Planning ahead

This past weekend I started to focus on a course I teach in the spring Semester, Intro to SQL. It's a great course to offer high school students. They learn about SQL and the MySQL database something most high schoolers won't run into during their tenure. This is going to be the second year the course runs because of the success of the first year.

I'm looking to change the course significantly in the way the information is given to the students and it's so exciting to prepare for this course. I have found lots of information through different searches. I especially find it useful when I find interviews with MySQL creators. It brings things down to earth with the students showing them that anyone can create something amazing.

The most useful part about teaching a course using MySQL is that MySQL is Open Source and free (as is all of LAMP). There's no paperwork necessary or fund approvals to purchase this software. It's very difficult to turn down something that is free, powerful, and used by large companies as a reliable system.

The one thing I haven't been able to find yet and maybe it doesn't exist yet is Open Source courses for educators to run. The courses that are created by educators in Course Management Systems could be distributed. It would also be nice to see companies such as MySQL AB create a course for high school students and distribute it for free. It's great marketing and giving back to their future users all at the same time with little effort and time necessary.

Just a thought!