din
Tribal Boy
[Update - Sep 24 2009]
Went to School yesterday, small presentation plus intro session. Was nice and students are really interested. Will be starting the regular class from next week - hopefully. More details on Page 6
[/Update]
I was thinking about this for a long time. Now I think its time to share it with you and ask your help and suggestions.
Some of you might be knowing, I completed my 10th grade in a village school (10th grade in 1992). A remote place near Kerala and Karnataka border. We have an old house there. I go there once in three months or so and stay there for two months. I visit my school whenever I go there.
When I was there (17 yrs back), it was like no power, no phone lines, no public water supply, not enough buses or other public transport facilities. But now things has changed a lot. IT has became a subject in high schools, they have broadband at school, mobile phone coverage and all.
Coming to the matter lol
After my visits (two times last year and two times this year) to my old school and talking to the students and teachers, I think it is time to give them some kind of training in IT. The students as well as teachers are new to IT, internet and all these new technologies. They learn a lot from the books, but not much in the practical side. For example, they do not know what spam email is. They do not know we can book train tickets online (broadband is there and banks are there which provide online banking !), they do not know what a forum is. At the same time, many know whats Orkut, Youtube and google map, but do not know the ethical use of those. Those were just examples, what I meant is, they do not know the basics and do not know how to use these technologies and new facilities carefully.
I listed some points which are very basic, nothing complicated, and at the same time useful for them if not today in the near future itself. For example, using an email client, using an online storage site (example : skydrive), using google docs, online banking basics, cash transfer, bill payments, unicode fonts and its use (creating a website in regional language), twitter and things like that. Programming, databases or script modifications are not planned for this phase, but if they are doing very well and interested, it can be added as phase 2. Not going to repeat things thats in their text books, as it will be quite boring for them.
As you know, the Govt in Kerala gives more importance to opnesource, which is good. But my plan is triple main lol. I mean let them learn the win way, lin way and mac way. If they are learning how to use an email client, let them learn Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express and Apple mail. So that it will be future proof.
Now I know it can't be done as a -one man show. To make it good, I need your help and suggestions. What we can teach them (as I mentioned, the basics only), what points we should give more stress etc.
What my plan is to setup a wiki somewhere and give access to people interested to spend some time (not too much time, just 1 hr or so per week) to add the points to make it a good syllabus. I am planning to start the training (or whatever it is called lol) in September. So three months time is there.
And finally, there is no personal or business interest behind this. I am not going to charge anything for the training. It will be 1 hr every day or every alternate days.
People who think its not that bad and willing to help in this matter, please post your suggestions and comments here. Please pm me if you have time to write the points in the wiki and I will get back to you after setting up it.
Thanks a lot - in advance
[EDIT - Added on June 24th]
The wiki is up and running, we have 9 people as members there, yet to start on all categories though.
Please have a look - *www.itjalakam.info/Main_Page
If any other members interested, please create a username there and please let me know and I will upgrade the status to admin.
[/EDIT]
Went to School yesterday, small presentation plus intro session. Was nice and students are really interested. Will be starting the regular class from next week - hopefully. More details on Page 6
[/Update]
I was thinking about this for a long time. Now I think its time to share it with you and ask your help and suggestions.
Some of you might be knowing, I completed my 10th grade in a village school (10th grade in 1992). A remote place near Kerala and Karnataka border. We have an old house there. I go there once in three months or so and stay there for two months. I visit my school whenever I go there.
When I was there (17 yrs back), it was like no power, no phone lines, no public water supply, not enough buses or other public transport facilities. But now things has changed a lot. IT has became a subject in high schools, they have broadband at school, mobile phone coverage and all.
Coming to the matter lol
After my visits (two times last year and two times this year) to my old school and talking to the students and teachers, I think it is time to give them some kind of training in IT. The students as well as teachers are new to IT, internet and all these new technologies. They learn a lot from the books, but not much in the practical side. For example, they do not know what spam email is. They do not know we can book train tickets online (broadband is there and banks are there which provide online banking !), they do not know what a forum is. At the same time, many know whats Orkut, Youtube and google map, but do not know the ethical use of those. Those were just examples, what I meant is, they do not know the basics and do not know how to use these technologies and new facilities carefully.
I listed some points which are very basic, nothing complicated, and at the same time useful for them if not today in the near future itself. For example, using an email client, using an online storage site (example : skydrive), using google docs, online banking basics, cash transfer, bill payments, unicode fonts and its use (creating a website in regional language), twitter and things like that. Programming, databases or script modifications are not planned for this phase, but if they are doing very well and interested, it can be added as phase 2. Not going to repeat things thats in their text books, as it will be quite boring for them.
As you know, the Govt in Kerala gives more importance to opnesource, which is good. But my plan is triple main lol. I mean let them learn the win way, lin way and mac way. If they are learning how to use an email client, let them learn Thunderbird, Outlook, Outlook Express and Apple mail. So that it will be future proof.
Now I know it can't be done as a -one man show. To make it good, I need your help and suggestions. What we can teach them (as I mentioned, the basics only), what points we should give more stress etc.
What my plan is to setup a wiki somewhere and give access to people interested to spend some time (not too much time, just 1 hr or so per week) to add the points to make it a good syllabus. I am planning to start the training (or whatever it is called lol) in September. So three months time is there.
And finally, there is no personal or business interest behind this. I am not going to charge anything for the training. It will be 1 hr every day or every alternate days.
People who think its not that bad and willing to help in this matter, please post your suggestions and comments here. Please pm me if you have time to write the points in the wiki and I will get back to you after setting up it.
Thanks a lot - in advance
[EDIT - Added on June 24th]
The wiki is up and running, we have 9 people as members there, yet to start on all categories though.
Please have a look - *www.itjalakam.info/Main_Page
If any other members interested, please create a username there and please let me know and I will upgrade the status to admin.
[/EDIT]
Last edited:
