ICTeD Services

Open Source Software for the Mac in the Primary / Elementary School Classroom

This is a bit of a spin off from my presentations at Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association’s Open Source day [see my blogposts 12.06.2009, 22.04.2004, 22.03.2009 & 15.03.2009]. Deb and I usually run an annual hands on session on freeware and / or opensource software at a MacSchoolsNet meeting. Members that come along get to have sandpit time with some of these apps. Since working for VITTA I have had a bit of time to explore Open Source applications and I have been very impressed. Even though the meeting is not until Thursday 3rd of September, I’ve got the presentation ready now. If you are interested you can download a .pdf of the presentation made with Open Office Impress.

Download Open Source-Mac

My other Open Source resources are at http://www.ictedservices.com/Open_Source_Software.html

See also this great site [not mine] http://www.opensourcemac.org/

[ **** As with any software recommendations in my blog and websites, what I write about, is my opinion only and I take no responsibility for anything going wrong with your computer, server, network etc.. Please read the conditions and product disclosures and EULA for each application. Always exercise care and caution!]

Open for Education: Open Source Software in Schools

Presented at the Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association [VITTA] Open For Education day at Forest Hill College last Wednesday. [See my previous blogposts tagged Open source]. It was a great day, despite being very cold and down on expected numbers of participants. Running professional development at a time when teachers are heavily into the assessment and reporting cycle can always be problematic.
However, this meant that we combined some sessions so that we had panels of co-presenters in the sessions. As a presenter this was great as we could instill a greater range of experience and debate into sessions.
My updated resources for Open Office and Open Office are online at:
http://www.ictedservices.com/Open_Source_Software.html
http://www.ictedservices.com/OpenOffice3.html
http://www.ictedservices.com/Open_for_Education_Day.html

What I found out from the day. If you present at a conference and don't learn something yourself, then something is wrong! So here are the seven things I got out of the day.

1. Inkscape is  great open source graphic software.
Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.
Inkscape supports many advanced SVG features (markers, clones, alpha blending, etc.) and great care is taken in designing a streamlined interface. It is very easy to edit nodes, perform complex path operations, trace bitmaps and much more. We also aim to maintain a thriving user and developer community by using open, community-oriented development.
Inkscape is now for Mac as well as Windows and Linux.

2. Open Office is an application that needs to be installed on every school computer and is something I need to learn much more about my self.

3. There is a great site called the Periodic Table of Visualization Methods
http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html
See also
http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001662.php

4. Usable image files. I found out about
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
and
http://www.openclipart.org/cchost/

5. Inkscape screencasts I need to check out http://screencasters.heathenx.org/

6. There is a great wiki which I need to read http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

7. When looking at ICT implementation in a school three key concepts to remember are
1. Acquisition - Who is responsible for teaching the students ICT skills?
2. Application -  Who is responsible for giving students an authentic way of using those ICT skills?
3. Assessment - Who is responsible for assessing students in ICT?

Like every conference always a lot more to explore!

[As with any software recommendations in my blog and websites, what I write about, is my opinion only and I take no responsibility for anything going wrong with your computer, server, network etc.. Please read the conditions and product disclosures and EULA for each application. Always exercise care and caution!]

Teaching OpenOffice 3 in the Primary / Elementary School Classroom

I’ve just started to use Open Office, the open source desktop publishing suite in a primary / elementary school.

The curriculum platform of the school I work is Macintosh and while Microsoft Office is available for teacher and student use under a government school statewide licencing scheme, I still wanted to investigate alternative desktop publishing software that I could  explicitly teach to students.

This was for two reasons,

Firstly I wanted an alternative so that any students that did not have access
to MS Office at home could use this alternative for free.
Secondly, I was looking for software that  was easy to use for junior school students. Previously, I have used AppleWorks with these students, however, with Apple discontinuing the development of this software a few years ago I went searching. Apple’s Pages from the iWork Suite, while a very good alternative for MS Publisher, didn’t meet my requirements. However, my initial experiences with OpenOffice 3. [OSX  Intel version] has been more than satisfactory. Its simple, clean looks and free!
So far I’ve used it to teach basic word processing skills to 7-8 year olds. Here are some simple tutorials I have started to develop. [QuickTime required- Don't have Quicktime? Click here]

