Report on the training in Menya 4,5 february 2005

  1. Manal
  2. Ezabi

1st day:

we took the 7:15 train from Cairo and arrived in el Menya @ 10:30 and went directly to Gam3eyet el Sa3eed hotel in Abu Qorqas.

arrived @ Salah el Din school (for boys) in Abu Qorqas @ 13:00, we then started the installation of MandrakeLinux 10.1 Eglug edition in their computer lab. the teachers started to arrive while we were installing and we decided to explain the installation process to them all.

After we finished the installation on 9 pcs out of 10, we started the training:

  • General desktop usage:
    • KDE and Gnome
    • OOwriter
    • Virtual desktops
    • Arabic keyboard layout

we finished the training @ 18:00

Attendants of the 1st day:

  • teachers:
    • 3 teachers from Salah el Din school
    • 3 teachers from Adeeb Wahba school
    • 1 teacher from Monsha2at al Fekrya school
    • 1 teacher from el Thanaweya al Gadeeda school
  • Officials:
    • the regional computer supervisor
    • the local computer supervisor

2nd day:

we arrived @ Adeeb Wahba prep school (for boys & girls) in Abu Qorqas @ 10:30.

we re-explained the installation process for 2 teachers on 2 pcs, then the 2 teachers performed the installation of MandrakeLinux 10.1 Eglug edition on the other 8 pcs in their computer lab (the local supervisor insisted on installing on 1 machine).

we arrived @ Salah el Din school @ 14:00 and started the training @14:30.

4 of 1st day teachers have quit because they were not computer teachers and they found out that they wont b able to transfer what they learn to the students in the computer club groups which will start next week.

but 2 new teachers joined the group, and supposedly 2 more will join.

total attendance: 6 teachers.

content of the training:

  • Mandrake Control Center in general
  • special stress on software mangement and installing dia and gqview as an example
  • KDE desktop configuration
  • Mandrake documentation
  • Apps:
    • OOwriter
    • OOcalc
    • OOimpress
    • Kivio (used dia stencils)
    • Gimp 2
    • Gqview
    • Amarok
    • Kaffiene
    • Konquerer
    • Gnucash

we didn't have internet access, so we didn't install internet aps or demonstrate them, but we talked about:

  • Mozilla
  • Kopete

we also talked about other application without demonstrating them:

  • Dia
  • Mplayer

at the end of the day, we gave them free time to choose some application and explore it. they showed interest in oowriter, oocalc, ooimpress and kivio.

the teachers stressed on the importance of arabic documentation and Howtos, and some requested to get training on using the Gimp.

we agreed that the next visit will be in a couple of weeks, so that the teachers get some time to get more aquinted with the platform and give us their feedback.

we had 3 copies of Mandrake 10.1, we left a copy to the computer lab @ Salah el Din school, a copy to the computer lab @ Adeeb Wahba and the 3rd to the regional supervisor.

we finished @ 18:00 and took the 19:00 train back to cairo.

Evaluation:

negatives:

  1. lack of arabic documentation
  2. 4 teachers quiting after the 1st day
  3. some computers had faulty hardware:
    • we couldn't install on a pc @ Salah el Din school due to cdrom malfunction
    • 2 pcs @ Salah el Din school had no sound detection
  4. no internet in both schools
  5. no network @ Salah el Din school
  6. Interruption in the training to fix internal formalities

positives:

  1. the train was comfortable
  2. the hotel and food were very good

  1. teachers and officals were very enthusiastic to learn about GNU/Linux
  2. they showed apperciation to the initiative
  3. some teachers showed promising improvement in the 2nd day
  4. the teachers @ Adeeb Wahba school installed GNU/Linux on 8 pcs on their own
  5. the initiative to start delivering this knowledge to their students and to other people in the local society.