[ale] teaching opportunity

[Emil P. Man]

George Carless wrote:

>On Tue, Oct 19, 2004 at 08:30:14AM -0400, Armsby John-G16665 wrote:
>  
>
>>I believe we have effectively run off the teacher lady...... I say we give the job
>>to the senior in high school.
>>    
>>
>
>Unfortunately, while I understand the rationale behind the responses that she was 
>given, I think that this list came across as rather arrogant and overbearing.  
>Result: another person put off running Linux, and upset by the Linux community.  
>  
>
I think that what we were all trying to figure out here, is how this 
class can really be taught efficiently in two days considering the 
ammount of information that needs to be covered here. Originally when it 
was just LAMP and it was Linux as the background OS, it was feasible. 
However, with a background OS such as Windows it became a little more 
complicated. Now, whenever she posted the whole list of things that 
needed to be taught in two days time, any rational one of us saw that it 
was absolutely impossible. As Geoffrey mentioned, for it to be secure, 
it is really impossible. Now here is another thing I would like to throw 
out there: Consider that these people have "heard" of what linux is. 
They don't know how to log on to the machine though. To teach them the 
list that she mentioned in two days would really have been impossible. 
Now, lets say that I considered teaching this class: There is no way 
that I could have taught these things in two days, (questions from the 
class, etc). and I would be held liable for students' complaints about 
them not gettting what they paid for. Openning up a whole new set of 
responsabilities and liabilities.

>There might well be good reasons for running the course on a Windows platform - say, 
>because the training centre wasn't currently geared up for running Linux, or because 
>some element of what they have in place for training currently requires Linux 
>software.  Either way, it can be useful to move people towards free software - PHP, 
>MySQL, etc. - on a gradual basis, and it's not necessarily essential or even 
>advisable to introduce people to these things on a platform that is alien to them.  
>  
>
Absolutely so, one thing I would like to do here at the University is 
move people from MS Office to Open Office. Because introducing them to 
the idea of open source provides more advocates for our comunity and 
therefore Linux. However seeing the whole list of requirements for 
teaching this class, I would say that windows would definatelly be a 
wrong choice for this class. Besides, how much do you really need? A 
projector that can be hooked up to a vga port.... I could bring in the 
computer, lol....

>And I would suggest that the individual was likely looking for an instructor to set 
>at least part of the curriculum, so while the description of the course may have been 
>ambitious and perhaps inaccurate, this was hardly a reason for an all-out offensive.
>
>  
>
I truly believe that the people in the list were succesful in finding a 
class that would have truly been a ripoff for the people taking it. Why 
would I try to teach such a class? True that we should not have 
discussed everything on the list. Absolutely. However, this list is 
OURS! heheeheh

>In short, I think that some of you have simply succeeded in coming across as rather 
>immature elitists who would prefer an argument to a constructive effort to actually 
>move people over to using free software.  
>
Yep, its our list, our list, our list... hehehehee.....

>Ms. Bell repeatedly indicated that further 
>discussion could take place off-list with any interested parties, and I honestly 
>cannot blame her if she didn't want to get embroiled in a flamewar on some frankly 
>rather pedantic points.
>
>  
>
Our mistake. And its true, that we should not have argued with her over 
the list, however look at above comments.


Just my opinion,

Emil