Digital Art Contest Help (TuxPaint or MS Paint)

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Permalink Reply by Paul Anderson on April 22, 2008 at 7:53pm

Amber,
Yes, you can save files in Tux Paint.
Don't know if you are still thinking of doing this, but I do have a few thoughts.

1. maybe a contest regarding a general subject (spring, sports, etc)
2. don't have any limitations, Tux Paint has the ability to help kids use their imagination and can make any child feel like an artist!
3. You could have an open contest ( can be done at home or school), or a school only contest (helps to make sure that the child is actually the artist, and not older brothers or sisters (parents)). Everyone is a winner with Tux Paint!
4. Could put all pictures into one file and make available on web for download by parents or anyone else (could submit pics to Tux Paint website).

If you need help with any help with Tux Paint, let me know, I just love the program, and enjoy finding answers!

As far as MS Paint, I think Tux Paint is actually more in line (better than, in my opinion) Kid Pix and can't really be compared with MS Paint.
paul

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Aune on May 13, 2008 at 8:02am

I love the contest idea. Maybe you can help me since you are a big fan of TuxPaint. I have Kid Pix for my grades 1-3, but my 4-6 have nothing (two separate buildings). I really want to download TuxPaint but my coord. says no...he has a rule - no open source. I need to convince him that it is safe. Any ideas?
Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Paul Anderson on May 15, 2008 at 9:30pm

Do you use Macs in your school district? Mac OS X is built on top of open source. In fact Apple has Tux Paint available from their site ( http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/kids_learning/tuxpaint.... ) The Safari web browser is based on open source, as are a lot of other components in OS X. Do you use Java in your school district? Did you know that Java is open source? Does your coordinator know this? Outlook and Internet Explorer are not open source, yet they are much more "unsafe" than Tux Paint. I have the same problem here at my school district. I think that some people have a hard time understanding how something free can be good. We have Kid Pix in our district too, we had so many problems with it, that I went looking for an alternative, that alternative was Tux Paint!
You want to use Tux Paint, a good drawing program, that gets excellent reviews ( http://www.tuxpaint.org/reviews/ ), if you have reviewed the program, looked at all the options, compared to other programs, and found that it is the best program that fits your needs and your budgets, why shouldn't it be approved? Because it is free? So is Acrobat Reader, Flash Player and Java, but you are allowed to use those! Most staff in my district use Tux Paint much more than Kid Pix, and the program is used in all schools, k-12! While it may be a simple program, I have seen some very incredible artwork come from it! So I guess my suggestion would be to tell your coordinator that you want to use Tux Paint, you have a copy of the license, and the license says that it can be installed on as many computers as you want. You don't want to use it because it is open source, you want to use it because it is the best program that fits your needs and budget. All program choices should be based on this, if they are free and/or open source, then so be it. When choosing any software, support and everything should be taken into account.
The only difference between the Kid Pix license and the Tux Paint license is that one says you can only use the software on one computer, and the other says you can install on as many computers as you want. Otherwise both licenses more or less say the same thing.
I am sure that if anyone reviews the program as any other program should be reviewed that any one would have to agree that this is perfectly safe ( some of the safest, because of the way it saves and opens files-no browsing), and could (and should) be used wherever appropriate ( along with the other Tux Programs (Math and Tux Type)).
Please let me know if you need anything else, and Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Aune on May 17, 2008 at 1:21pm

Yes, we have macs (10.5) and we use safari and firefox and all that good stuff. Thanks for the info. I'll keep trying!!

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Permalink Reply by Petaris on May 20, 2008 at 9:38am

We switched to Firefox exclusively several years ago now. Our problems with adware and spyware disappeared after that. IE is actually hidden and dissabled on all of our client machines. :)

But back on topic, if they are scared of open source because of the GPL license, like Tux Paint is licensed under, I have to wonder what their reaction is to the MS EULA and associated licenses. Now those are scary. Not to pick on just MS, most commercial licenses are pretty scary if you actually read through them.

- Petaris

"The World is Open. Are You?"

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Permalink Reply by Paul Anderson on May 20, 2008 at 3:04pm

In our district we only support Firefox on Macs (as we had many problems with Safari working with proxies, etc..) and only IE and Firefox on PC.
I think Apple would be much better off putting the efforts that they are putting into Safari, into Firefox!

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on April 23, 2008 at 4:55pm

You might base it on the Doodle 4 Google contest. I just sent in our entries so it's on my mind. You could start with a word like SCHOOL or SUMMER, make an outline template, and pose a question. "What does your best summer look like?" or "What would a perfect school look like?" The template could be uploaded into Paint---just an idea.

Back in the pre-computer days we used to draw our names using letters in the shape of stuff we liked (for instance a baseball bat for an "I" or a ball for an "O"), or drew shapes with the letters that spelled the shape. Did that make sense, it could be done on computer?

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Permalink Reply by Colette Cassinelli on April 23, 2008 at 6:27pm

Nancy - it's fun to see the kids entries for the Google contest. I teach a HS graphic design class. Several kids entered - here is what we submitted (all made with Macromedia Freehand)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23575283@N04/sets/72157603901276672/de...

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Permalink Reply by Nancy Bosch on April 23, 2008 at 6:46pm

Thanks for sharing. Love the pirate peg leg (we did a big study of pirates in the fall) and love the pig's nose. I wish I could do the design work your kids can do---I could come up with brilliant ideas but would never have been able to draw them! Did you realize that the national vote is May 22-- I wonder how they will ever decide.

I think it is neat that one of your high school kids and one of my first graders had the same idea--"What If You Could Touch a Star?"

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Permalink Reply by Amber Coggin on April 24, 2008 at 6:05am

These are all great suggestions! Thank you all so much. I have decided to hold off until the beginning of next school year to do the contest. All my time is being taken up by getting this weekly podcast off the ground.

I really appreciate you responding (and I finally got it figured out how to save to the hard drive). I have been saving some of their work to put in the gallery on our site. If you'd like to see, go here and click on Tux.

Thanks again!

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Irish on April 28, 2008 at 5:05pm

artpad.com is a wonderful ontool you might wish to consider-plus when finished the kids can hang theirs in the virtual art gallery

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer on May 16, 2008 at 7:19am

http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/brushster.htm is another great site. Students can create abstract art online with NGAkids BRUSHster, which is an interactive painting machine for all ages.

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