A Windows instructor teaching Linux to students who are new to computers?
Posted 02-09-2006 at 11:03 AM by jpatton
Am I the only one who finds this mildly humorous? I doubt it, to be honest, I have used various distributions of Linux on and off for the past several years, but where I earn my paycheck's is in teaching Windows.
A couple of years ago I got hired by a college, to teach Windows classes which was fine, I taught the students the in's and out's of Windows, and since I had been doing this for the past 8 years, I could about teach those classes in my sleep, and between you and me, I can't honestly tell you if I didn't fall asleep once or twice! LOL
Anyways, for a few years prior I had been wanting to teach Linux courses, finding available courseware at the time was difficult to say the least, as most people in the mid to late 90's were doing more experimenting with Linux. So books, not to mention students were really in short supply.
After about a year here they introduced Linux classes, and finally I am able to stay awake, and having students who don't know anything about computers make's my life during the Linux classes, that much more interesting! I honestly can't tell you how many times I have had to reset their root passwords! At one point it seemed like that was all I was doing!
Oh well, I should get back to my class, but I noticed there was a blog, and as a teacher I feel the need to spout every now and again!
Have a wonderful day!
Jeff Patton
Technical Trainer, Bryan College - Topeka
A couple of years ago I got hired by a college, to teach Windows classes which was fine, I taught the students the in's and out's of Windows, and since I had been doing this for the past 8 years, I could about teach those classes in my sleep, and between you and me, I can't honestly tell you if I didn't fall asleep once or twice! LOL
Anyways, for a few years prior I had been wanting to teach Linux courses, finding available courseware at the time was difficult to say the least, as most people in the mid to late 90's were doing more experimenting with Linux. So books, not to mention students were really in short supply.
After about a year here they introduced Linux classes, and finally I am able to stay awake, and having students who don't know anything about computers make's my life during the Linux classes, that much more interesting! I honestly can't tell you how many times I have had to reset their root passwords! At one point it seemed like that was all I was doing!
Oh well, I should get back to my class, but I noticed there was a blog, and as a teacher I feel the need to spout every now and again!
Have a wonderful day!
Jeff Patton
Technical Trainer, Bryan College - Topeka
Total Comments 2
Comments
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Having to teach Windows is so boring, I know by sitting in class learning about Windows... There is a Linux class here, but it is not in my program stream, which sucks.. I have tried like at least 5 courses on windows only in my program, and almost all labs are done in Windows..
You are lucky to be able to teach a Linux course, maybe they can open up more then just one course on Linux.. Over the last 5-6 years, I have been teaching myself Linux, and enjoying this more then ever before.. With this comes the knowledge that I want to explore all the other OSes, which never came to me when I was only a Windows user and now I am a Linux Learner..Posted 12-31-1969 at 07:00 PM by jpatton 
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It's obviously possible to teach yourself from just using Linux and reading, but I had a look at the local computing evening classes etc. All are for complete idiots. No offence to newbies, but they're all 'how to use the internet' 'computing for beginners' 'word processing' etc type courses. It didn't say but they're clearly windows based. As I found out about a year ago when I switched to Linux, it's enjoyable. You can't really say that about windows. Although presumably some people do like it.
Posted 12-31-1969 at 07:00 PM by jpatton
