Mission Statement a) (overarching goal): To provide recycled and donated laptops to as many NCCC students as we can, to meet full need (i.e. every student who is unable to afford a laptop can now get one for free).
Educational mission statement b): To teach a non credit bearing class which shows students how to use open source software to refresh/reinstall an operating system on a donated laptop. Software as well as hardware issues will be dealt with. Students can fix up a laptop for themselves as well if we have enough donations.
Course description: Fixing computers with Open Source Software (introduction). Students will learn how to install an operating system with a Graphical User Interface onto older computer hardware. They may bring their own donations, or have them provided by the school. They will receive a USB flash drive with the operating system of their choice on it and a fully functioning computer at the end of the course. Students may also solicit their own donations and fix them for family or friends after they finish repairing their own machine.
Educational mission statement c): to teach the laptop recipients how to use the open source software which is installed for them (separate class).
Course Description: Students will learn to use a free, open source graphical operating system, including but not limited to Linux (for example, Debian, Mint, Ubuntu) or raspberry pi. They will learn to use the open source office software that is included, as well as how to install chrome, watch videos, and research how to do things on these operating systems. Students will receive a computer at the beginning of the course, and use it to learn the skills they need to pass the course and utilize their free computer.
Educational mission statement d) : to teach a non-credit bearing class which builds and maintains a linux lab for the school. Might include stand alone machines or a hybrid scenario with a server and thin clients. Students gain more server knowledge and still can build a computer to take home.
Students will still solicit donations or take a donated machine to use throughout the course. However, this course is intermediate and not open to anyone who hasn’t passed course B or C. Students will learn to use open source software without a GUI, maintain and fix servers, thin clients, and manage a computer lab run by servers. This prepares a student for a career in maintaining linux servers (the backbone of many databases in industry).
Educational Mission Statement e): Code boot camp for introduction to computer science, using open source programs when possible. Students would use the linux lab or donated computers, and leave the course with a computer of their own (if needed).
Course Description: Students will learn the basics of programming languages, focusing on Java in preparation for a credit bearing computer science course. I envision this as a Math Boot Camp type course for those interested in computers but not meeting the prerequisites for a true computer science course.