Mar 27, 2008
Linux Mint in the Classroom
It has been nearly three weeks since I started to use the new Computer Lab Computer Lab (which I dubbed the Linux Lab) at the American International School. My students and I have experienced a lot of headaches but we are able to get some work done.
About three weeks ago, I was given a new group of Teen Immersion students to work with (these students are preparing to enter the mainstream student body). Since I am their Computer Science teacher, you guessed it, I had them using Linux during the first week of class.
With the help of Son from the IT Department, we managed to get Linux Mint working with VirtualBox in the Linux Lab. Since many of the students were new to VirtualBox and Linux, I talked them through the set-up and got them booting into Linux Mint. Since I created the linuxmint.vdi on my desktop at home, I had to help them change the screen resolution inside of xorg.conf. Can you believe it, I had several students actually editing xorg.conf on their own.
I will be using Linux Mint in my Teen Immersion classes mainly to teach my students how to touch type (TuxType and TypeSpeed) and use Pencil.
Linux Mint is great in the classroom! Eye candy sells very well to students and is one great way to promote Linux around the world. One of the first all of my students did after logging into Linux Mint was change the theme and configuration of their desktops. I just showed one student how to do it and the rest followed right after.
(Layla is configuring her desktop)
(Logging in)
(Carla configuring her desktop)
(Student on the right is trying to start Linux Mint with VirtualBox)
(They love TuxType!!!)
(I normally run PC-BSD on my teacher’s desktop but today I use Linux Mint as a demonstration)
My students have one more week left of touch typing. In about 2 weeks, they will start to use Pencil, a program many of my students know about.
Next week I will give a posting of my mainstream students and their projects using both PC-BSD and Linux Mint.
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