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ArabDev Initiative - Volunteers Needed!

Alaa's picture

Arabdev are organizing a series of workshops and trainings on the use of computers and the internet, with school children in the governerate of Menya (among other places). they want the next set of courses to include sessions about FOSS and GNU/Linux (for many obvious reasons), but their experience with FOSS is limited.

so EGLUG is to become a partner in this project (arabdev have a wonderful attitude about this, when they say partner they realy mean partner :-) and help in training the kids, and in finding and training a small community to further support the young FOSS users.

the ultimate goal is to leave behind a local LUG that can take over from us.

now the folks from arabdev need to know an estimate of how many volunteers we can provide, so who is willing to volunteer to go to el menya, to train and empower the people there?

follows is the proposed time table sent by ArabDev الأنشـــــــــــــطة,الموعد المقترح,موضوع التدريب,مكان التدريب لقاء إعلامي للمديرين والإدارة المدرسية بالمشروع 20 شخص,الخميس 7 أكتوبر 2004 بعد اليوم الدراسى,لقاء اعلامى عن المشروع وأهدافه... وأنشطته المختلفة,فى الادارة التعليمية بأبو قرقاص أو ملوى تدريب المدرسين ونظرائهم من المجتمع المحلى ( التدريب الاساسى أو الأولى ) 35 شخص,الخميس بعد اليوم الدراسى والجمعة فى الايام التالية خلال شهر ديسمبر
2004 2 & 3 / ديسمبر
9 & 10 / ديسمبر
16 & 17 / ديسمبر, مهارات عامة فى برامج الكمبيوتر,فى مدرسة مجهزة بابو قرقاص أو ملوى التدريب المتميز للمتدربين 15 متدرب,4 أيام خلال أجازة نصف العام 2005,Linux technical,فى مدرسة مجهزة بابو قرقاص أو ملوى تدريب الطلبة 500 طالب وطالبة,من فبراير 2005 حتى نهاية المشروع, General and Linux technical,كل مجموعة فى المدرسة التابعة لها تدريب الطلبة المتميزين تدريبا متخصصاً 75 طالب وطالبة , فى بداية أجازة الصيف,Linux technical,سوف يتم تحديده لاحقاً

Comments

Conceptor's picture

Depends on

More details are needed ... if it will be giving courses to kids in schools it will be hard for me and for the kids too :). I can help in preparing infrastructure of the site ,installing O.S. ,and maintain the system .and of course going to El-Menya :)

Diaa Radwan

maslan's picture

i don't understand any thing

i don't understand any thing

Alaa's picture

what part

what part don't you understand?

ArabDev will be organizing workshops and training on how to use FOSS and GNU/Linux, or more accuratly how to use computers through FOSS and GNU/Linux.

We EGLUG will be partners in this, we will provide FOSS knowhow, we will help organize the activities and we will volunteer as trainers in these courses.

cheers,

Alaa


"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

maslan's picture

1st i didn't understand anyth

1st i didn't understand anything when i opened their site but now i got it

DJ KING's picture

i will be in Egypt by the fir

i will be in Egypt by the first week of Oct. if valunteers are still needed , i will be in ..

Ask 8 slackers how to do something, get 10 answers. ;)

ramez.hanna's picture

i'm still here

count me in


the best things in life are free --- so as myself

Alaa's picture

schedule update

ArabDev sent us their proposed schedule, it seems GNU/Linux activities won't start before december.

good news is the bulk of the work will be on mid year and summer vacation, so we should be able to get more volunteers.

I updated the story above with the proposed time table, please check it out.

cheers,

Alaa


"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

Menia School Training

Hello All, Thanks for your interest in volunteering to make FOSS a reality in Menia. I'm from ArabDev; please let me know if you have any questions/comments re the upcoming training. ArabDev would like to know how you would like to structure the training - what would come first, how long each session will be, how the communication channels between the Menia and Cairo group will work, etc. We then can work on this until the hands-on December training.

Alaa's picture

structure of training

the structure of the training depends very much on its goals (specific goals) and on the level of knowledge the trainees have.

we need to know what you expect from this.

do we mix the basic computing skills with the GNU/Linux course (ie do we teach mouse and keyboard usage, GUI navigation, file/directory concepts, apps/interface/document concepts etc along with the usage of GNU/Linux??).

do we teach abstract concepts or just useful skills?

do we focus on desktop usage or do we takle certain applications or situations/scenarios?

do we cover installation and troubleshooting?

we need a set of detailed and precise goals to work with, if you don't have such clear goals then we need to sit down and discuss them.

cheers,

Alaa


"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

Conceptor's picture

Make survey..

you can make survey there and determine which resource do they need. and start to put plane according to the given case. classify candidates to specific class level . beginner , user , skilled user , superusers . for volunteers make also survey to pick instructor for every class . this may be a general idea but we can sit and discuss I forget to tell "Count me in "

Diaa Radwan

Structuring the trainng

Thanks Alaa and Diaa for your replies. Following your thoughts and our previous discussion at the Sakkia:

