Open Source and Schools

Open Source Definition

2012-11-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

The term “open source” software is used by some people to mean more or less the same category as free software. It is not exactly the same class of software: they accept some licenses that we consider too restrictive, and there are free software licenses they have not accepted. However, the differences in extension of the category are small: nearly all free software is open source, and nearly all open source software is free.

– Free Software Foundation
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html

OpenSource Definition

Openoffice.org Helpful Documents.

2009-12-03T05:50:00.000-08:00

FAQs: http://user-faq.openoffice.org
Documentation: http://documentation.openoffice.org
Support: http://support.openoffice.org

Open Office Update

2009-12-01T18:02:00.001-08:00

Open Office Update: http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Feature_Freeze_Testing_3.2

Free Open Office Tutorials

2009-11-24T12:42:00.000-08:00

Free Open Office Tutorials from Presentation Soft: http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/openofficeimpress/tp/071021openoffice_beginguide.htm

Open Office Tutorial: Tutorials for Open Office

2009-11-24T12:35:00.000-08:00

Tutorials for Open Office: http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/teachers.html

Open Office Tutorial: Learn Open Office

2009-11-24T12:31:00.001-08:00

Learn Open Office: http://www.learnopenoffice.org/tutorials.htm

Google Chrome OS

2009-11-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/20/google.os/index.html
This is a link to an article about the new Google Chrome OS and the netbooks they are planning to release next year.

HippoCampus

2009-11-20T08:53:00.001-08:00

HippoCampus: http://hippocampus.org HippoCampus offers a multimedia lessons and course materials to help you with your instruction, homework and studies.

Scratch

2009-11-19T04:56:00.000-08:00

Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/ Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. It is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

2009-11-18T20:54:00.000-08:00

2009-11-18T20:18:00.000-08:00

http://crenk.com/26-new-and-awesome-web-apps-you-probably-dont-know-about/

This is so cool! I haven't tried very many of them and they are more Web 2.0 than Open Source, but I couldn't resist sharing! Can't wait to try more of them. Post what you think!!!!!

2009-11-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Joomla

2009-11-18T19:13:00.000-08:00

Joomla: http://www.joomla.org/ Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.

TEACHER TUBE

2009-11-17T07:03:00.000-08:00

TEACHER TUBE: http://teachertube.com Teacher Tube provides an online community for sharing instructional videos.

OPENOFFICE

2009-11-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

OPENOFFICE: www.openoffice.org OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project.

SCRIBUS

2009-11-17T06:58:00.000-08:00

SCRIBUS: www.scribus.net Scribus brings award-winning professional page layout and publishing features to computers.

STELLARIUM

2009-11-17T06:48:00.001-08:00

STELLARIUM: http://stellarium.org Stellarium is a free Open Source planetarium. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, and can be used with planetarium projectors.

CELESTIA

2009-11-17T06:46:00.000-08:00

CELESTIA: www.shatters.net/celestia The free space simulation that lets users explore the universein three dimensions. Celestia comes with a large catalog ofstars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, andspacecraft, as well as a catalog of additional downloads. Students and teachers can plot a course and navigate a 3D solar system.

Sakai

2009-11-17T06:15:00.000-08:00

Sakai: http://sakaiproject.org/ Leading educational institutions throughout the world choose Sakai to enable powerful teaching and learning and research collaboration. Depending on where you are in the world, Sakai might be called a Course Management System (CMS), a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or Learning Management System (LMS). While Sakai is typically used for teaching and learning (similar to products like Blackboard and Moodle) we call it a Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) because it embraces uses beyond the classroom.

Moodle

2009-11-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

MOODLE: www.moodle.org A free, Open Source course management system—It can be downloaded and used on any computer (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a 50,000-student university.

Tux Math

2009-11-17T05:52:00.001-08:00

TUX MATH: http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxmath/ TuxMath is an arcade game that helps kids practice their math facts. The main goal is to make it effective and fun!

Gimp

2009-11-17T05:48:00.000-08:00

GIMP: www.gimpshop.com GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. GIMP works on many operating systems, in many languages.

