Open Source Software

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

As a Teacher in the Trenches, could you tell us what you think about Open Source software. Are you using any, if so what, if not why? Is your school district using any open-source yet and if so what? If not are they considering and discussing using Open-Source. Can you point us to any resources or good open-source software or articles? ( I have attached the file my students used to research Open Source for you information)

[Jill Whitson]

I will mark audacity to try out next year, that sounds fun.

[Catelyn Manly]

Audacity looks like it could be really great.

[Robert Young]

At this time, the open source software used the most at Ellis is Moodle. Not all teachers are using it at this time, but several teachers have requested training on Moodle. Some of these teachers have attended Moodle training with ESSDACK.

Some of our teachers have experimented with Open Office. I see Open Office as a very viable alternative to Microsoft Office. One benefit of Open Office is the ability to open, edit and save all Microsoft documents, as well as save any of these in PDF format.

Audacity is another software used as teachers experiment with podcasting.

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Good to hear from you Bob. Hope things are going well in Ellis. I am sure you are sad to lose Barbie, but boy is Felten Middle lucky to get her!!

I just finised my last EETT grant. Wow four years of them.

[Mike Diggs]

Fedora Operating System is a great product that is hardly any different than Windows XP. The graphical interface is very easy to navigate just like Windows. Teachers could load Fedora on their personal computer at home for free and add in Open Office to have a total Open source operating system. Everything converts to Windows based software as well so version conflicts are rare. What a great new age of computer software.

[Melissa Beyer]

This would be something that I would be interested in. Thanks for the information, and I can't wait to check it out.

[Nick Perez]

Anything a teacher can take home with them is great. We learn you take a lot of your work home as if you were working at school.

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Taking work home is the nature of the beast in teaching. I am always surprised at how niave young education majors are.

I do think having a laptop and wireless access makes life easier for me. I think every school district would be wise to provide every teacher a laptop and wireless access at their home wouldn't be a bad idea either. Think about it, boy would the district get their monies worth out of their teachers!!! I am not sure how I functioned before I had a laptop and not sure I could survive without it now. In fact right now I am reading these, and watching TV (kinda of) in the living room. I am getting so much better at multi-tasking!!

Having a laptop is learning anytime, anyplace!!!

[Catelyn Manly]

Easy navigation is always good. Also, version conflicts being rare is another plus!

[Vicki Schmidt]

I couldn't help but notice how many of the OSS programs were designed to eliminate the need for Windows based programs from Microsoft..I wondered how many are out there for Mac or if there just aren't as many sice Mac seems to have everything you need already there. I work on Mac at school and PC at home--the difference is like night and day. I can completely relate to the constant search for new software that doesn't require a bank loan to get but when I am working on my Mac it seems I never need anything I don't already have! If I had to replace my PC, the only thing that would keep me from replacing it with a Mac might be $$.

That being said, with every new article to read I am more and more astounded by the wealth of STUFF out there for the taking. Oh my gosh--have my eyes been opened in just 7 days! WOW! OSS seems like a no-brainer to me!

Just one question--do you have to deal with a lot of advertising with these programs? Seems like shareware, freeware, etc always comes with all that unsolicited advertising baggage...

[Cyndi Danner-Kuhn]

Open source does not. It is just like buying software. Just the software, that is it!!!

[Deidra Chestnut]

Can someone simplify this for me? The only concept I am getting is FREE & I know there has to be more to it than that...right?