Open Source Education for Windows

Open Source Education for Windows

Site: K-Net Meeting Place
Meeting Place: ELDER Project
Book: Open Source Education for Windows
Printed by: Guest User
Date: Saturday, 28 September 2024, 10:27 AM

Table of Contents

Open Source for Windows

Open source is not only limited to Linux - many (but not all) of the great open source software available on Linux is available for Windows as well. This book will introduce you to Open Education Disc, a great one-stop-shop of open source software for windows that you can install on your PC!

For more information, please visit: http://www.theopendisc.com/education/

Open Education Disc


What's on Open Education Disc?

The OpenEducationDisc focuses solely on meeting educational needs of students of all ages. Open Source Software has been chosen to address specific IT needs across a wide range of subject areas. The contents of the disc therefore differ from the OpenDisc and are listed below. Click on the link to learn more about each program!

For more information, please visit: http://www.theopendisc.com/education/

Office and Design

OpenOffice.org – Fully compatible office software for your school work
Dia – Make technical diagrams and flowcharts
Scribus – Create professional looking posters and magazines
GanttProject – Plan your school projects with this project management software
FreeMind – Collect your ideas with this mind mapping Software
Sumatra PDF – Read PDF files quickly and easily

Internet

Firefox – A safe, secure and fast web browser
Thunderbird – Manage your emails better than ever – Reclaim your inbox!
Pidgin – Talk to your friends whatever instant message client they use
Kompozer – Create web pages easily, without having to code

Art and Graphics

GIMP – Edit digital photos and create graphics
GIMP animation – Create animations
Inkscape – Make professional looking vector graphics
Pencil – Animate your own cartoons
Blender – 3D graphic modeling, animation, rendering and playback
Tuxpaint – Drawing program for children ages 3 to 12

Multimedia

VLC – Play music, videos and DVDs
Audacity – Record, edit and mix music
Mixxx – Mix your own music like a DJ
MuseScore – Compose your own music
Piano Booster – Teach yourself the piano
Infra Recorder – Burn your own CDs and DVDs
CamStudio – Record your actions on a computer
Really Slick Screensavers – Great looking screensavers

Science and Mathematics

Nasa Worldwind - Discover the earth and other planets
Geogebra - Learn geometry and algebra
Greenfoot – Teach yourself how to program
GraphCalc – A graphical calculator
BYOB – Learn how to program and make animations
CarMetal – Cool mathematical modelling tool
Maxima – University standard computer algebra system
Celestia – Explore the universe in three dimensions
Stellarium – A planetarium on your PC

Games

FreeCiv - Control the world through diplomacy and conquest
FreeCol – Discover the ‘New World’ and build an empire
Numpty Physics – Solve puzzles using physics
TuxTyping 2 – Learn to type like a pro
Tux of Math Command – Test your mathematical skills

Utilities

7zip – Compress and uncompress files in a wide variety of formats
Abakt - Schedule and execute backups of your data
Clamwin – Antivirus software with automatic updating
TrueCrypt – Encrypt and secure your valuable data
Workrave – Prevent and recover from Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI)

Advanced Internet

Httrack
Tight VNC
Filezilla
Azureus
WinSCP

How do I get this great software??

There are two ways to get this AMAZING software:

1) go to each of the links to download the programs individually. This allows you customize which programs you want and which ones you don't. This is recommended for people with a good internet connection.

2) Create an installation USB

This process allows you to create a USB that you can load the Open Education Software onto Windows. The USB can later be re-used to install Open Education on other PCs!

First, you will need to download the ISO file from here http://downloads.sourceforge.net/opendisc/OpenEducationDisc.10.10.iso

What's an ISO file, you may ask? It's a "file" version of a physical CD, in simplest terms. Imagine you copied everything from an installation CD you would normally put into your CD-ROM drive, and put it on the computer - you would have an ISO file. Alternatively, you can burn CDs or USBs with ISO files as well.

and Daemon Tools Lite from here:

http://download.cnet.com/Daemon-Tools-Lite/3000-2646_4-10778842.html

Remember that both these steps require a good internet connection.

Once you have these two files saved to your computer, follow the steps in the video:


Open Education Disc Flyer


Open Education Disc

Open Office for Kids

The open source movement might just be on to something with Open Office 4 Kids (OOo4Kids), a productivity suite aimed at the much younger crowd between the ages of 7 and 12. And if DownloadSquad.com has anything to say about it, adults may prefer it to the regular version of Open Office as well.

According to the project's wiki, OOo4Kids is based on OpenOffice.org source code, but because certain aspects have been stripped out, it loads noticeably faster than the full fledged suite. There's a lot less going on in the UI, and larger buttons point out all the obvious features. But aside from the splash screen, it doesn't look overly childish, so we could also see this being installed on Aunt Angie's machine.

As expected, there are some features that are missing, such as Base, and power users won't be content with al the advanced controls, but in our limited test run, we were fairly impressed with OOo4Kids. There's still a lot you can do with it, the interface isn't condescending, and it's fast.

You can download open office for windows from: http://download.ooo4kids.org/en/download-ooo4kids-windows


(Special thanks to Lyle Johnson for bringing this to ELDER!)