Subject: Re: [ubuntu-uk] Linux Awareness Re: Avi
On 23/05/11 14:13, Avi Greenbury wrote: > Dino T. wrote: >> A friend and I are brainstorming on a 2 hour presentation to give to >> Universities and Colleges across Liverpool. > > Are you targeting the universities and colleges themselves as > institutions, their staff, their students, or a mix of the lot? > So far we will only be tutoring the staff whom the lessons belong too. They will be in attendance of the presentations. However do do plan to offer after hours extras to those who wish to learn more. A bit like an Ed. Linux Club. ############################ Re: Paul On 23/05/11 14:23, Paul Sutton wrote: >On 23/05/11 14:13, Avi Greenbury wrote: >> Dino T. wrote: >>> A friend and I are brainstorming on a 2 hour presentation to give to >>> Universities and Colleges across Liverpool. >> >> Are you targeting the universities and colleges themselves as >> institutions, their staff, their students, or a mix of the lot? >> > > > Perhaps you could cover the open document standard and why universities > should allow use of either .doc or odf formats, at least why they should > perhaps offer both on computers, > > they may have to settle on 1 file format, the OU now ask for > assignments to be submitted in .doc, as before it was either .doc, docx > or .odf, so at least .doc is something both open office, libreoffice and > MS office can cope with. and i guess it reduces issues for the people > marking the assignments. > > perhaps using firefox over internet explorer (standards and security) > thunderbird + lightning over outlook (cost, security etc) > The promotion of Firefox is a huge part of what we will present. We will also cover Chromium/Chrome too. But since Firefox is preinstalled in UBuntu, it will be main priority. The flexibility of LibreOffice will be the main selling point. We'll be explaining why docx is nothing more than a zipped format that includes xml files and others to create a document. Even for stability reasons, one should use .doc over .docx. Should they need to though, they'll now it can handle /docx too. ############################ Re: Alan On 23/05/11 14:41, Alan Bell. wrote: > On 23/05/11 14:07, Dino T. wrote: >> Hi >> >> A friend and I are brainstorming on a 2 hour presentation to give to >> Universities and Colleges across Liverpool. To increase awareness and >> show students that they can save money using free/open source >> software. This is scheduled for around September 2011. >> > rather than focussing on saving money I would seek to explain about how > Free software can be economically transformative by allowing you to > redistribute it without counting the number of times you do so, thus > allowing you to scale things out without incurring crippling costs. Look > at huge server farms like google/facebook/twitter etc. or even the fact > that I have about 15 VMs on my laptop that I fire up to do work for > different customers. Give me a shout if you want some Natty CDs to hand > out (might not have many by September though) > Great point Alan. Just noted that. THanks Alan, I'll send you my details to send over the Natty CD's and I'll put them in storage for now. ############################ Re: alan c On 23/05/11 14:45, alan c wrote: > On 23/05/11 14:07, Dino T. wrote: >> Hi >> >> A friend and I are brainstorming on a 2 hour presentation to give to >> Universities and Colleges across Liverpool. To increase awareness and show >> students that they can save money using free/open source software. This is >> scheduled for around September 2011. >> >> What do you suggest we cover? Has to be very basic too for beginners and if >> they want to learn more, we'll be providing sheets out to links etc. >> >> Dino T. > > I gave a series of 1 hour talks to a FE college a few months ago, to > students on computing *related* courses. The staff I arranged with > were already Ubuntu aware though were not users, most of the students > were not aware. > > I ran the initial part of the talk from a Live USB, (started prior to > the talk beginning and quite fast) then pointed to Live session vs > installed. Then continued to include Ubuntu basics, Wine basics, and a > used trial version of Crossover too. > > Towards the end, I just happened :-) to show the compiz cube with > transparency an dcap image (of fishing net), and sky globe image (of a > goldfish). > > About half the audiences took a CD and leaflets. > Needed careful timing to get into one hour. > > Happy to discuss off list, I can send some files if you like? > THat'd be a huge help thanks Alan C. :) I was going to show a few videos of what compiz can change. Videos of different desktops, alterations using docks etc to show off the extreme customsability of Ubuntu. YOu can contact me off-list at dinot1...@gmail.com. Same for anyone that wants to contact me directly, feel free. ############################ Re: Graham On 23/05/11 16:54, Alan Bell. wrote: > A little bit of a ramble here, but hopefully the concepts are clear. > > It probably depends on circumstances, but using specialist software such as > stats and GIS, as an example > > R and QGIS allow students access to these programs at home, and not as is > the case with the commercial alternatives force students into the University > to work on tasks that need these programs. Something the students like, and > given transport/fuel costs and a desire to reduce carbon footprints this > saves students trips into Uni just to use specialist software. (some stats > programs offer free copies to students, but see below) > > This has a knock on effect in reducing skills redundancy, as, in theory at > least they can take both their skills and the software to any job they go > to. > > I also know of employers who don't have any stats or GIS capability because > the software is too expensive, giving a useful twist to getting a job as the > graduate can offer not only to bring their skills, but also the software. > > There are of course issue. QGIS isn't an industry standard and this is often > a real disadvantage, but for Stats, R is quickly becoming the standard > across all industries, and even where it isn't, R skills are still in > demand because of its cutting edge capability. > > Something else I find useful, is that with Open Source, I > can introduce students to tools that doesn't require them or > the University to spend any money. This gives a freedom to explore new areas > of teaching and learning that would otherwise have to be avoided because of > the cost. > > Most Open Source programs work on Linux, Macs and Windows, so again it opens > these tools up to a wider range of students (not many use Linux, but an > increasing number are using Macs). > Thanks Graham. I'm not too familiar with R and QGIS. Can you send me a few links which you recommend as good learning guide? Other software we want to expose to them is GIMP, Inkscape, Blender and a few web design programs, mostly kompoZer.
-- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
