Re: [Qgis-user] GIS course on a live-cd (was Basic GIS course ideas)

[Tim S. <ti...@li...>]

Hi

On 08/10/2006, at 01:30, maning sambale wrote:

> Hi GRASS/QGIS users,
>
> I really appreciate all your insights, it is very encouraging.
>
> Let me just share a few things about our department in the college, we
> are really a very small department and faciliites are really
> insufficient.  We usually borrow computer labs in other departments to
> do GIS exercises.
>
> Last term, we were able to exclusively use the accounting lab for our
> sessions because nobody is using it.  They bought the computers early
> on not realizing that the accounting software they will be buying
> costs a few thousand dollars for each license.  Talk about classic
> foss/propriety scenario.
>

Oh? Introduce them to GnuCash - its a really good open source  
accounting package.  http://www.gnucash.org/

> This term, we may not be able to use a lab exclusively for GIS, we are
> expected to share lab work with advertising, IT, english, etc. courses
> (as expected its on Windows).  My experience with a lab that is used
> by a number courses and not properly maintained is really frustrating,
> I ended up cleaning the units with viruses and other nuisances before
> even starting my sessions.
>
> I am exploring of maybe using a live-cd (the laussane CDs maybe the
> latest) for my sessions in this way we can conduct lessons to any lab
> without the installation, configuration, permission problems and other
> usual windows maintanance nightmares.
>
> I know its a good idea for demos and short exercises.  How about using
> live-cds for a one semester course?
>

I have been in contact with several people who have prepared or are  
in the process of preparing coursework materials for QGIS and QGIS/ 
GRASS. I'm thinking that it would be really good to get some kind of  
forum for collaboration between educators working with QGIS so that  
you dont duplicate effort. Perhaps a qgis-edu mailing list? Or an  
area on the wiki? Or a thread on the forum? Or all of the above? I'd  
be interested to hear any feedback.  In the meantime you might be  
interested in the work being carried out by Gary Watry and co:

http://indianocean.coaps.fsu.edu/FOSS_GIS/Quantum_GIS.pdf

They are currently revising the document to produce a more up to date  
version.

> Any ideas?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Maning
>
> PS.  On the issue of lab facilities, I hope to resolve in the medium
> term.  I am still negotiating maybe look for funding to set-up a GIS
> lab for our department.

One cost effective way to go is to use something like the LTSP (Linux  
Terminal Server Project) - it should be quite cheap to get a bunch of  
low end pcs to use as dumb terminals. You can remove all the moving  
parts so they will run quitely and reliably and will be fairly tamper  
proof. You just need one fairly well specified machine for the LTSP  
server and a local area network. Previously I have done even more low  
tech way which is to run and XDMCP server on the server and use  
knoppix live cd on the client and to run XDM chooser to log in to the  
server from the clients. This way takes less technical knowledge than  
a full LTSP solution and will still allow you to get a lab underway  
very very cheaply.

Regards

Tim

>
> On 10/8/06, Rudolf Maurer <rud...@go...> wrote:
>> Hi all!
>>
>> I studied at the department of geology at the university of  
>> Freiburg, Germany.
>> There since maybe 1999 +/- GRASS is taught once a year in courses  
>> as mandatory.
>>
>> In my personal course I can confirm: The jump to Linux-Commandline is
>> hard for most people and defocuses a bit away from GIS. (Anyway it is
>> a good thing to learn!)
>>
>> GRASS on Win is a good point, that helps. Eventhough my experience on
>> my WinXP-Laptop I need to use for work is not tremendous (without
>> Postgres i was not able to generate a location).
>>
>> Recent German pages here:
>> http://www.geologie.uni-freiburg.de/root/projekte/grass/sommer2006/ 
>> kurslinks.html
>> Many other material there is way outdated, but shows some activities
>> in the past.
>>
>> Good data-material also helps a lot, i.e. when you have local data  
>> and
>> current problem-examples.
>>
>> Bye
>> Rudy
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> grassuser mailing list
>> gra...@gr...
>> http://grass.itc.it/mailman/listinfo/grassuser
>>
>
>
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Tim Sutton

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