[CCC-FSFTN] SUB:Theni-CCC,Distro and Syllabus: Reg

[Venkatesh Thennarasan]

*Hi, Ive created a new thread , I want your replies and views,ASAP.*

*Communnity Computing Center-Theni*

*Background:*

*https://discuss.fsftn.org/t/tamil-educational-software-packages-for-children/650*
<https://discuss.fsftn.org/t/tamil-educational-software-packages-for-children/650>

Based on this request, Prasanth and Venkatesh went to Theni district to
study the requirements, infrastructure and feasibility of the project.

*Site report*

We visited two schools in the area. One of the schools was in Rayappanpatti
village and the other was in Gokilapuram village.

*Rayappanpatti Village*

The schoool in Rayappanpatti is a government aided private Board High
school (with 3500 students from 6th to 12th). Most of the students are from
very poor backgrounds. They have a lab with around 25 computers all of
which run Windows XP.

We had a discusson with the computer teachers of the school. From class VI,
students are allowed to come to the computer lab. However, in the absence
of any syllabus, they are mainly taught Paint and the MS Office suite. The
teachers said they gave up on ide of teaching C language to 9th graders,
since Turbo C couldn't be installed

We also had a discusson with the correspondent. He gave us a free hand to
do anything we like with respect to computer education till class VIII. He
was also keen on introducing the education of other subjects through
digital methods (like IT at school in Kerala) as and when we could implement.

*Gokilapuram Village*

Gokilapuram has a small school run by the Harijan Seva Sangh. There are 55
students stuudying there from classes I-VIII. They don't have a computer
there. The trust who took us to these villages is planning to buy them a
couple of desktops. Since they also don't have a syllabus, they are open to
any ideas we give them.

Medium of education in both these schools is Tamil.

*What we can do*

The idea of this Initiative is to introduce Free and Open source software
to school childern through their curriculum, and to do so at a stage when
they are first exposed to computers.

This can first be through defining a computer science syllabus for them.
Later, after students get used to it, we can look at the idea of bringing
in educational packages for all subjects.

Initially, it would be wise to take up just class VI and define a syllabus
and give them the tools for that and as that batch progresses, we can give
them more options in the future years. This also helpos us evaluate and
enhance the syllabus and prepare a more elaborate one for the next year.



Ideally, we can create a distro which can, to start with, have the
following tools



*Sl. NO.*

*Tool Name*

*Properaitery tool alterntive*

*Type*

1

mPaint

MS Paint

Paint application

2

LibreDraw

MS visio/CorelDraw

Vector Graphics editor

3

LibreWriter

Msword

Document Writer

4

Gedit

Notepad

Text Editor

5

LibreImpress

MS Powerpoint

Presentation

6

Tamil99

None

Keybord Layout

7

HTML

NONE

Hypertext markup







We can also add whatever educational packages we can localise. But in
addition to this, we need to define a proper syllabus for class VI. For
this, we could take a look at CBSE syallbus and maybe provide a series of
directions.



Advantages of taking this up

1) We have a full freedom to do whatever we wish in this school. This may
be more difficult in a place like Chennai

2) The school has decent infrastructure and a friendly administration

3) The target audience reflects our mission as a social organisation



Disadvantages:

1) Distance!

There is a solution for this. There is a college nearby where computer
science courses are offered. The same people who took us to the village
have contacts with that college and spoke to the college management. The
management would also like to meet us. If we can set up a GLUG there, they
can take this forward instead of someone from Chennai having to go.

Similarly, volunteers from Tiruchi can also reach the place more easily.
So, we should bring them into the loop too



Task ahead

1) Define a syllabus for class VI students which the computer teachers can
take

2) Create a light-wight distro for the school



*DONE Others can share their views*



*CBSE SYLLABUS*

*http://kvmzu.org/kvmzu%20split%20up%20syllabus/computer%20syllabus.pdf
<http://kvmzu.org/kvmzu%20split%20up%20syllabus/computer%20syllabus.pdf>*

*http://www.kvanantnag.org/admin/downloads/1557282077computer.doc
<http://www.kvanantnag.org/admin/downloads/1557282077computer.doc>*

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M267
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