The setup:

A college class, senior level, on operating systems, next semester. The teacher is interested in having a portion dealing with Linux, and turned to me as someone who was using Linux.

The portion will be about two weeks long, 6 hours (and class sessions) total.

There are enough computers (running Windows) for everyone in the class, (about 10) as well as two computers that can be wiped clean if needed.


What I'm thinking now:
Use the two wipable computers to show installation of Linux, then use Knoppix (or similar) on the other computers for the rest of the section. (The Knoppix disks will be given to the students to keep at the end of the section.)


What I need is a lesson plan. Keep in mind, first, that these people are college students in the CS program; second, that they have little or no experience with *nix (assume no experience); and third, that as a operating system class, they need to learn the underlying principles of Linux, not just how to use it.


Currently, this is what I have for a lesson plan:
Day one: Using the two wipable computers, install a few distros.
Day two: Using Knoppix, boot into Linux and set up the system. (Basically moving around a Linux system with a GUI. Get used to the file system. Talk about the user/root system.)
Day three: Play around with the command line.
Day four: Shell scripting.
Day five: Security
Day six: some kind of large project.

Comments? Suggestions?

Suggestion. Don't use knoppix, use something that they are likely to be able to buy/encounter with a computer on the current market. Currently, you can buy computers pre-installed with Mandrake, Suse, and Lindows, right from a walmart, or from many of the small do it yourself stores.

Stay away from Lindows... but go with Suse, or Mandrake, as they're something users and more likely to encounter. Sure, knoppix is downloadable as a live boot, but so is Suse.

If you got a networked lab you could FTP install Suse Pro and have just about every kind of program they'll ever see for linux.

Unforunately, the main computers are running Windows, and the instructor would like to keep them that way. So, while I could install a different distro on the two wipable computers, there would be ~5 people for each computer. Or, I could use Knoppix, and give everyone a computer; using the two wipable computers for anything that we can't do in Knoppix.

You could always setup the windows computers to dual boot, that is if there's enough room on the harddrive. Just a thought.

the community college in my area is teaching some basic linux classes. here's a link to the school

http://www.dcc.vccs.edu/

also the professor to contact would be

jheinrich@dcc.vccs.edu

he may have some useful info for you. hope that helps.
good luck.

set up one of the wipeable computers as a *nix box and install X-servers on the other machines, i believe cygwin has a free X server with it.