Educational software on linux

AndrewCorser · 11-07-2008, 12:33 PM

This is only my second thread (that word puts me in mind of Anne McAffery's Pern ...) and I'm not sure if it is still in Newbie, or if there is a newbie educational forum ...

However, my question is: how much educational software written for Windows either works on Linux, or has an equivalent piece of software?

The (very small) primary school I work in is looking at getting 20 Asus eee pc netbooks, one each for each junior kid. It seems they run better, faster and longer on Linux, but there already is in the school quite a lot of Windows software which is used in specific ways. In principle, the approach has been that all computers in the school (currently 7 desktops and about 7 staff laptops) look the same and have the same capabilities. If these 20 laptops are bought, it is felt that they need to do much the same as the other computers.

Discussions with one software company that a lot of the software in the school comes from (2Simple) revealed that the eee pc's storage (the Windows version) is too small to load their programmes, and they are not available in Linux. They pointed out that any web-based software would work.

Can anyone help? Should this be in a different forum?

Andrew Corser
Boskenwyn School
www.boskenwyn.cornwall.sch.uk

farslayer · 11-07-2008, 12:51 PM

Quite a bit of educational software and resources are available for Linux. Heres a few links to get you started in no particular order.

http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-jr/

http://gcompris.net/

http://www.schoolforge.net/

http://edubuntu.org/

http://wiki.k12opensource.com/

http://www.gnu.org/education/

http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/

http://www.schoolsplay.org/

http://edu.kde.org/

http://www.geekcomix.com/tux4kids/distro/

http://os.cqu.edu.au/oslinux/README.html

Linux Terminal Server Project.. lightweight PC's can be used to connect to centralized server that shots the software they are running..
http://www.k12ltsp.org/

'ware the grubs !!

Ranguvar · 11-07-2008, 01:12 PM

Fantastic to see schools looking into Linux

No doubt that schools are one of the new frontiers for OS battles... more people need to grow up on Linux. And, the price cannot be beat

Hope your endeavor goes well!

AndrewCorser · 11-07-2008, 01:24 PM

Many thanks to Farslayer - I've started looking through those links and there's a heluva lot there. Great stuff, thanks!

And Ranguvar, I am not sure why I didn't go this way before: I've been looking for free stuff for Windows for ages (15 years ...) and have only just braved Linux - but it looks promising!

Andrew Corser

H_TeXMeX_H · 11-07-2008, 02:00 PM

And, technically if you have a particular program that you absolutely have to have, you can try running it through wine. First test it to see if it will run stably.

farslayer · 11-07-2008, 02:06 PM

If you look around the net a bit you should find some case studies on schools that have converted to Linux, their trials and tribulations. Successful projects as well as failures. Might be a good read to see how they presented Linux to the powers that be... It would help you avoid nasty pitfalls. Provide pointers on how to get other teachers, and administration on your side, etc..

What is it they say ? "A man who doesn't know history is doomed to repeat it." or something like that.

I don't know about you, but I try to my darndest to avoid being doomed

AndrewCorser · 11-07-2008, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H

And, technically if you have a particular program that you absolutely have to have, you can try running it through wine. First test it to see if it will run stably.

Thanks for this TeXMeX, but I'm sorry - I was ShellMex, but now I'm the new boy on the block: do you mean it might look better after a glass or two? Or is "wine" a technical term here?

Andrew Corser

AndrewCorser · 11-07-2008, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by farslayer

If you look around the net a bit you should find some case studies on schools that have converted to Linux, their trials and tribulations. Successful projects as well as failures. Might be a good read to see how they presented Linux to the powers that be... It would help you avoid nasty pitfalls. Provide pointers on how to get other teachers, and administration on your side, etc..

What is it they say ? "A man who doesn't know history is doomed to repeat it." or something like that.

I don't know about you, but I try to my darndest to avoid being doomed

Thanks again, Farslayer - even the first school on that search gave me lots of useful stuff (and it was in the UK, too!).

8.45 pm on Friday night now in the UK - time I stopped working!!

Cheers

Andrew C

onebuck · 11-07-2008, 02:52 PM

Hi,

'WINE' is Open Source Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, & Unix. You should also look at the 'WINE Application Database (AppDB)'.

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

H_TeXMeX_H · 11-07-2008, 03:05 PM

Thanks onebuck, guess I should have posted a link.

There's also plenty of stuff on sourceforge:
http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/t...hp?form_cat=71
http://sourceforge.net/softwaremap/t...hp?form_cat=72

onebuck · 11-07-2008, 03:29 PM

Hi,

That's OK H! I just thought it would be useful for the OP and to introduce the 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

farslayer · 11-24-2008, 01:58 PM

Ran across this one in the Current Issue of Linux Pro Magazine (December 2008)

iTALC - Intelligent Teaching And Learning with Computers

Now you can view what the students are working on on their Linux/Windows PC's from the Teachers Desktop. Pretty slick !!
Check out the screenshots on their website.

Quote:

What is iTALC?
iTALC is a use- and powerful didactical tool for teachers. It lets you view and control other computers in your network in several ways. It supports Linux and Windows 2000/XP (Vista support will come) and it even can be used transparently in mixed environments!

In contrast to widely used commercial equivalent software, iTALC is free! This means you do not have to pay for expensive licenses or things like that. Furthermore the source-code is freely available and you're free in changing the software to fit your needs as long as you respect the terms of iTALC's license (GPL). Freedom in two ways!

Features
iTALC has been designed for usage in school. Therefore it offers a lot of possibilities to teachers, such as

* see what's going on in computer-labs by using overview mode and make snapshots
* remote-control computers to support and help other people
* show a demo (either in fullscreen or in a window) - the teacher's screen is shown on all student's computers in realtime
* lock workstations for moving undivided attention to teacher
* send text-messages to students
* powering on/off and rebooting computers per remote
* remote logon and logoff and remote execution of arbitrary commands/scripts
* home-schooling - iTALC's network-technology is not restricted to a subnet and therefore students at home can join lessons via VPN-connections just by installing iTALC client

Furthermore iTALC is optimized for usage on multi-core systems (by making heavy use of threads). No matter how many cores you have, iTALC can make use of all of them.

rickh · 11-24-2008, 02:33 PM

Here's another one. A little vote for the site of an LQ member...

http://linuxappfinder.com/education