Codecademy: Learn Programming Online

Did you ever tried learning Programming and become a geek, but didn’t know how and where to start with ? Don’t have the patience to read bulky and dry computer books?  Then  Codecademy is the answer you are looking for
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It’s an interactive site you start off simply with some naming conventions and math equations inside an interactive "terminal" window. It saves your progress if you make an account, and you gain Foursquare style "badges" for completing lessons that you can share on your favorite social media site.

The depth of the lessons seems pretty good, and the site also have a feature to become  a teacher once you log in, so if you want to contribute to the learning experience and add more lessons, you can start contributing right away.

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Linux for Kids

Linux has been a versatile operating system catering the needs of people from all walks of life. Unlike Windows and Mac, which only target the general consumers, Linux offer various specialized distributions for engineers, doctors, religious people, and even kids. Yes, kids. Linux, thanks to its openness, has allowed many developers to create distributions made especially for kids of different age groups.

These distributions aren’t made to teach C++ programming for kids. Instead, they are normal, easy to use distros with user interfaces specially designed for the young ones.

Many of them come with games and educational software preinstalled, so that children can learn as well as have fun.

Here are some of the most impressive Linux distributions your kids and those who are young at heart would love to use

Qimo for Kids is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution with a desktop environment designed specifically for children. The distribution comes preinstalled with educational games suitable for children 3 years and older. The distribution comes with an intuitive and very easy interface with large icons so that even the youngest children will not have any difficulty playing with it.

Sugar is the distribution based on Fedora Linux that was designed for Intel's One-Laptop-Per-Child (OLPC) project. It is aimed at K-6 children and is a radical departure from the traditional desktop, putting more fun, ease, teaching and programming abilities into the computing desktop.It is especially designed for classroom use and it is so radically different from the traditional Linux desktop that you can begin to feel you are using a completely different operating system.

Edubuntu is based on the popular Ubuntu distribution. Designed to be easy to install and very Windows-like in its operation, The distribution has three different themes, called “young”, “plain” and “default”, for young users, a plain-desktop and a general-purpose installation. The default desktop environment is Gnome and the applications that come with the installation are OpenOffice.org, KDE Edutainment Suite and Gcompris. KDE Edutainment Suite includes applications for children between ages 3 and 18 and Gcompris includes applications for children in nursery/kindergarten.

Foresight for Kids is a derivative of Foresight Linux, aimed specifically at children between 3 and 12 years old. It has Gnome as the default desktop environment and includes Tuxpaint, Tuxtyping, Gcompris, Tux of Math Command, Super Tux, Super Tux Card, Foobillard, GNU Chess, Nibbles, Frozen Bubble, Super Maryo Chronicles, F-Spot Photo Manager, Firefox Web Browser, Banshee Media Player, Pidgin Instant Messenger and Totem Movie Player, among the applications installed. The children’s attention is attracted to the bumblebee character smiling and waving from the lower end corner of the desktop, warming them to the computer immediately.

Doudou Linux is based on Debian and thus it's quite stable (and also means that if you know your way around Linux, you can install programs from the Debian repository). The desktop environment is reworked completely to make it as easy as possible for children. Doudou includes Child's Play and GCompris, two popular collections of Linux games for Kids. In addition, Doudou Linux offers adventure, arcade, board, card, logic and sports games to enjoy, Geography, Kanagram, Hangman KLetters for learning, Instant Messaging (Empathy) and Web Browser (Epiphany) for surfing. These programs are grouped under "Learn", "Work" and "Enjoy" sections and arranged in a neat, tabbed interface. 

 
Get ready to prepare your kids to become the geeks of tomorrow :)

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Now Obtain a Master Degree in FOSS (India Only)

Anna University, Chennai, India have recently launched a  new two-year online distance education programme, students can pursue an M.Sc in FOSS. This programme is the only degree from a leading Indian technology-focused university that’s specifically being awarded for studies in FOSS.

In the process of becoming a computer science professional through this programme, one also masters a wide range of products, tools, technologies and approaches thrown up by the FOSS movement. Moreover, it is the only such programme from a leading Indian tech university delivered entirely online.

It has the benefits of flexible interactive learning unconstrained by geographical limitations and is specially suited for those who are already working.

Here is the official advertisement of the announcement for the first batch for MSc (CS-FOSS). MSc (CS-FOSS) is a four semster course available for all Engineering and Science graduates with atleast one subject of Mathematics for one year. Admissions will be done twice a year, every year.

Details about curricula are available here.

Last date for the submission of the application for the first batch is April 09, 2012.

The Fee Structure is,

Payable at the time of admission

i. Rs.29, 500/- (for candidates whose Bachelor Degree is from a University in Tamil Nadu).

ii. Rs.30, 000/- (for candidates whose Bachelor Degree is from a University outside Tamil Nadu)

Payable every Semester (From Second Semester to Final Semester)

Rs. 25,000/- per Semester.

1st of March and 1st of September will be the date of commencement for collection of fee for the Semester concerned.

Interested candidates can apply online from here.

Get ready to become a FOSS Scholar :)

 

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GCompris: Free Educational Game for Children

GCompris is a high quality educational game contains many educative activities for children aged 2 to 10 years old. It divided into some categories, each category contains many activities:

• computer discovery: keyboard, mouse, different mouse gesture, ...
• algebra: table memory, enumeration, double entry table, mirror image, ...
• science: the canal lock, the water cycle, the submarine, electric simulation ...
• geography: place the country on the map
• games: chess, memory, connect 4, oware, sudoku ...
• reading: reading practice
• other: learn to tell time, puzzle of famous paintings, vector drawing, cartoon making, ...

Gcompris supports many languages such as English, Bahasa Indonesia, Arabic, French, Portuguese, etc. In GCompris, a special attention is made to keep the user interface simple and the graphics pleasant. While simple, GCompris is very addictive for the children, even the youngest. The child can discover the activities alone, but the help of a parent or teacher can be needed to help the child go further.

Install GCompris on Ubuntu
GCompris is available on official Ubuntu repository, so you can type the following command to install it:

• sudo apt-get install gcompris gcompris-sound-id tuxpaint gnucap gnuchess

It will install the most out of GCompris including extra activities. Please change "gcompris-sound-id" with your desired language code e.g. "gcompris-sound-en" for English or "gcompris-sound-ar" for Arabic.

GCompris is also available for Windows and Mac OSX users, please click here to go to the download page.

Let's play :)

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