posted Oct 15, 2009 6:37 PM by David Trask
OpenOffice has been around for quite some time. It's morphed and evolved into a mature and useful office suite. OpenOffice is available for Mac OS X (even packaged for MLTI III), Windows, and Linux.
From the web site OpenOffice.org:
OpenOffice.org 3 forms an ideal teaching platform for core computer
literacy skills,
without tying students to commercial products. The free software
licence
means students can be given copies of software to use at home -
perfectly legally - a
useful 'added value'. For IT students, OpenOffice.org's component based
software is also an ideal platform for developing IT skills and
understanding real-life software engineering.
OpenOffice.org 3 is also an ideal platform for creating teaching materials and
managing administrative tasks.
For example, the Writer
word processor is easy to use for
simple memos, but also powerful enough to cope with complex
dissertations. For IT staff, the open-source software license means an
end to license compliance worries and the threat of software audits.
OpenOffice.org 3 is developed, translated, and supported by an
international community linked by the internet, opening exciting
possibilities for school projects.
OpenOffice.org 3 is a leading international force in the movement for
digital inclusion - making software of the highest quality available to
all, regardless of income. OpenOffice.org 3 is available in a wide
variety of languages, and
we actively encourage local teams to produce versions for local
languages. We develop software on an open-source process - the
computing equivalent of peer-reviewed publishing - creating software of
the highest quality.
BUT! One of the most powerful features of OpenOffice is its extensibility! Often overlooked, OpenOffice has a built-in extensions manager that allows the user to download and add cool features to OpenOffice!
OpenOffice Extensions allow the user to add tons of functionality to their OO installation. Templates, clip art, dictionaries, presentation tools and so much more! Check it out via the Tools > Extensions Manager in OpenOffice or click here. |
posted Oct 15, 2009 6:22 PM by David Trask
To quote the web site:
The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open
Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on
creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources
in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible
visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital
information.
This video highlights some of the power of VUE
I invite you to check out the VUE site...download VUE and check out the numerous samples and videos. |
posted Oct 15, 2009 5:15 PM by David Trask
[
updated Oct 15, 2009 5:23 PM
]
You know Open Source has arrived when the worlds largest chip maker, Intel, climbs aboard with their own cutting edge project. Moblin is an open source project focused on building a Linux-based
platform optimized for the next generation of mobile devices including
Netbooks, Mobile Internet Devices, and In-vehicle information and entertainment systems. Moblin brings incredibly fast boot up times, a new and innovative interface, as well as many other innovations to mobile computing devices. Moblin devices will begin hitting the shelves as early as fall 2009. Since Moblin is open source...you can download it and see for yourself! Check out Moblin today!
|
posted Oct 15, 2009 4:46 PM by David Trask
[
updated Oct 15, 2009 5:00 PM
]
posted Oct 14, 2009 4:22 PM by David Trask
Sockso is, without a doubt, one of the simplest music servers you'll ever have the pleasure of using. Need to share your music with others? Want to be able to access your music library from anywhere? Need to serve up that special reading program CD to your kindergarten classrooms so they can listen to it anytime they want without using a several hundred dollar computer as a CD player? Check out Sockso! I use Sockso for the last scenario I described....to serve up our Reading Program CD's to our K-2 students...particularly the kindergarten classrooms. This year I decided that I was spending way too much time trying to make the thin-clients in their classrooms into very expensive CD players. So, I decided it would be best to simply rip the CD's and serve the music over our school network. I set out to find a music server to handle the task. I was fully expecting to put some time and effort into it, but was very happy when I stumbled across Sockso. I had my first Sockso server up and running on my own machine in less than 2 minutes. Check out the screenshots below...try it for yourself! (click for larger images) |
posted Oct 14, 2009 4:14 PM by David Trask
[
updated Oct 14, 2009 4:22 PM
]
I've
been a long time user of Ubuntu. I used to flit like a butterfly from
one Linux operating system to another, never lasting more than two
weeks with any one distribution before I wanted to try something else.
On my own laptop, I spent countless hours tweaking, configuring, and
generally just messing around with each distribution until I got bored
and moved on. I learned a lot, but I wasn't very productive.
Then....along came Ubuntu. A colleague of mine pointed me toward
Ubuntu during the Warty Warthog days...(I love the cool code
names)....Ubuntu 4.10. The naming scheme is actually quite easy to
follow...the first number is the year and the second is the
month....hence 4.10 was released in October of 2004. The newest
version to come down the pipe is 9.10 (get it? October, 2009)
codenamed Karmic Koala. Ubuntu releases like clockwork every six
months. Each release features some new stuff and some improvements,
but every 5th release is an LTS or a long-term support release. Extra
care is taken at these junctures to insure stability and reliability so
that IT folks can count on an LTS release to be supported for 3 years
on the desktop and 5 years for servers. The regular releases are
supported for 18 months. Unless you're a corporate environment or
afraid of making many changes...the regular releases will be just fine
for you....and you'll get all the cutting edge new features. Karmic
Koala is no exception. Since the release of Jaunty Jackalope (9.04) in
April, netbooks have taken the tech world by storm. Once a fun novelty
item, netbooks are now making their way into schools and classrooms all
over the world. Ubuntu takes the netbook experience to the next level
with Ubuntu Netbook Remix, an interface specifically designed for the
small screen of a netbook, UNR provides all the same functionality of
a regular version, but in a manner that works best for the end user on
a netbook. Let's look at some screenshots...click to see larger
versions of the images. |
|
