Welcome to NCS-Tech!

Good morning everyone,

I’ve been a big fan of free / open source (FOSS) educational software for years. Although we are a PC district (Microsoft Windows & Office rule the day) we use a great deal of FOSS, particuarly in my elementary computer lab. Programs like Tux Paint, Sebran, Owl & Mouse programs, Ray’s Letters and Numbers, and countless others (including, soon, Scratch) round out a software suite that helps us keep lessons creative, interesting and interactive.

So I was thrilled when I saw a tweet from Maggie Verster (thanks Maggie!) of Johannesburg, South Africa about a collection of literally thousands of FOSS programs created by Central Queensland University. Here’s what you get when you download and burn the DVD image for Windows machines:

Several other variants are available, and the whole packaging approach is brilliant, super easy to navigate. Take a look at these subject areas covered!

• The Arts (arts, dance, drama, music, painting, photography, multimedia)
• English (vocabulary, online books, mindmap, educational tools, reading)
• Health and Physical Education (health & fitness, health software)
• Cultural Literacy and Languages (Japanese, German, Spanish)
• Mathematics (calculators, graphs, computations, algebra, courses, tutorials)
• Science (chemistry, physics, stars, geology, biology, weather)
• Study of Society and the Environment (history, geography, government)
• Technology (graphics, programming, manuals, editors, development, cms)
• Desktop (more office tools, communication tools, misc tools)
• Office Tools (word processors, spreadsheets, communications, misc tools)
• Networking (remote access, web tools, network management, virtual machines)
• Security (anti-virus, firewalls, forensics, diagnostics )
• Business (personal finance, ERP, point-of-sale, data mining)
• Engineering (civil, mechanical, electrical)
• Open Source Web Sites

I’m browsing the DVD now. Note that some programs are ready-to-use .EXE installers and others are compressed archives that need to be expanded first. Either way, this collection is worth exploring – you can’t beat the price – a little of your time!

Hope this helps,

-kj-