Learnin More and More (Day Four)

We started with a series of questions about operating systems. We talked about different versions of hardware and software, using the example of the soon-to-be-released new iPhone (which we were all drooling over).
A.J. wrote some questions on the board: What is the difference between Installing and Upgrading an operating system? What are the differences between different versions/types of operating systems? What is the power of an operating system? The Eliza added: What are the advantages/disadvantages of having different types of OS? and What is the difference between ordinary software and and OS? None of these questions have necessarily been answered yet, but that isn't the point right now, since we are thinking about what we want to understand.

The students then came up with questions.

Alli: What goes in to making an OS?
Bronson: Do they do it in teams?

David: What are all the different OS in use and what are the advantages of each one?

Richie: What ARE the different OS? What's different about them?

Everyone shut off the monitors to prepare to listen. A.J. said that they would get different pieces to the answers as they go through the lesson today.

GUIs . . .
Graphical User Interface

Game: Name that GUI! What is that operating system!

We looked at a lot of images of older and newer GUIs and identified which one they were. ( I felt old because I had used the oldest of the Mac GUIs from 1984!!)

After a short break, during which we raided the vending machines, we looked at the schedule from the rest of the camp. Then, we booted in to Windows 7 and installed Chrome, Rocket Dock, Firefox, and Cool Iris.

A.J. talked to us about drivers and how to install them.and we played with the different software we could download to enhance our computers.

We then booted in to Ubuntu and used the free office  software to make a presentation to answer one of the class questions. After finishing the presentation, students had some free time to play around with Linux and see what they could find and use. Most students went right to the games! A.J. then showed everyone how to use the terminal and type in commands in Linux. It was very different from what students are used to!

Then . . . Permit test time! (And Students took it through Linux!).