[OSGeo-Edu] [Fwd: Sorry can't make it]

[Charlie Schweik]

Helena Mitasova wrote:
> Charlie,
>
> I use Mac and I have just installed Fedora5 at work and both have very 
> nice GUI and are easy to use
>
> Most students that I work with have no problems going from Windows to 
> Linux or Mac (small kids are the best).
> Just give it a try. If you want to pursue Open source I think you 
> should give your students opportunity to use
> open source all the way including the operating system,
>
> Helena
Hi Helena,

Indeed, I am doing this. I am the PI of an open source teaching lab that 
is one of the first (according to my colleagues at IBM who donated the 
lab) trying to expose students in the social and behavioral sciences. 
And yes, the GUIs like KDE and GNome are very user friendly and I have 
found  that moving to other FOSS office software (open office) is indeed 
easy for students.

But the problem I am running into is slight resistance from students who 
are used to Windows because of their fear of file management differences 
on Linux. This is probably pretty minor. But I also ran into the problem 
that the MassGIS website offers downloadable shape files in a zipped 
executable, and extracting them on Linux is a bit of a headache. So this 
has scared and confused them a little. Moreover, I don't know what I am 
headed for in terms of platform differences in the future as I move 
toward GRASS. Certainly I'll find out over the next 6 months. But I 
raise this because I am developing first-drafts of modules and want to 
know if the group feels various education modules need to have different 
versions written for FOSS GIS software running on different operating 
systems.

So -- Should modules written be platform independent? Or should we focus 
on one operating system platform to start? Or is this generally not a 
concern?

And what I am trying to do is develop an online course out of UMass that 
would hopefully be somehow connected to OSGEO -- if nothing else, the 
curriculum material is there and I am just offering a service as an 
instructor. My motivation is in part because I have worked in Nepal and 
with some African scholars in the past and know that I have colleagues 
in these countries  that need GIS for their environmental work. Others 
in this group may be trying the same thing which I think is great. I am 
envisioning someone who has limited technical background and maybe not 
that much technical support. I'm not sure what will be more prevalent -- 
Windows, Linux, etc. But I can imagine that if it is Linux based, there 
may be issues about getting a Linux machine for them to use. Perhaps a 
early module in the curriculum would be more on computer requirements 
and how to install the operating system? Or maybe some links to websites 
that describe this?

Cheers and thanks for your feedback.

Charlie