Free and Open Source Software Recommendations!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on May 18, 2007 at 8:18pm

(cross-posted from www.SteveHargadon.com, where there are pictures and links)

Ready for Prime Time: Open Source Programs for the K-12 Desktop

This week I moderated a CoSN webcast on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with guests Laura Taylor (the director of the Office of Learning Resources at the Indiana Department of Education) and Jim Klein (the director of Information Services & Technology at Saugus Union School District in California). Below is a starter list of FOSS programs we came up with for the K-12 desktop that you can start using in the classroom right away--and that can be given to students for free.

Audacity
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

* Record live audio
* Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs
* Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files
* Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together
* Change the speed or pitch of a recording
* And more!

Blender
http://www.blender.org
Blender is the Open Source Software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation, and playback. Blender allows students and teachers to animate 3D computer graphics.

Celestia
http://www.shatters.net/celestia
The free space simulation that lets users explore the universe in three dimensions. Celestia comes with a large catalog of stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets, and spacecraft, as well as a catalog of additional downloads. Students and teachers can plot a course and navigate a 3D solar system. See also http://www.stellarium.org

Dia
http://live.gnome.org/Dia
Dia is inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio', though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. Teachers and students can use it to draw many different kinds of diagrams.

FreeMind
http://freemind.sourceforge.net
FreeMind is a premier, free mind-mapping software written in Java. Teachers and students can use mind map diagrams to represent words, ideas, tasks or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. It is used to generate, visualize, structure and classify ideas, and as an aid in planning, organization, problem solving, and decision making.


GIMP
http://www.gimp.org or
http://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.
See also http://www.inkscape.org

KNOPPIX
http://www.knoppix.org
Knoppix is actually a full operating system with a collection of programs, and is downloadable as a .iso CD image file. KNOPPIX is the technician's best friend, and actually runs as what is known as a "Live CD," meaning that you can boot KNOPPIX from your CD ROM drive and it doesn't affect (or need) the PC's hard drive at all. KNOPPIX gives you an incredible variety of utility and recovery programs for troubleshooting and solving PC issues.

Moodle
http://www.moodle.org
Moodle is a course management system, designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. 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. We're calling it a desktop program since you access Moodle using the web browser, but it does need to be installed on a server somewhere.

OpenOffice.org
http://www.OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org the product is a multi-platform office productivity suite. It includes the key desktop applications, such as a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, and drawing program, with a user interface and feature set similar to other office suites. Sophisticated and flexible, OpenOffice.org also works transparently with a variety

Permalink Reply by Don on July 30, 2008 at 3:00pm

A good free fractal generator (images based on mathematical stuff) that kids enjoy using is Apophysis. Homepage for tutorials, downloads etc is:

Permalink Reply by Ginger Lewman on May 19, 2007 at 11:01am

I'm so glad you're putting this info out here. Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can contribute a lot of ideas, other than my students and I will use them to work though our curriculum, and we can report back how it worked for us!

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on May 19, 2007 at 1:38pm

Here is the list from Alix Peshette (see http://classroom20.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=649749%3ABlogPost... for program links):

I love Open Source and Freeware! As a past junior high computer science teacher, I was always looking at software prices and multiplying them x 34 workstations. Even the least expensive software took a pretty large bite out of the department budget. I spent a lot of time researching, installing, testing and using Open Source and freeware as the only viable alternative.

In the years since I was in the computer lab, Open Source and Freeware have gained a higher visibility and a well-deserved respectability in the technology world. The egalitarian paradigm of Open Source software is hopefully the way of the future!

So, here are some of my favorite picks:

ieSpell – The Blogger’s friend! This little gem is an Internet Explorer spell-checker for input text boxes on web pages.

CamStudio - A really decent screen capture program. CamStudio records activity from your screen and audio from a microphone into AVI video files and can also convert the AVIs into Streaming Flash videos (SWFs) using its built-in SWF Producer.