Tutorial One: Introduction to Making a Text Document Download Open_Office_1-desktop
Tutorial Two: Modifying Text 1 Download Open_Office_2-desktop
Tutorial Three: Modifying Text 2 Download Open_Office_3-desktop
Tutorial Four: Modifying Text 3 & Modifying Backgrounds Download Open_Office_4-desktop
Tutorial Five: Saving Your Document as an Open Office Document Download Open_Office_5-desktop
Tutorial Six: Using Menu Blinds & Saving as a Word Document Download Open_Office_6-desktop
Tutorial Seven: Inserting a Hyperlink Download Open_Office_7-desktop

More to follow on Open Office Presentations, Databases, Spreadsheets and Drawing.

VITTA's Open for Education Day [Open Source Software in Education]

The Victorian information Technology Teachers Association [VITTA] is running an Open Source in Education Professional Development Day at Forest Hill Digital Technologies Centre of Excellence, Forest Hill College [Melbourne, Australia] on Wednesday 10.06.2009. [Note date change!]

Speakers are: Pia Waugh, Paula Christophersen, Jacinta Richardson and Donna Benjamin and myself.
Plenaries are
1. The Foundations of Open 
The Foundations of Open is a model for understanding the different aspects of openness in an increasingly digital age. Pia Waugh will introduce why open approaches are so vital to ensuring sustainable and accessible communities.
2. The Open Road: highway to the future of technology in education.
Donna Benjamin will discuss how open approaches are specifically important to education,
with some practical and inspiring examples
3. Open Questions And even more…Open Source for Education – Jacinta Richardson will present additional Open Source applications for education for teachers to consider adopting for classroom practice.

Workshops
1.Open Letter
Online Publishing for Education -Pia will discuss various popular tools for online publishing, which are vital tools for young people to establish meaningful online portfolios to distinguish themselves in their
communities and in the workplace. Blogging will be covered using the popular Wordpress. Teachers will learn how to blog and how to integrate blogging into the classroom seamlessly in a safe and educational way.  Pia will include online publishing of video, audio, graphics and narratives. – Pia Waugh –
2. Open Classroom
Open Source for Primary Learning – Mark will demonstrate a series of tools for primary school teachers that can be used in the classroom. Teachers will learn programs which are applicable to project based
learning focussing on ICT and Literacy, Mathematics and Science.– Mark Richardson
3. Open Sesame
Animation & Games in the classroom – Jacinta will present a few simple but powerful tools for animation and games development that teachers can introduce to students. These tools can be used to support students develop their  creative writing, analytical skills important to independent thinking, problem solving skills and basic programming  needed for contemporary learning. – Jacinta Richardson
4. Open Book
Graphic Design – Donna will present a workshop on Inkscape, a drawing program that can be used for students of all ages. Attendees will learn how to use the application to create beautiful images. –Donna Benjamin
5. Open for Business
Office Tools – Mark and Jacinta will each present a session on OpenOffice, the leading Open Source office suite. They will briefly demonstrate key applications including spreadsheets, documents, presentations, databases and some of the built-in functions such as exporting anything to pdf.  – Mark Richardson and Jacinta Richardson
6. Open Your Mind Up
Mapping Open Source to VELS – The use of learning technologies associates closely with the requirements of the VELS Interdisciplinary strand. Paula and Donna will provide this context for teachers.  This session will invite teachers to explore the ways in which developing skills and expertise in ICT to develop understandings, present learning and share ideas and information can enhance student outcomes, develop multiliteracies and transform learning. Paula and Donna will present how these ICT competencies maps to the VELS framework. – Paula Christophersen and Donna Benjamin
7. Open Eyed
Video & Audio tools for the Classroom – Pia will present a session on video and audio tools for the classroom. Teachers will learn the basics in recording, editing, and publishing video and audio for students. – Pia Waugh

If you are interested Download VITTA - Open For Ed Flyer 

My Favourite Open Source Applications

Last October I listed my favourite Macintosh Applications in this blog [01.10.2008]. I am now listing my favourite open source applications. The difference is that while I have been a Mac user since the early 1990's, I am only really starting as an open source user.  This is that often some of the software that comes on a Mac is just great and it discourages use of some open source software. Why use Audacity if you have GarageBand? If you want to web author, just use iWeb! If you want to create a pdf then OSX does it as part of the printing phase!

