I am teaching Exploring Computer Science (ECS) at an urban High School just north of Boston. ECS is a curriculum designed to introduce students to computer science topics and is partially funded by grants from the National Science Foundation.
I used to work in IT for many years before becoming a teacher over a decade ago. I've been a big proponent of Open Source software and LINUX since I first tried RedHat in the late 1990s.
In my class and with the computer club, I have the students use WattOS in a variety of ways. For the older computers we get donated I have them install WattOS. I typically use the LXDE desktop since it seems very easy to master especially for those with prior Windows only experience. Some students have Windows XP desktops and don't want to spend money to update to a more modern OS. WattOS is a great alternative since most of the students just need access to a web browser to be productive. With Google Docs they are pretty set for almost anything they need to get done.
In my computer lab, there are only 8-year old Dell desktops with Windows XP. Rather than deal with the virus laden OS, I made a bunch of USB flash boot drives using PenDriveLinux and the newest version of WattOS. It works very well for what we need.
The next step is for them to get familiar with the BASH shell and using the Linux server we installed last week.
Got root?
Neil P.
