What 'IT' Stuff Should We Teach Ninth-Graders?

gphilip writes "I have been asked to contribute ideas for the preparation of a textbook for ninth graders (ages circa 14 years) in the subject of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Could you suggest material to include in such a text? More details below." Quite a few details, actually — how would you add to the curriculum plan outlined below?

"Background: This is for the public school system of the state of Kerala, India. The state has near-total literacy (we achieved this goal in 1991 following a massive literacy drive), and the government is keen on achieving total e-literacy as well. This drive for e-literacy — and the school curriculum that is the subject of this question — is based entirely on free and open-source software; the school system uses a customized version of Debian for teaching purposes.

ICT is a subject that has been recently introduced into the school curriculum. Currently we have, for all intents and purposes, a 'first generation' of students (and teachers) in this subject. To be more precise, the general public is just beginning to use computers in a big way, and the goal now is to familiarize them with the use of computers, and more specifically, with FOSS. The ICT textbook for the eighth grade (native language version), therefore, focusses on introducing various GNU/Linux software and showing how they can help in learning the other, more traditional, subjects. This textbook introduces the following software: The Gimp, Sunclock, OOO Writer, Calc, and Impress, Kalzium, Geogebra, Marble, and Kstars. In addition, there are simple introductions to elementary Python (variables, the print statement, and if-else), networking, and the Internet.

What we need: In the ninth grade textbook, we would like to shift the focus a bit. We want to introduce concepts which give more scope for creativity, and form a basis for further studies and/or a vocation in the future. The student spends one more year (the tenth grade) in the school system, and so there is scope for developing further on the theme of the ninth grade ICT book when designing the textbook for the tenth grade.

Given this background, are there some other FOSS software that, in your opinion, it would be good to introduce to our ninth graders?

I am partial towards introducing more of Python : the two loops, and perhaps the notion of a function. Do you have suggestions/pointers on how to go about doing this in a way that is easy to learn and to teach?

I would also like to give a glimpse of some ideas from computer science — the idea of an algorithm, for example — so that those kids with a math/CS aptitude get to see that there are such things out there. Which algorithms would be good for this purpose? Binary search is perhaps a good candidate, given that it is easy to describe informally, relates easily to things with which the student is familiar (phone book, dictionary), and it is easy to bring out the contrast in running time with the more natural linear search. What other algorithms would be instructive and motivating? Which other notions from computer science can be introduced to this audience in this manner?

Any other ideas/suggestions about this are also welcome."

The greatest IT lesson we can teach them

[rshxd]

They have to spend $30,000 for a degree and 2 or 4 years of their time so they land a job making $9-10/hour to reboot/put a server online so that an outsourced IT employee who makes $4.54/hour (saw a quote on WebHostingTalk for this) can do your job.

Database Introduction

[Anonymous Coward]

This might be a good time to begin introducing the basics of data storage and retrieval. SQLite is already available from a standard Python installation, it might be a good candidate for introducing the subject while building on the Python foundation from the prior grade.

Agreed, good data redundancy is very important.

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed, good data redundancy is very important.

Time's arrow

[westlake]

Yes and while your at it toss out the mouse and the graphical UI. Learn how to use the computer first. Then learn how to enjoy the computer later.

The child of five who began with Win 95 is twenty years old with a child of their own.

You are not going to hold the attention of a ninth grader with tech that they will never see in use outside your classroom.

Learn how to enjoy the computer later?

I would be interested in knowing what books you would assign as requited reading in "English Lit."

Re:Time's arrow

[MadMorf]

You are not going to hold the attention of a ninth grader with tech that they will never see in use outside your classroom.

Then this person should not work in IT.
And won't need the training the OP is talking about.

If they don't work in IT, they only need to learn how to use a mouse and keyboard.

IT as it relates to regular people

[RulerOf]

Language -- written and spoken -- should be taught in language classes, IMHO.

People should really be taught a few things that relate specifically to using computers in business. The day when I no longer see a Word document that uses multiple, non-aligned TABs to put words on the right side of a page that are supposed to (but definitely do not) align with text a few lines above instead of using a hanging indent (or whatever they're called), the day when I don't go to fill out the underlined portions of a document and find that all I do create a separation in the underscores that were used to create it, the day when I don't royally fuck a spreadsheet because someone didn't lock a cell..... well the point is that such a day can never come soon enough.

1. Teach people how to read domain names. Pretty much all the non-IT folks I know wouldn't understand that "google.images.com" isn't owned by Google.
2. Teach them what a certificate error really means.
3. Teach them how to identify when someone's trying to steal their shit.
4. Don't teach good password policy; they won't remember their passwords. Teach them how to use a password manager instead. It could be a password manager that uses dictionary words and still be a gazillion times more secure than what they'd do otherwise.
5. DO NOT TEACH TYPING. It is a waste of time. Typing is best as an acquired skill or one that is self taught. No one "learns" to type in the span of a lesson provided by a classroom environment.

There's a multitude of items that could be added to this litany, but I'm sure anyone here could get the point.

To say the least, kids won't acquire anything exclusively through the classroom if you teach them how to open up Word and write a letter. They already know how to do that shit. What will be useful to them is if you teach them about the features of the program that exist but that they'll forget how to use. Seriously. If they at least know that they can use hanging indents or track changes, then at least they'll know when to go hunting for how to do it again when they find a need for the feature at a future point.

I've found that, over time, someone who knows what tools he could use to accomplish a task tends to be more adept at getting things done rather than the person who uses the same tool for everything just because he knows how to use it so well.

Re:dos

[Nethead]

They need to know dos [sic] commands.

DOS never had an ifconfig, ipconfig, or any network interface command. It was only through an add on or a TSR program that it could talk over a network. The closest thing DOS had was the LapLink type commands added on very late to bring up a point to point network with another host via a serial or printer port.

There were programs such as MS Network Client that would run in conjunction with DOS but DOS itself never understood networks.

Collaborative proof-reading

[harmonica]

The existing English book linked above http://itschool.gov.in/pdf/icttb8_eng.pdf [itschool.gov.in] should be corrected first. I'm not a native speaker of English myself, but there are some nasty mistakes in there ("several information", p. 28; "a facility in Internet", p. 31). Maybe there could be a wiki process to proof-read / improve the book? Come on, father of the Internet "Winton Surf" (p. 30)?

Plus, the layout is really ugly. And sometimes wrong in weird ways ("2004" in column 2 followed by "originated" in column 1), a change of columns in the middle of the page (p. 7).

Re:backups are important.

[Lord Kano]

* Sorry, can't resist the opportunity to start a flame war :)

There's nothing to fight over. You're wrong.

Since Israel was a theocracy, the king and the god were the same, and hence both copies went into the tabernacle.

If you actually KNEW the story that you're opining about, you'd know that Moses received the tablets before they reached Israel. They were wandering in the desert. There was no palace, there was no temple. Most importantly, there was no Israel.

They had just fled Egypt, where the king was considered a God. The Israelites didn't believe that. God was God and the King was the King.

If you took the time to get to know what the fuck you were talking about before opining, you'd know that.

Full disclosure, I do not subscribe to any of the Abrahamic religions; however I do know and understand their beliefs.

LK

Re:backups are important.

[srothroc]

Algebra and trig, okay -- calculus? Integrals? I don't know what school you went to, but I haven't seen a public school that teaches that stuff earlier than, say, AP Calculus, which is usually a 12th-grade course.