New Users linux.ie was: Re: [ILUG] Basic Intro to Linux...

[Gareth Eason]

Frank Murphy (Frankly3D) wrote:
> On 16/04/09 09:05, Ken Guest wrote:
> 
>>
>> Plus if anybody wants to take over ownership of that section, please let
>> me know :)
> 
> I might try put together something during the summer hols. if ok.
> GUI based.
[snip]

	Hi,

	I would consider specialising each class with a new thing, unrelated to Linux
(per se.) People use computers to achieve things, to get things done. They do
not typically use computers just for the joy of using them (any more - apart
from perhaps some segments of society :)  )

	How about an evening of Word processing (using Linux and OpenOffice?)

	Follow that by taking a couple of pictures of the class with your digital
camera and editing them with the GIMP (on Linux), and possibly making a photo
album or two (using Picassa, on Linux, or gthumb, or whatever?)

	Spend an evening showing them how to do their home accounts, on a
spreadsheet, on OpenOffice on Linux.

	Are you or is someone you know any good at singing? Or reciting poetry? Or
playing an instrument? How about you record them, so a bit of overdubbing /
multi-track recording and edit it to make a complete song? Use Audacity, on Linux.

	Then you can get on to the many other things - sending e-mails, browsing the
web, printing, sharing files, etc., etc. These, and configuring a Linux
installation might be some of the last things you do - HOWEVER, an excellent
demo might be to install Ubuntu on a laptop or similar during the first class,
in the background, just to show how easy it is. That should give them enough
grounding that they won't be scared to do it themselves at home - though it's
worth mentioning NOT to use the autopartitioning thing if they like their
Windows data.

	Thoughts?

	Best regards,
	-->Gar