Are teachers integrating digital media resources in the classroom? Yes, is the answer from the annual Grunwald survey for PBS. Read the press release, "New Research Reveals PreK-12 Educators Increasingly Value and Use Digital Media" and access the free report, "Digitally Inclined."
This article was first published in the August issue of T.H.E. Journal, and I thought it might be of help to someone looking for some open source software:
THE APPS BUNDLED with Edubuntu are just the tip of the iceberg of open source programs for education. The open source apps used by Indiana's Affordable Classroom Computers for Every Secondary Student program alone include:
Blender: (Also in Ubuntu.) A 3-D computer animation program. Supports modeling, animation, rendering, and playback.
Celestia: A simulation program that allows students and teachers to navigate a 3-D solar system.
Dia: A drawing program along the lines of Microsoft's venerable Visio, but geared to more informal diagrams.
FreeMind: So-called mind-mapping software designed to allow teachers and students to brainstorm with diagrams that represent words, ideas, and tasks.
GIMP: The GNU (a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix") Image Manipulation Program, a photo editing program.
GIMPshop: A modification of GIMP, intended to replicate the feel of Adobe Photoshop.
iFolder: An online personal file backup program. Designed to update saved files on a network server automatically and deliver them to the user's other machines.
Inkscape: A vector graphics editor with capabilities similar to Adobe's Illustrator and FreeHand, CorelDraw, or Xara X.
Intelligent Teaching and Learning With Computers (iTALC): A tool for viewing and controlling other computers in a network, showing demos, sending text messages, and locking individual work stations.
Moodle: An extremely popular course organization tool/virtual learning environment. During a recent webcast sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a spokesperson from Indiana's Department of Education said that Moodle has been what is driving teachers to use technology in their classrooms.
The OpenScience Project: Software developed and maintained by a group of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers to encourage a collaborative environment for exploration of the natural world.
Scribus: (Also in Ubuntu.) A popular desktop publishing program. Runs on Linux, Mac OS, OS/2, and Windows.
StarOffice: An enhanced version of OpenOffice from Sun Microsystems. Comes with word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, drawing, and database capabilities.
Stellarium: A planetarium for the desktop. It shows a realistic sky in 3-D, and can be used with planetarium projectors.
Tux Paint: A preK-6 drawing program. Combines an easy-to-use interface, sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot.
On Friday (February 5, 2010), I first heard about this online tool from the network administrator. It seems that a teacher had requested that he unblock this site from our Internet filtering software, and wanted to know if I knew anything about it. This was the first I had learned of the site so I took a peek.
Wallwisher is "a notice board maker," according to the site. You can post announcements, keep notes, ask for suggestions, feedback, etc. Basically, you just post stuff on a web page. No registration is required. You can choose your own URL, and decide who can see your page (everyone or just you), post to your page (everyone or just you), and, if you allow anyone to post, approve their posts before they go public. There are also some options to customize the look and feel of your wall.
Of course there are a number of ways that I can think of to use this in the classroom. Here are 16 Interesting Ways to use Wallwisher in the Classroom
What other ways could you use Wallwisher in the classroom or professionally?
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