[FSUG-Bangalore] Report on ICT at Schools training

[Suhas Vishwanath]

HI all,

I volunteered for the ICT at KaranatakaSchools program's high school
teachers training program for two days that is 23rd , 24th  and 25th
of July 2009. It was a very different experience for me to help the
teachers to get used to GNU/Linux and do the hand holding job

There were around 21 participants from different schools in and around Bangalore

The following people volunteered for the training program on day 1 as
facilitators / trainers / volunteers

Oam Shiv Prakash ( sampada ),
Harish Singh ( fsug-bangalore ) ,
Renuka Prasad ( fsug-bangalore ) ,
Anivar ( moving republic )
Ravi Jaya ( ilug, chennai) ,

Around 8.30 am Anivar, Renuka Prasad and Ravi Jaya had come to the
venue and started to install customized edition of debian edu  on the
existing systems , I helped a bit in installing.

Around 9.45 there was a small meeting for the volunteers /trainers
/facilitators , Mr Vinay from itfc gave an introduction about the
program and following were present at that time including those
mentioned above

Anupama (itfc), Shantharam Nayak , Raghavan, Sreenivas, Sharath,
Dharani - lecturers from different engineering colleges ) and Arjuna ,
Sudhanva, Harshith, Indumathi, were also present

By 11 the session started with Oam Shiv Prakash giving an introduction
to fundamentals of computers and a glimpse into the free software
philosophy . Then there was a tea break , soon after which the more
practical utility of free software Philosophy was introduced to the
participants with the help of Stephen Fry's video which had kannada
done by Oam Shiv Prakash.

Meanwhile few more people joined the training team and i am unable to
recall those names. Soon after that there  was an introduction to the
mouse and keyboard events , we used GCompris Educational suite to make
the participants comfortable with mouse and keyboard and enjoy as well
, then there was an introduction to TuxPaint

A post lunch session on file management which included creating
document using gedit followed, after which there was a tea break.

At the end of the day 1, participants were given exercises on Tux
Paint and gedit

Day 2 started at around 10.50 am with an introduction to open office
by Sudha. Today, there were new volunteers/trainers  -- Sharvani,
Sudha, Raghavendra Prasad, Sharath Shashidhar, Adithya ( all from R.V.
College of engineering)

Sudha and Renuka Prasad gave an introduction to open office , the the
session went on till the lunch

Then Harish Singh gave a small introduction to the Openoffice Impress
followed by a tea break. Then there was an introduction to Openoffice
Calc by Anupama ( itfc ) and the hands-on training sessions were
closed.

Next, Renuka Prasad played the "big buck bunny" animated video (
created free softwares ... blender,gimp,python and others  ) and
another video about trusted computing , participants enjoyed the movie
and at the same time they were told about the importance of using free
softwares in schools

Finally Renuka Prasad gave a small introduction to Inkscape, Gimp and
Scribus ( just a demonstration  to make the  participants aware of
Free Softwares that are available for DTP ) for about 10 -15 mins
after which everyone dispersed.

It has been an interesting expericene for me so far.

As it is a weekend tomorow I request the list members to join for the
final day session when an introduction to the internet will be given
followed by creation of email id's and making then comfortable with
communicating using email's . We plan to enlist them in various
mailing lists ( karnatakaschools  at osscomm). There is also a plan to
introduce some of the advanced topics on openoffice writer, impress,
followed  finally by a session on wikipedia

I hope more will join us on the last day of training program.


-- 
Regards,
Suhas