Introducing UM to grade schoolers advice?

Support & Help Requests
#1

Hi: I am looking for advice introducing grade schoolers to Linux.

An opportunity to teach an enrichment program for my kids school was presented to me and thought I would share my enthusiasm for UM and advocate a little. I remember growing up with apple 2s and remember how it shaped me. Kids today are presented with Samsung Chromebooks and I fear data mined before they even understand the concept of informed choice.

Poking around the Internet I found a few sites that have virtual CLI and others that provide a rudimentary explanation, but I am looking for something less dry that will grab their attention. Maybe some sort of web based simulator. Aesthetically, UM is marvelous and one could probably burn a semester just theming.

Ah, forgot to mention, school policy forbids installing anything on the Chromebooks, and, enabling developer mode to boot a usb would probably give the administrators a cardiac arrest. If not for that I would give each a thumb-drive with UM 16.04.

Any thoughts? I was also entertaining something like a virtual console or chrome remote desktop through the browser. Possibly to a LAN Frankenstein box or out to a droplet.

Any suggestions would be most welcomed or an arrow in the right direction. Thanks

#2

Hi,
Just a thought that popped into my head, schools and universities sometimes hold on to their old computers when they upgrade. If you’re school happens to have a bunch of old desktops hanging around in the basement I’m sure they wouldn’t mind them being put to use again.
On the other hand, you could try a university, which would probably sell the machines at a large discount. If you can find others willing to invest you could at least get some “demo” machines to ssh or remote desktop into.

Best of luck anyway. I love your idea! Any “Computer Classes” I had back in school alway had us sitting in front of a Windows box learning about MS office as if it was the only office suite on the market.

Regards,
Jay

#3

Thanks @Dr.J, a good thought. I might end up doing just that.
Was hoping someone had been down this path already.
Yeah, there is so much more to show than Office apps. A simple spin through the Boutique, synaptic, “sudo apt install”, and now snaps/flatpacks can deliver instant gratification. imo, learning by doing is the best bet. Way more fun than boring lectures, man pages and wikis.

Thanks for the input.

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