  1. We will have the largest possible number of trainees at the start, encomprising different IT skills level as sometimes a novice can become interested and turn out to be more into learning than someone with more advanced skills, Alaa you mentioned this in our discussion. So we give the trainers the opportunity to see first hand who is promising.
  2. That means we will have a general hands on training in basic computer skills and then gradually push the envelope as far as the group can take.
  3. At one point then the trainer(s) have to split up the group into sub-groups that can be trained on different skill levels.
  4. the training overall should comprise the basic skills up to GNU/Linux, with troubleshooting and recycled computer reconditioning.
  5. The final goal is to have a fully functioning FOSS group in Menia that then can "spread the light" in other areas of the Sa'id. For the other, less advanced, groups the goal is to let them use a FOSS for personal and business reasons. We should encourage interested students to get more involved so that they might want to go on to a university education in IT.
  6. Training is primarily geard towards hands-on practical skills (definitely scenarios/applic. solutions, etc.) peppered with theoretical parts to round it up. Again different groups will be exposed to differen levels of knowledge.

General cources first

I agree with conceptor - we should clasify condidates - but in order to do that we have to start general cources or workshops with the targeted students/intersts - Through my direct contact with such areas I thing such activities and support would creat a proffessional group in Menya - Liela I think to have a large number of trainees, we need as well a suitable number of PCs (as possible) in a suitable environment and facilties. As well you might need to announce in Menya about these courses to attract any experienced individuals who live around and would like to participate and support this initiative somehow. Go on - good luck - Alaa I am in. Mahmoud Fouad

Training location

Mahmoud, thanks for your comment and Ahlan Bik. The training will be taking place in 5 junior/high schools in Menia, in Abou Korkass and Mallawi Marakez. We have looked at the school labs before selecting the schools, the labs have betw. 15-25 PCs. We are finalizing right now the paperwork, e.g. permissions to work with the schools from the Ministry of Education and the individual schools. Simultaneously we are letting the schools communities know about this initiative to attract the needed amount of trainees.

Alaa's picture

posted anonymously

Leila try to post when you're logged in, otherwise the comment appears to be an anonymous one and anonymous comments have to pass moderator approval.

cheers,

Alaa


"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

Excellent

That is okey, go on I whish you good luck ... and if you face any difficulties in permissions from MOE or others please let us know, we might be able to assist somehow. As Alaa said don't forget to log on before posting comments.

Mahmoud Fouad

Alaa's picture

We need a volunteer ASAP

ok as you'll notice from the schedule above the project already started.

we need a couple of people from EGLUG to go to Menya and talk to the school administrators(mas2olin) bout FOSS and GNU/Linux.

ArabDev says it can be on a saturday so this should make it easy for alot of us.

I suggest that moody be on that team, he is familiar with Al Menya and visits there frequently.

who else wants to go?

we want this done immediatly after el Eid.

cheers,

Alaa


"u know i once dream that the office of mobinil is from el 7`os :S and the one that answer u and tell u rasidak a girl called ghada"

I am ready ....

I am ready anytime ...... please go on, who else would like to participate ...

Mahmoud Fouad

Planning for Menia

Thanks Mahmoud it's good to have you in. We are planning to have the meeting at the schools on Saturday 4th December. Though the people who are going to participate in the Menia project should meet beforehand to know each other (the EGLUG volunteers and the ArabDev group). When are you in Menia and in Cairo in the coming 2 weeks? I am trying to find a good time for everyone to meet.

ezabi's picture

How about having it in the next gathering

The EGLUG next gathering will be next Saturday at 15:00, how about having the meeting there.

Okey .... next meeting

Good idea ezabi, let us discuss it our next meeting in Al-Sakia .

Online meeting on IRC with ArabDev

Yesterday, an online meeting on our IRC channel between Eglug and Leila of Arabdev has took place at 4:30pm. Alaa, Manal, Ezabi, Manal, Leila and my self mody joined the meeting, where we discussed and agreed on the following topics: Leila will do here best to arrange for a short meeting with Sherif ( Arabdev resident consultant/coordinator in Menya) which would be in any day before 8:00pm in Sakia. Mody and ezabi will represent Eglug in the introductory meeting which will take place in Menya next Dec. 4th Our demonstration in Menya should be as clear and simple as possible approaching general concepts about FOSS and general computer skills that could be used in various OSs environments and how can it be adopted to suit different need of students, enterprises and gov. uses…etc. Menya meeting is already arranged to the next Dec., 4th - Alaa will make a mailing list for the whole initiative. Leila will pass to us proposed point to be covered in the meeting

Meeting Sat. 8th January

Hello,

Thank you for setting the meeting at 6pm at the Sakia. We will discuss ArabDev's Menia project and plan for upcoming action.

I am looking forward to seeing you all,

Leila

Other needs

For example someone who know to configure Apache, i should not be able to see the logs just visiting the web.

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