, and then asked to practice some html tags..
He did all those tags, but he could not remember those tags after some
time..
This shows that he is not interested .
he was interested in surfing cricket scores..
Suddenly i got an idea.. I asked him "Do you want to desing your own IPL
site for displaying cricket score?" ..
he got interested.. and he slowly started emulating the ipl score site..
As usual, the desired layout did not appear.. but he searched through, and
started making the site..
Now, i first told how the site should appear, and left some time for him
to
think.. then i guided him how to achieve that functionality using html..
now he easily learned html, how to link multiple pages and then
navigation..
Next, i taught him PHP, on how we can simplify reduntant html pages using
server side program.. he then started implementing that.. instead of
database, i told him initialise data using arrays..
And at last, i taught him how to install some basic open source softwares
like phpbb forum, wordpress etc.
I am sure, he might not have understood much of the things
obviously , you are dumping too many things on him .how he can learn HTML ,
php , database in such a short time ? This is the reason why students treat
FOSS as a Alien :P . Dont force them to learn foss rather attract them to
your side .
new to the technological side. But the point i want to note is that
theoritical sessions wont help in any way to the students.. They can just
know the names, and only if they are interested..
Practical sessions may help a little bit, but one day session may not be
much useful..
So, what is the solution to break this deadlock.
Ask him whether he is really interested in learning foss . Install a basic
Linux distro like ubuntu ,let him use that for a month or two . Later you
can teach about Linux command , xxamp server , mailing list ,forms etc
Infuse vision among the students & staffs.. we have to demonstrate how we
can enhance our life (both work and personal) using FOSS.. and how we can
improve an existing setup using foss..
Once they get the vision, then the learning automatically happens..
Some of the points are already expressed by me in the past..
My idea is that whatever we plan, we have consider the ground situation..
Regards,
Senthil Raja
--
Thanks a lot
-----------------------------------------
http://ubuntuslave.blogspot.com/
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