Audio Tools:

Audacity - Probably the most popular audio recording software in the K-12 tech arena. This software runs on almost everything; Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X, and GNU/Linux.

Levelator - A great companion to Audacity for podcasting and radio theatre. Levelator adjusts the audio levels for variations from one speaker to the next. Levelator runs on Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) or 10.3 (Panther)

Sony AcidXPress - It's easy to create original music-even if you're new to loop-based music software. The power of the application stems from its ability to take any audio loop and make it fit into the tempo of a project. This fully functioning freeware has some high-end features, but pop-ups inviting one to purchase companion software can be annoying. But hey – it’s free!



Among the paint, image editing and graphics programs I have known and loved:

Photo Story 3 – This very cool software falls somewhere between simple graphics program, presentation software and video editor. Once one uses Photo Story 3, it’s hard to go back to PowerPoint! Win 2000 and higher

PhotoFiltre – This is a very nice basic graphics editor with a great selection of useful and fun artistic filters. The interface is pretty standard and simple – great for kids.

GimpShop – Finally, a version of Gimp that has a nice familiar interface! This is the closest thing to a free copy of PhotoShop.

Deep Paint - Deep Paint integrates stroke-by-stroke artistic photo-cloning, fully editable brush and canvas settings, and paint functionality for realistic and stunning paint effects.

Paint.net - Free image editing and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

TuxPaint - Tux Paint is a free drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (preschool and K-6). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program.

ArtRage - Paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, and more. You can paint with gold leaf, silver foil, and other metallic colors. You can even load in your photos as Tracing Images to help you recreate them as paintings. Runs on Windows and Mac OS X

The Rasterbator - The Rasterbator is an application which creates rasterized versions of images that can be printed and assembled into enormous posters.

Andy Warhol Replicator - An application for adding Pop-Art effects to your digital photos. The freeware comes with ready to use filter effects pre-defined in various color compositions.


Audio and Video Tools:

Rad Video Tools –The Freeware RAD Video Tools are a set of utilities for processing video, animation, and sound data. RAD Video Tools run on Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, and XP.


Web Authoring

Nvu - A complete Web Authoring System for Linux desktop users as well as Microsoft Windows and Macintosh users to rival programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver. Now anyone can create web pages and manage a website with no technical expertise or knowledge of HTML.


Well, I’m sure I could dig up some more favorites but these make a good start. Got any Open Source and Freeware favorites you would like to share? Please do!

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on May 19, 2007 at 1:39pm

Susan adds (http://classroom20.ning.com/profile/tsairi):

Great list, thanks for sharing. Here are a couple more that I have found useful,

Unfreez: http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/
Create simple animated gifs by dropping your images into this tiny program. No bells and whistles, very easy to use

Scratch: http://scratch.mit.edu/index.html
Game maker - a great way to introduce students to programming.

CCleaner - http://ccleaner.com A simple program that removes unused and temporary files from Windows machines.

FlipzIVflash - http://www.flipz.tv/
animated Flash talking characters and desktop software with integrated tts or recording and audio processing.

And heres one that my students reccommend

Pivot - http://www.geocities.com/peter_bone_uk/pivot.html
create stick figure animations.

Permalink Reply by Dai Barnes on May 20, 2007 at 12:16pm

Opensource is fabulous. Great idea for a forum.

I use GIMP and audacity. Both have their problems. GIMP is considered second best to PhotoShop and student always turn their noses up and revert to MSPaint where Pshop is not available. Audacity is limited by not being able to import music into it - I'm sure there is a way but I can't remember how I did it - or maybe that was on MovieMaker.

Firefox is going on as an alternative web browser but unfortunately we use Outlook Web Access and somehow Mozilla doesn't present it well so we can't make it default.

I also plan to install OpenOffice and Scriber (DTP) on the network this summer so there is an alternative to MSOffice and Publisher. Most students have Works at home and it is frustrating.

So far that's it. There is a typing tutor we use as well - nothing fancy but it does the job.