Tux Paint

2009-11-17T05:46:00.000-08:00

TUX PAINT: http://www.tuxpaint.org/ OR http://sourceforge.net/projects/tuxpaint/ A drawing program for young children with sound effects, a cartoon character, and fun 'rubber stamp'/'stickerbook' pictures.

Tux Typing

2009-11-17T05:43:00.000-08:00

TUX TYPING: http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxtype/ Tux Typing is an educational typing program for children starring Tux, the Linux Penguin. The program includes two video game-style activities for younger players, with phrases and finger lessons for older students.

Graphing Calculator

2009-11-17T05:41:00.001-08:00

GRAPHING CALCULATOR: http://gcalc.sourceforge.net/ GraphCalc is a very gui (graphical user interface) graphing calculator. It has been called a good replacement for a TI-85. It is a must for any high school math student.

GeoGebra

2009-11-17T05:36:00.000-08:00

GEOGEBRA: http://www.geogebra.org/download/ GeoGebra is dynamic mathematics software for all levels of education that joins arithmetic, geometry, algebra and calculus. It offers multiple representations of objects in its graphics, algebra, and spreadsheet views that are all dynamically linked.

2009-11-17T04:38:00.001-08:00

Free Online Games
50 States: http://pivotentertainment.com/50states or http://pivotentertainment.com/50states2
Take a blank map of the US 50 States and place the states puzzle style into their correct locations. It sounds simple, but you may find you don't know as much about the locations of the 50 states as you think.

There is also a 50 States version 2. This one plays the same, but it uses a satellite map in which to place the states instead of a plain US outline map.

Arcademicskillbuilder site: http://arcademicskillbuilders.com/
There is large variety of educational video games that offer an innovative approach to teaching basic academic skills by incorporating features of arcade games and educational practices into fun online games that will motivate, intrigue, and teach your students.

Play games for free right on the site! No need to download and install!

Guess the Google: http://grant.robinson.name/projects/guess-the-google/
This is one that you may need to try to appreciate. Guess The Google presents a collage of 20 images that were retrieved from a single Google image search. Your job is to guess the search term.

Guess the Google is more fun and addictive than it sounds. You have 20 seconds for each group of images and can guess as many times as you can in that 20 seconds. You get a score based on how quickly you come up with the correct answer. Some of the groups of images are easy to guess and some are more difficult. This would be a good game to play when teaching Internet searching.

Magic Pen: http://nutstation.com/Game/MagicPen/MagicPenFlash.swf

The object of the Magic Pen game is pretty simple. You need to touch all the flags on a level with a ball. The interesting and fun part of the game is that you need to draw all the parts you use to solve each level. You are given a crayon as your drawing tool.
You can draw circles and (almost) free form shapes. You can draw pins to attach one drawn piece to another in a static configuration and hinges to allow pieces to pivot. The amount of creativity you can use to solve some of the more difficult levels is almost unlimited.
Here are a few hints to keep in mind.
• The eraser is your friend. It is not only for correcting mistakes.
• Triangles make good wedges.
• Remember that you can place pins and hinges on the ball.
• The whole thing is based on physics.

Dots: http://wildstyledesign.com/dots
This is not your grandmother's dots game where you connect dots with a pencil. This is a wild adrenaline pumping action game that will keep you on your toes. You must hit the red dots that give you points and the yellow power-up dots while avoiding the evil purple dots that kill you.

Soccer Juggle: http://wildstyledesign.com/soccer
Soccer Juggle is very simple. You just need to click your mouse to keep the soccer ball in the air. It sounds easy, but it requires good eye hand coordination and good timing.

Bubbles: http://wildstyledesign.com/bubbles
Bubbles is a variation of Samegame with some very nice features. If you turn on highlighting and set the mode to "shifter" it makes the higher levels a little easier to win. A word of warning -- this, and the other Samegame versions, can be very addicting.

Shuffle: http://shockwave.com/content/shuffle/sis/shuffle.swf
The object of Shuffle is to knock your opponents balls off the table while keeping as many of your balls on the table as possible. The game visuals are very colorful and attractive. The game play makes for an addicting and fun time waster.
Each game consists of a number of rounds. The first play to win four rounds wins the game. Each time you win a round you get less balls for the next round. This keeps the game very challenging. You always get the first shot and that is usually and advantage if played well. You get extra points for knocking out more than one ball at a time. You get points for every ball you have left of the table at the end of a round.

