[Fsf Education] [Fwd: Choice of s/w for schools (was Re: [FSF-WG] Presentation on Free Software.)]

[Arun M]

-----Forwarded Message-----

From: Mahesh T Pai <paivakil@vsnl.net>
To: fsf-wg@mm.gnu.org.in
Subject: Choice of s/w for schools (was Re: [FSF-WG] Presentation on Free Software.)
Date: 05 Nov 2002 19:03:30 +0530

/** msg seems not to have been posted on the list - so I am resending 
it **/

Arun wrote:-

  > ... Chapters needs to be made on following.

  > 3. Intro to programing (Python ?)

Arun, I suppose that you are writing on the syllabus for 8th. I did go
through the fsf edu archives linked by you.

Speaking from my own experience - the first things we were taught
at a 16 week PC usage course on a 8088 using two 5.25 in floppies were:-

1. file naming conventions
2. setting and customising environment - (time, date) path, creating
files, directories, etc. (editing .rc files??)
3. writing simple batch files.

These are only useful things I use from that course; (excepting the
three finger salute) and I  often find 's/w experts' needing advice on
simple things like customising environment.  I think that these are
more important than teaching any programming language.  Would shell
scripting count as programming since as I understand in shell scripts
require algorithms, flow charts, if-then statements, etc.

Would it not be better to consider this scheme as the first chapter,
to kids touching the computer for the first time?

Please treat this as closed if the choice is already finalised.

Regards,
Mahesh T Pai.