I love the software that I can get the students to download because we don't get much curriculum time so homework is where the great skills are developed.

I'll be trying several of the applications named above. GIMPSHOP. NVU web design (the problem I mentioned above is huge when we come to dreamweaver - no one has that at home); UNFREEZ; PIVOT; levelator; CamStudio (for me);

I'll feedback how I get on if I manage anything worth talking about.

Permalink Reply by Alix E. Peshette on May 26, 2007 at 3:10pm

Hi Dai,
You can import music into Audacity by going to Project, Import Audio. Yeah, that's not the most obvious place to look when importing music. Be sure to have the LAME file downloaded into the Audacity folder so that finished music can be exported as mp3.

-Alix

Permalink Reply by Cyndi Danner-Kuhn on May 21, 2007 at 10:46am

I love Open Source! And am using it more and more. In fact, I use Moodle for my college classes, although the university where I teach uses expensive Blackboard. I actually like Moodle better.

I just received a new MacBook and decided to NOT put Microsoft Office on it at all. I am using NeoOffice and love it. Additionally, I have put together a unit on Open Source software for my Introduction to Instructional Technology class for pre-Service teachers this summer. Below are some of the resources I have found.

Hope you all find them as useful as I have found the ones you all have provided.

SourceForge
SourceForge.net is the world's largest Open Source software development web site, hosting more than 100,000 projects and over 1,000,000 registered users with a centralized resource for managing projects, issues, communications, and code. SourceForge.net has the largest repository of Open Source code and applications available on the Internet, and hosts more Open Source development products than any other site or network worldwide. SourceForge.net provides a wide variety of services to projects we host, and to the Open Source community.
http://sourceforge.net/docs/about

Open Office for Windows: http://www.openoffice.org/
Neo Office for Mac: http://www.neooffice.org/neojava/en/index.php

Other Open Source Alternatives.

Comprehensive list & download source of Open source for Mac
http://www.opensourcemac.org/

Comprehensive list & download source of Open source for Windows
http://www.opensourcewindows.org/

Alternatives for Photoshop
http://www.osalt.com/photoshop

Alternative for InDesign
http://www.osalt.com/indesign

Alternative to Dreamweaver
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Web_Development/Software/Q_20839772...

Schools and Open Source:
http://opensourceschools.org/

http://www.networkworld.com/weblogs/smb/2006/012877.html

http://www.schoolforge.org.uk/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.geodsoft.com/opinion/oslimits/schools.htm

http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/2619

Permalink Reply by Steve Hargadon on May 21, 2007 at 10:54am

Great stuff! Also, I started a wiki and an email group on FLOSS in K12 a year or so ago: http://www.k12opensource.com.

Steve

Permalink Reply by Alix E. Peshette on May 26, 2007 at 3:19pm

Hi Steve,
I'm so glad that you started this forum on FOSS! I have a wish list item - starting a collection of K12 tutorials for FOSS. So often FOSS doesn't have good tutorials geared for non-gear heads until K12 teachers write them. I would bet that a lot of us have several to offer. Is there a way to place these as word docs or .pdf's somewhere in Classroom 2.0?

Permalink Reply by beckyherl on July 10, 2007 at 8:10am

Are there any schools out there exploring the use of Centre? If you have not heard of Centre, this is a free student information system for schools. http://www.miller-group.net/. My district is currently searching for a new SIS. I just thought I would see if there was anyone out there using Centre and get their input.

Permalink Reply by Ed Hitchcock on December 6, 2007 at 6:22am

SchoolForge is a great resource!

I use Stellarium a lot - it does much of what Starry Night does, but open source. http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/is another good one.

I have been experimenting with Compendium for concept mapping, which is less pretty but considerably more powerful than Inspiration - any point on the map can itself contain a map, and any node can be "transcluded" in many other maps. Tagging also adds an extr dimension.

Google Sketchup is also very useful.

Inkscape is a free vector graphics package that is quite powerful.

Ed

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