[GRASS-user] GIS course on a live-cd (was Basic GIS course ideas)

[maning sambale]

Hi GRASS/QGIS users,

I really appreciate all your insights, it is very encouraging.

Let me just share a few things about our department in the college, we
are really a very small department and faciliites are really
insufficient.  We usually borrow computer labs in other departments to
do GIS exercises.

Last term, we were able to exclusively use the accounting lab for our
sessions because nobody is using it.  They bought the computers early
on not realizing that the accounting software they will be buying
costs a few thousand dollars for each license.  Talk about classic
foss/propriety scenario.

This term, we may not be able to use a lab exclusively for GIS, we are
expected to share lab work with advertising, IT, english, etc. courses
(as expected its on Windows).  My experience with a lab that is used
by a number courses and not properly maintained is really frustrating,
I ended up cleaning the units with viruses and other nuisances before
even starting my sessions.

I am exploring of maybe using a live-cd (the laussane CDs maybe the
latest) for my sessions in this way we can conduct lessons to any lab
without the installation, configuration, permission problems and other
usual windows maintanance nightmares.

I know its a good idea for demos and short exercises.  How about using
live-cds for a one semester course?

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Maning

PS.  On the issue of lab facilities, I hope to resolve in the medium
term.  I am still negotiating maybe look for funding to set-up a GIS
lab for our department.

On 10/8/06, Rudolf Maurer <rudolf.maurer at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi all!
>
> I studied at the department of geology at the university of Freiburg, Germany.
> There since maybe 1999 +/- GRASS is taught once a year in courses as mandatory.
>
> In my personal course I can confirm: The jump to Linux-Commandline is
> hard for most people and defocuses a bit away from GIS. (Anyway it is
> a good thing to learn!)
>
> GRASS on Win is a good point, that helps. Eventhough my experience on
> my WinXP-Laptop I need to use for work is not tremendous (without
> Postgres i was not able to generate a location).
>
> Recent German pages here:
> http://www.geologie.uni-freiburg.de/root/projekte/grass/sommer2006/kurslinks.html
> Many other material there is way outdated, but shows some activities
> in the past.
>
> Good data-material also helps a lot, i.e. when you have local data and
> current problem-examples.
>
> Bye
> Rudy
>
> _______________________________________________
> grassuser mailing list
> grassuser at grass.itc.it
> http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grassuser
>


-- 
|---------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| __.-._  |"Ohhh. Great warrior. Wars not make one great." -Yoda     |
| '-._"7' |"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden|
|  /'.-c  |Linux registered user #402901, http://counter.li.org/     |
|  |  /T  |http://esambale.wikispaces.com|
| _)_/LI  |http://www.geocities.com/esambale/philbiodivmap/philbirds.html   |
|---------|----------------------------------------------------------|