Free and Open Source Educational Software is an extensive catalogued collection of some of the best free software available to support learning at all levels.  The collection has been organized by categories that make programs easy to find (categorized by the Key Learning Areas used in Education in Australia) If anyone simply wants to explore what is available, this is an excellent starting point.

The site has made it easy to download software without actually leaving the site.  Although downloading on Windows has been facilitated, it appears that most of the software works on multiple platforms.  Links to a significant number of online resources have also been included.

Many thanks to Central Queensland University for making this resource available.

]]> http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/11/20/free-and-open-source-educational-software-online-resource/feed/ 0 http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/03/12/schoolforge-online-resource/ http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/03/12/schoolforge-online-resource/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:56:46 +0000 Paul Hamilton http://paulhami.edublogs.org/2008/03/12/schoolforge-online-resource/ I have an email subscription to Only the Best from Techcetera.ca. Yesterday’s email provided a link to a wonderful resource for anyone interested in free online educational resources.

SchoolForge.net has an important and worthy overarching mission:

SchoolForge’s mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for education. We advocate the use of open texts and lessons, open curricula, free software and open source in education.

I believe this cause is worth supporting. One practical outcome of the work of the SchoolForge community is a website that lists, describes, and links to over 80 online resources that are free of monetary cost to educators. These are mostly downloadable programs that run in Linux and Windows, with a lesser number also available for Mac. Some of the listed applications are browser based.

Resources at SchoolForge are categorized in a helpful user-friendly manner. The screenshot below shows the main headings.

FREE online resources and downloadable programs for learners.

Today I’m writing about a website that I’m really excited about. It is the kind of website that I support wholeheartedly, a site that I think everyone should visit! Many thanks to Sharon Peters for mentioning it on Twitter.

Open Source Living is a site that catalogues the best free open source software available today. Programs are listed by category, with a separate page for each category, eg. Web++, Graphics & Photo, Video, Audio, Documents, etc. For each listing, there is a brief description as well as a direct link to the download site.

There isn’t a category at OSLiving specifically for education, but I was pleased to discover programs such as Celestia and Stellarium listed under Entertainment. Under all headings there are programs with educational applications.

Open Source Living has been established by a UK based blogger named Andrew, and it is his intent that it be a community project. Andrew welcomes input via a forum, but his intention is to move the site to a more interactive WordPress platform. I am already familiar with much of the software listed by OS Living, but there are many titles there that I still need to explore. I will also be submitting some suggested educational titles such as Childsplay, Tux Paint and Tux Typing. It is noteworthy that OSLiving will only list software that complies with the Open Source Initiatives guidelines.

On my blog, I share educational resources of all kinds that are free of monetary cost. I believe that open source software is in a very special class of its own. When the code for programs is open, there is always far greater potential for the software to meet the needs of diverse users. In a recent post, I illustrated how this has been working with add ons that make the open source Firefox browser more accessible to individuals with special needs.