This list is a work in progress and based initially fairly heavily on the recommendations of others. I am also establishing a page of useful links on my website in the near future. Thanks to Pia Waugh for her recommendations and those from the Twitterverse, particularly, Michelle Dodd who has a great wiki on the subject. Here's the resource page  I am building up too.

I will be one of a panel presenting at an Open Source day for teachers next month, [as opposed to Freeware or Shareware]. More news on that in a future blog.

So here's my list so far.... Those that have an asterisk* [after the platforms they run on] are those apps I haven't used, but come highly recommended.

[As with any software recommendations in my blog, what I write about is my opinion only and I take no responsibility for anything going wrong with your computer, server, network etc.. Please read the conditions and product disclosures and EULA for each application. Always exercise care and caution!]

Client Software

Operating Systems
Various versions of Linux [ I've installed Ubuntu on my MBP]
Edubuntu [Education version of Ubuntu]* http://www.edubuntu.org/

Word Processing
OpenOffice [Mac / Win / Lin]
Bean [Mac]
Neo Office [Mac]*

Word Processing Viewers
Open Document Viewer  [Mac / Win / Lin]*
Visioo-Writer [Win / Lin]*

Presentation / Multimedia / DTP
OpenOffice [Mac / Win / Lin]
Scribus [Mac / Win / Lin / Other ]*

Programming / Gaming
Scratch [Mac / Win]

Database
OpenOffice [Mac / Win / Lin]

Spreadsheets
OpenOffice Calc [Mac / Win / Lin]
Open Document Viewer  [Mac / Win / Lin]*

Typing
GNU Typist [Lin]*
Tux Typing  [Mac / Win / Lin]

Primary Curriculum
GCompris - math, science, ICT skills, literacy and more. A huge suite of applications for primary ages students. Best used under Linux but also works under Windows and Mac.
Tux Paint - great for drawing and stamps [Mac / Win / Lin]*
Tux Math - excellent adventure games based on math  [Mac / Win / Lin]*
Childsplay - another suite of applications for young children  [Win / Lin]*

PDF
PDFCreator [Win]*

Images
GIMP [Mac / Win / Lin]*
Inkscape [Win / Lin]*
Paintbrush [Mac]

DV /Animation
Pencil  [Mac / Win / Lin]
VLC Media Player  [Mac / Win / Lin / Other ]
Virtual Dub [Win]*
Perian [Utility for Mac Version of QuickTime]

Mind Mapping / Concept Mapping
CMap Tools  [Mac / Win / Lin / Other ]
FreeMind [Mac / Win / Lin]

Podcasting
Audacity [Mac/Win/Lin]

Web Browsing & Authoring
Mozilla Firefox [Mac / Win / Lin]
Camino [Mac]
SeaMonkey  [Mozilla Composer] [Win / Mac / Lin]*
Amaya [Win / Mac / Lin]*
Nvu [Win / Mac / Lin]*

Website Downloader
HTTrack [Mac / Win / Lin]*
SiteSucker [ Mac]

ScreenCasts
CamStudio [Win] *

3D Virtual World & IWB
Eduism [beta]

eMail
Mozilla Thunderbird  [Win / Lin]*

Instant Messaging
aMSN [Mac/Win/Lin]*

File Compression
7-Zip [Win]*

RSS
Juice Receiver [Mac / Win / Lin]*

FTP
FileZilla [Win]*
Cyberduck [Mac]*

Anti Virus
ClamAV [Mac / Win]*
ClamWin [Win]*

Web Conferencing
Dimdim [Mac / Win / Lin]*

Server Software

Operating System
Ubuntu Server [Lin]* Just getting a Moodle Server set up a my school, it will run on Ubuntu Server.

Internet Cache
Squid Proxy [Mac / Win / Lin]*

Blogging
Wordpress.org [Mac / Win / Lin]*

eMail
Squirrel Mail [Mac / Win / Lin]
NMail [Lin / Win / Other]*

CMS
Moodle [Mac / Win / Lin]* - Just getting a Moodle Server set up a my school.
Joomla  [Mac / Win / Lin]*