By ICS Practicum Committee
On Friday, 26 January 2007 (11:15 am) at NCAS Auditorium

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By Smart Telecommunications
On Friday, 26 January 2007 (10:30 am) at NCAS Auditorium

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The ICS Training programs were developed to put into action the Institute's third mission to continuously upgrade the computing personnel of industry and government through training. The training programs center on common office productivity software and programming languages used in day to day business and research activities. Usually, the trainings are conducted during the Summer term with only a few programs being conducted by request during the regular terms. All training programs are conducted in fully air-conditioned training rooms with one trainee-one computer ratio. Manuals, handouts and exercises to hone skills are provided while certificates of attendance are given out to all participants who finished each program.

In accordance to the memo from Chancellor Luis Rey Velasco regarding the University’s shift to open source software the Institute of Computer Science (ICS) conducted the Linux Training for Desktop Users from January 30 to March 3, 2006. Participants came from the different units of the campus and a few were from the Municipal Office of Los Banos. Professor Vladimir Mariano, PhD, the head of ICS Computer Training Division spearheaded the activity.

Each batch of participants was required to attend sessions starting from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. for a whole week. Monday classes were held at the ICS Lecture Hall 2 where attendees were given a demonstration of Mandrake Linux installation. Afterwards, the class was split into five sections handled by two ICS instructors each. In the laboratory, the trainees had hands-on experience in using open source software such as OpenOffice.org Writer, OpenOffice.org Calc, OpenOffice.org Impress, Mozilla, Amarok and Kaffeine among others.

Upgrading your computer? The following guidelines from ICS experts could be very helpful:

1. Evaluate the function of each user. Pentium III or more advanced computers with 256MB RAM would be for those managing databases; Pentium II and older computers will do for inputting data and correspondence.
2. Replace at least half of your Pentium II and older computer equipments with new units. The replaced equipments maybe used as source for spare parts, as these are no longer available in the market. Note that generally, the monitors/video display of existing computer units compatible with new computers.

Ever since the concept of western formal education was introduced, the core of education has always been the transfer of information from the teacher to the student. From word of mouth, to written books, and to structured teaching methods, the efficiency of this transfer of information has evolved greatly since its inception with the help of modern technology.

Nowadays, all major universities in the world rely heavily on the most powerful tool of information transfer today, the Internet. Only recently however, has the role of a computer network played a very intrusive role with regards to actual teaching methods in education. Perhaps this can be most effectively illustrated with an example.

In an effort to enhance student skills and involve students in IT/CS related problems, the Student Welfare Committee came up with the following ideas. It must be noted however, that they are still in their conceptual stages:

• Open Systems Development Program. ICS is planning to involve students in small-to-medium scale software development projects in open-source style. The aim of this program is to hone the skills of students in programming and application development and is also to create a possible testing ground for their skills in computer theories, algorithms and data structures and the like. Any ICS student can be a part of a software development project. Other details of this program are still being ironed out.