What's a Linux?: Creating & Teaching College Courses at 24

Ever wondered how to get into university teaching or what it's like once you jump in? How about if you no older than any of your students? Mark will explore his experiences with teaching at Eastern Michigan University and ITT Technical Institute, going through everything from how to break into teaching, to what it's like to write curriculum, to how to deal with 27 students and 24 computers in your Linux labs. Mark will share not only his opinions and thoughts on the journey, but also give tips to make yours easier.

Transcript

1. What’s a Linux? Creating & Teaching College Courses at 24 Mark Stanislav mark.stanislav@gmail.com 25
2. Or... Surviving the Zombie Kitty Apocalypse
3. Professional PHP Web Developer Entrepreneur in IT Security Start-Up Linux/FreeBSD System’s Administrator Adjunct Lecturer Academic B.S. Networking and IT Administration M.S. IA/Network Security (in progress...) My Background... Today’s Topic
4. Timeline-o-Teaching 05/22/09 Left Start-Up 05/29/09 Started New Job 06/03/09 H ired to ITT Tech 06/09/09 H ired to EM U 09/10/09 Started at EM U 09/14/09 Started at ITT Tech
5. “I saw your application...” Applied for two positions at ITT Technical Institute Adjunct instructor for Linux administration Full-time instructor for information security Resume got me an interview for both Teaching experience made me eligible for one The ITT Technical Institute Process...
6. Disclaimer Eastern Michigan University did not send me here “Promotions company in Detroit” did not send me here ITT Tech sure as hell did not send me here. All views expressed are surely my own...
7. Getting the ITT Tech Job “Demo lesson plan” consisted of me speaking for less than 5 minutes; handful of slides Three ‘important people’ showed up half way Yes, ~2.5 minutes in something lasting 5 minutes. Was criticized for not moving around more when they didn’t provide me with a projector remote... I was hired soon after; assumably because I spoke english, was breathing, and confused them enough about HIDS/NIDS
8. Orientation Day “Students are customers first, students second.” READ: $$$$ “We have shareholders to think about. ESI is public.” READ: $$$$ “Help make sure people pass [to the next class].” READ: $$$$ “These students pay $43,000 for an associate degree.” READ: What The Fuck?
9. Instructor Tasks Student missed class? Personally call them that night. Print grades for ~30 students, 3 times a semester. Take attendance every week within 1 hour of start time If you speak to a student about missing a class or a problem they have; create a report about it “Important information” designed by curriculum board Student doesn’t have homework? Tell them to leave while you review. Why yes, this *is* middle school.
10. Curriculum Course packet is gospel: Cannot change order of weeks “What’s important” determined by ITT Tech Instructors don’t make the final exam Extra credit is basically disallowed to be given In September 2009, class was based on Fedora 9 Fedora 9 released 05/13/08 Fedora 11 released 06/09/09
11. Rip-Off Math One building; no “campus” One IT guy for building Handful of administrators Lackluster equipment $0 $8,250 $16,500 $24,750 $33,000 3 Credit Hours at ITT Tech Adjunct Pay 1 Student 25 Students ITT Profit ($1,600) ($1,350) ($33,750) ($32,150)
12. ITT Tech Summary You don’t have to know what you are speaking about Baby-sit your students to pass the class. Adults? Ha! Student skips 1/2 the quarter? Give every opportunity to pass. If they don’t come back, no more $$$$ Gives instructor bonuses for grades and attendance; incentive to inflate numbers. Yep! More $$$$ Do Not Go Here. Seriously...Do Not Go Here.
13. Arbitrary Funny Quote #1 “Why isn't it just help chkconfig and not man chkconfig? Why do they make it the least sensible thing possible?” …1 minute later… “...but I love running cat /dev/urandom, it's fun to watch.” People find happiness in weird places....
15. How I Was Hired at EMU Good relationship with undergraduate program head He found out I was going to be teaching at ITT Tech EMU needed someone to takeover Intro to Linux Knew of my professional background Regarded me as a capable individual to take the spot Rather simple, really.
