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Free and Open Source Educational Software: THE MOTHER LODE!
6 CommentsGood 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-
Published on November 13, 2008 · Filed under: Software;
6 Responses to “Free and Open Source Educational Software: THE MOTHER LODE!”
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Thanks for this find. I appreciate FOSS too as I am a technology integration specialist for two elementary schools in SC, USA.
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Happy to help! Pay it forward! :-)
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Frank said on November 13th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Thanks .. nice list. I facebooked and plurked it. Now I am going to try some of these out!
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Ronna Van Veghel said on November 13th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Kevin,
Thank you for this great site. As a Tech Integrator in an elementary school, I always search for Open Source solutions. This is a great site with lots to offer. I recently found your website and wanted to say thank you for posting such great resources for elementary educators! -
Frank, Ronna – thanks for commenting and for reading! :-) -kj-
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If you are using Ray’s Teacher Report Writer, then check out this site – http://www.freeducation.co.uk which provides over 330 different report comment banks – originally designed for use for a single primary school in the UK but easy to change!
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