Open Source Tools for Education

 

In my last Blog entry I spoke about my attendance at The Pennsylvania Education Technology Exposition and Conference (www.peteandc.org). I was happy to see a session was dedicated to highlight Open Source Tools for education. The session was run by Charlie Reisinger, Technology Director for Penn Manor School District in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. The session description read:

"Open source means more than free software for cash-strapped schools. The open source community is transforming education through alternative, high-quality learning applications. So where does one start? Join us to review a versatile set of 10 free applications for students, educators and life-long learners. Your open journey starts here."

The room was packed. People eager to hear what were these tools that would release them from the shackles of "Microsoft Office", Adobe and other high priced packages. He went through a long list of tools. Here is a link to his page that lists more than he talked about: http://www.pennmanor.net/techblog/?page_id=1213

• Inkscape
• Libre Office
• Gimp
• GnuCash
• OwnCloud
• Audacity
• Focus Writer
• Krita
• Minetest
• Musescore
• Ren'Py

At the end of the talk he fielded questions but as he scrolled through some slides in the end of his presentation he came to his Student Help Desk Team. The District has a for credit course for the help desk. As part of the help desk the students handle tech support calls. You see they are in a 1:1 program where each student gets a laptop running Ubuntu. What an advancement.

I don't want people to think I am bashing Microsoft and Windows. I am of the belief that students should be exposed to all manners of computing, Apple, Windows, LINUX, Android etc. Why? Because when they leave that sheltered world of the classroom and enter the real world they won't know what computer they will be required to use.

I was glad that someone put this together a talk since by the room being filled with close to 200 people (they did not allow standing or there woould have been much more) showed people are looking for solutions.