16. Undergraduate Applied Information Assurance Information Assurance Management Information Assurance Cryptography Networking and IT Administration Graduate Information Assurance Network Security Digital Investigations NSA Center for Academic Excellence National IA Education and Training Program Mapped Courses to CNSS Agency Standards 4011 and 4012
17. Creating a Lab Exercise 1. Create a general idea of what the lab should teach 2. Try to select enough content to fill-up lab time 3. Run through your exercise noting what the steps are 4. Add/cut content to make it fit your ideal timeline 5. Test your altered lab exercise and take more notes 6. Test again following your lab as it is written and adjust 7. Repeat #6 until it works every time, without fail
18. Building Your Curriculum Making 11 labs from scratch, fully tested: 25 hours Writing 3 quizzes + final exam: 6 hours Developing class project: 1 hour Creating PPT slides for all lab exercises: 5 hours Writing a new syllabus: 2 hours Uploading content to online courseware: 2 hours Writing a semester-long lesson plan: 2 hours Researching chapters related to content: 3 hours Creating binder + grading sheets + extras: 4 hours
19. Curriculum Build Total Time Spent: 40 Hours Money Made: $0.00 Validity: 1-2 semesters Preparing the curriculum BEFORE the semester gives you sanity and students better education. You have to keep it current to teach IT and not suck New OS release? Retest labs and update screenshots A good curriculum will make students feel progress
20. Lab #1 - Installing CentOS 5.4 into VMWare 7 & sudo Stanislav Lab Steps: I. Configuring VMWare 7 Workstation A. Open the VMWare Workstation shortcut from your desktop. B. Click New Virtual Machine. C. Select Custom and click Next. D. For the hardware compatibility screen, leave the settings alone and click Next. E. If required by your instructor, select Installer Disc, otherwise configure Installer disc image file. F. Your virtual machine name should be CentOS 5.4. G. Click Browse and select your USB drive. Click Make New Folder and call it NITA412. Click OK. H. Please ensure that your location is set for the USB drive. Click Next. I. Leave the processor configuration alone and click Next. J. Configure the virtual machine to use 1024MB of RAM. Click Next. K. Configure your networking to be Bridged. This setting is very important. Click Next. L. Leave the I/O settings alone and click Next. M. Make sure Create a new virtual disk is selected and then click Next. N. Verify that SCSI is the selected type of disk and click Next. O. Allocate 20GB of disk space for the drive. Click Next. P. Leave the disk filename alone and click Next. Q. Click Finish. Click Power on this virtual machine if it doesnʼt automatically start. II. Starting the CentOS 5.4 Installer A. On the initial boot screen, type linux text and choose OK. B. Select Skip when prompted to perform the media test and choose OK. C. click OK on the welcome screen for the installer. D. Select English as your language and choose OK. E. Select us as the keyboard layout and choose OK. F. Select Yes when prompted about erasing all data on the hard drive. II. Partitioning the Hard Drive & Configuring the Boot-Loader A. On the “Partition Type” screen, select Create custom layout and choose OK. B. Select the line where it says “Free” from the partition editor and choose New. Configure the partition structure as listed below, making sure to setup the filesystem and partition size accurately. 1. Note: After inputting your size for a partition, the final result will vary slightly in the list. 2. Note: You will notice an ʻExtendedʼ partition structure for /dev/sda4; this is normal. # Mount Point Filesystem Type Size / ext3 3072MB (3GB) /usr ext3 8192MB (8GB) /home ext3 5120MB (5GB) /var ext3 2048MB (2GB) None swap 2039MB (2GB) C. Review your partition layout with a classmate or the instructor and then choose OK. D. On the boot loader configuration screens (five of them) select OK for each. Sample Lab Exercise Explanatory title Logical section structure Concise sentences Slim usage of font effects Builds upon earlier labs No plaintext formatting Commands? Change font. Reasonable length of work Get to the point!
