[Techtalk] Help with Linux class outline?

[Leslie Vincent]

Hello! I sent this to the Action list, but was redirected here.

First an intro: My name is Leslie, and I just discovered LinuxChix and 
I'm thrilled about it! I'm an oldtimer when it comes to IT - my first 
programming course was in 1975 at age 16, Basic on streaming punched 
tape, followed by five years of punched cards and hours in the queue to 
find out how many typos I'd made, and I've not stepped away from the 
computer since then. In my first life, post-BS in Systems Engineering, 
I was a programmer, using fortran & assembler language to develop 
CAD/CAM system routines, first as an intern in '78 then full time in 
1980. That lasted 3 more years until my skull was about to explode from 
boredom; I was a good programmer, I just didn't like doing it 8-10 
hours a day. I did a short stint in graduate school (mega debt, no 
degree), then finally moved into the training and support side of the 
fence, first with minis and programming, then PCs, and finally 
networking (mostly Banyan - anyone remember that? it was UNIX based!) 
which became my niche. It was all corporate world stuff until '99 when 
I had my midlife crisis, moved to the Delaware beaches, and was lucky 
enough to get my dream job teaching here at the local community 
college. I teach networking topics, plus some applications and XP as 
required.

I'm in the process of FINALLY replacing our one-semester Novell course 
with a Linux course, which I'll teach starting this fall. My "problem" 
is twofold: First, I'm definitely a relative newbie when it comes to 
Linux. Also, I'm just not someone who is content to just grab a 
textbook and just spew whatever that says out to the students for the 
whole semester, or focus just on preparing the students to take a 
certification test, though either of those options would be much easier 
for me to do! I try to design my classes to reflect as much of the 
"real world" as possible. But this is the first course I've taught or 
developed here for which I have zero "real world" experience, so I'm 
looking for as much feedback from professionals in the field as I can 
get.

And fyi, I've also joined the "NewChix" list because I'll be the first 
to admit, even directly to my students, that Linux is all relatively 
new to me. Having 30+ years of putzing around with computers, even as a 
"professional," doesn't mean I automatically understand stuff I haven't 
used in the real world yet. I'm going to admit freely to what I don't 
know before I give a B.S. answer to a student while will later PROVE 
how much I don't know! I just don't happen to subscribe to the 
too-commonly held tech instructor perception that it's ok to not know 
anything as long as you have a book to regurgitate to your students in 
PowerPoint form, and a set of tests and exercises provided by the 
textbook publisher.

So finally, here is my primary request: If any of you have a few 
minutes, I would greatly appreciate your looking over my course 
outline. I list the basic goals and audience for this class, then break 
down what I plan to cover each week. I also have some questions about 
recommended resources. I'm seriously considering not using a regular 
textbook at all, but instead having students purchase a really good 
reference manual, and use a combination of some of the open source 
training materials that are out there, together with materials that I 
develop myself. I just haven't found any textbook that comes close to 
having the type of focus that I'm shooting for with this class.

The document is here:
http://user.dtcc.edu/~lvincent/cis253proposal.doc

FYI, the course outline is two pages in Word, plus I have another 
half-page of questions.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!!  And I haven't been 
around enough to know the cross posting rules, so I'll ask for your 
patience in advance for the fact that you may have already seen this on 
the Action list, and you're about to see it again on the Newbies list, 
as I approach them to review it from a newbie's perspective!

Leslie Vincent
CIS Instructor
Delaware Tech
Georgetown, DE 19947
302-856-5400 x2040