The games are pretty short, but Shuffle is one of those games that you always just want to play one more time and before you know it an hour or two has passed and you still want to play just one more time.

Mahjongg: http://freebies.about.com/od/onlinegames/qt/mahjongg.htm

There are many Mahjongg games around the Net, but I particularly enjoy this one by Thomas Weibel. It is written entirely in DHTML and should work with any browser and operating system. After the page is fully loaded you can even continue playing if you disconnect from the Internet.

There are quite a few options you can set with the buttons at the bottom of the page. You can change from the traditional tile set to one with playing cards. If the display is too small for your taste you can click on the zoom button and play with a much larger board.

Try different tile layouts -like the one that is a simple 8x9 square and two tiles high. It is more challenging than it first appears.

If you get stuck and can't find a move you can use the hint button to show you an available move. If you just want to know how many possible moves there are you can click on the moves button. If you need information on how to play the game just click on the help button.

Totem Destroyer: http://armorgames.com/files/games/totem-destroyer-1871.swf
The object of Totem Destroyer is to explode a prescribed number of stacked blocks without letting the golden idol hit the ground. The early levels are easy, but it gets more interesting as the levels progress. It is a physics based game and you need to think about what each move will do. You need to plan ahead to have a safe place for the idol to land.

Workshop Schedule

2009-11-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

I am planning to do an overview of some different OpenSource software at the beginning of the workshop and then let people have a hands-on experience with a few of the titles. If you are bringing your own laptop you may download and experiment with the title of your choice! We will share our experiences at the end of the session.

OpenSource Software: Your Answer to Budget Issues

2009-11-06T20:14:00.000-08:00

I will be posting information about OpenSource that schools can use as a free alternative to purchased software. On the right side I will post links to software that you might be interested in exploring.

2009-10-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

As I continue to contemplate Web 2.0 and the use of OpenSource software for students I am actually feeling some frustration. Web 2.0 tools (google, etc) are great for schools because they are free for schools and usually require very little effort on the part of the school tech team. With OpenSource software it is also free but there is often effort needed by the tech team to install and sometimes setup the software. As I try to narrow down this top I am going to start listing Web 2.0 apps vs OpenSource software, sharing the pros and cons of both.

2009-09-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Now I realize I need to look at how both Cloud computing and OpenSource affect learning and collaboration with students. Hmm....

2009-09-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

For right now I have decide to try and incorporate both ideas into. I am currently working on a research project with faculty friend and we are using Google.docs (use of Cloud computing and definitely an example of ubiquitous learning) for educational students to communicate between the US and Jordan. I think I will gain a lot of information by just being involved with this project.

On the other hand I am also doing a number of presentations on OpenSource, possible attending an OpenSource conference in October, and I have chosen this topic for my "extra" project at work.

They do work together from the standpoint that they are free and they are software. OpenSource is just housed on the computer or server and cloud computing is stored on someone elses server. Of course one of the big differences also is that OpenSources has a lot of programers working on the design. There is a huge OpenSource community.

2009-09-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Welome to my HCI blog. Right now I am still trying to decide if I want to do Ubiquitous Learning with Mobile Computing and K-12 Students 0r How the OpenSource Community has Changed How Many View Software Choices (or something along those line).

Mobile Computing (including Cloud Commuting) continues to intrigue me. We ask our students to collaborate but don't always give them a way to do it. With iTouches/Phones, Data phones, Mini-computers we have a way of communicating virtually anywhere we are.

OpenSource also intrigues me. I attended an K-12 OpenMinds conference last year in Indianapolis and might possible attend again in Oct. It was an unbelievably rewarding conference. The developers were in all the sessions I was attending -- it was so important to them to learn what people wanted. In one session the presenter didn't show up so one of the developers took over and did a great job on sharing the program.

Guess I will need to decide -- feel free to share your thoughts on what I should do1