21. Presentation Slides For Labs Screenshots: Step-by-step of how the lab should work Highlight certain output or indicators of success I don’t do this yet but will be for next semester Focus on the benefit of the given task(s) in relation to how it gets the student closer to finishing a major goal “By adding this module, you now enable SSL support” Emphasize the critical slides and segue into larger lecture topics “...SELinux will provide you Mandatory Access Controls, this differs from DAC because...”
22. Arbitrary Funny Quote #2 “Volvo is like Linux…” "That's the standard? I'm going to do it some other kind of way!" He does drive a Volvo.
23. Intro to Linux Surveys “Learn all I need to learn about Linux to make me marketable. I want a practical knowledge of the details so I can interpret to people who don't know about it.” “Learn how to utilize linux because that is what most of the hacking software is based in.” “Better understanding of computer language” What/why do you want to learn Linux?
24. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% EMU FA 09 ITT FA 09 EMU WI 10 % of Students None <1 1-2 2-3 >3 Number of Years Experience with Linux
25. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% EMU FA 09 ITT FA 09 EMU WI 10 % of Students Yes No Command Line Interface Experience
26. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% EMU FA 09 ITT FA 09 EMU WI 10 % of Students Windows Mac OS Linux Primary Day-to-Day Operating System
27. Students Are Respectful I’ve received more “sir” prefixed statements in a few semesters than the totality of my life prior People call me professor, despite me explaining I am not a professor Telling people just to call me by my first name, they generally default to one of the aforementioned words No one so far has ever been overtly rude to me in class or disrespected me openly for any reason When I say something in class, people do it and don’t question it... unless they got a quiz answer wrong :)
28. The Worst Parts of Teaching It’s really hard to see a student who doesn’t care about class Keeping track of one-off situations like grades & student issues Grading; uploading documents; fixing slides last minute Network downtime/broken lab machines Getting past the wall of initial curriculum building madness Feeling like an asshole because someone did poorly on a test Students that don’t fully read documents you prepare
29. Arbitrary Funny Quote #3 “So, these tasks we are doing, we have no idea what this software is. Are we supposed to be researching or something?” This is just frustrating... regarding a class project... Really...?
30. The Best Parts of Teaching Mentoring students to be successful after college Seeing growth in people you spend time helping Sharing your unique experiences to benefit others Inspiring students to at least try something new Having people listen to what you’ve worked hard to learn Making new friends in colleagues and students Learning more than you knew before about people, education, and your own course material Free parking passes!
31. My Take-Aways So Far... Students aren’t as apathetic as I was expecting (or remember from my own undergraduate work) Being a little bit of a hard-ass can go a long way in motivating someone to try harder/care more No matter how much you give some students, they won’t work any harder than they want to anyways Command respect and you will receive it Writing a fresh curriculum is a labor of love Be prepared to feel ignored or boring; it happens! Ask for feedback and make yourself a better educator
32. Hints For Aspiring Teachers Ask students to e-mail you everything. It really is hard to keep track of 50 people’s lives and individual needs Follow-up with your department head if you are concerned about a student’s progress: be first to act Leave your ego at the door; share experience and not how awesome you are at the topic they are learning Stay as late as you can with students who care about class Never make students think you don’t care to be there Be friendly but don’t be a pushover to win them over Time spent > money earned. Love this profession or quit.
33. It’s fun to mess with your students when they are stressed over time-restricted class projects worth 21% of their grade.... =)
34. All your base are belong to us....
35. Tux makes an appearance!
36. Okay, so I’m nice sometimes too...
37. Next Steps For Me? Taking Spring/Summer off from teaching; I need it. Update curriculum for CentOS 5.4 -> 5.5 Update lab slides to be more useful to students Pursue making an Amazon Web Services class that will leverage Linux classes to deploy custom EC2 AMIs and integrate with AWS offerings (ELB, EBS, S3, etc.) Finishing up M.S. December 2011 Doctorate...? Hopefully. We’ll see how I feel in 2012.
38. Contact E-Mail: mark.stanislav@gmail.com Twitter: mstanisl Site: uncompiled.com
39. Thank you... questions? Mark Rocks! He’s 31337 Word.