The E-line Archives, Vol. 4, #6

Volume 4, No. 6 15 October, 2004

[To view this newsletter on line:
http://www.emck.net/eline/04_09_17.htm]

The Kentucky Kids '04 - PSA Video Competition deadline is Dec. 1st! For more information visit http://www.kentuckykids.net.

Computer Software! Free!

The original format of The E-Line included links to freely-available educational software. Of course, really free software is hard to come by, so this category of resources has been on a hiatus for a bit. But enough possibilities have crossed our desktop recently to make this worth looking at again.

Of course, there's "free," and then there's free. Let's define some terms first...

reeware: Software listed as freeware is truly free - it can be downloaded, installed, distributed, and used without concern.
pen Source Freeware: This category is an extension of freeware - not only is the software itself available freely, but the source code (the programming language that was used to make the software work) is also available. These applications are generally developed by a large number of contributors, all donating their time.
Shareware: Shareware is not free. It is offered freely, but is subject to a variety of restrictions. It cannot be redistributed, and its use is usually limited to evaluation by a single user. It is often possible to get around the restrictions, or the limits placed by the software's distributors may be just nags ("You have used this software for free for 45 days..."), but to continue to use the software in this case is a violation of copyright. This category includes...
- imed shareware - a program that will work for 30 days or more, then stops working. Macromedia offers its software (including its wildly popular Flash and Dreamweaver) this way.
- imited use shareware - some of the capabilities of the software have been turned off, or the use of the software is restricted to a specific audience. Purchasing the software allows for full, unrestricted use through an installation key. QuickTime is an example - only the player works as downloaded for free, but for $30 you can "turn on" the media editor QuickTime Pro, included in the download but unavailable to the free player user.
dware: This software runs fine, and can be used without restriction, but includes advertisements built into the functionality. The browser Opera is offered freely, but you have to purchase it to turn off its ads.
emos: Demonstration versions of software do not work - they are very much like software tutorials, showing off the capabilities of the software without actually allowing the user to do anything. No demos are included below.

For software appearing in past issues of The E-Line, don't forget to check our search page!

Productivity

Open Office

http://www.openoffice.org/

No, it's not Microsoft Office 2003, but it's close enough that many districts have opted out of the purchase/upgrade productivity software cycle. Open Office is completely free, and open source. It includes word processing, spreadsheet, presentation ("PowerPoint"), a drawing program, and simple database functionality.

Materials Creation

Hot Potatoes, from Half Baked Software

http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/

The E-Line first reviewed this web development package on August 30th, 2002. With few web page skills, teachers can use this software to develop online quizzes. This is not, of course, create a full-blown testing environment (enterprising student can find answers embedded in the HTML), but it has its uses. Offered by Martin Holmes of the University of Victoria, Alberta, Canada, it is shareware - completely functional, but only free to educators producing freely available web quizzes.

Green Eclipse Crossword Creator

http://www.greeneclipsesoftware.com/eclipsecrossword/

This software is a come-on for Green's more sophisticated packages, but is otherwise, fully-functional freeware. It generates crossword puzzles both for print, and for fully-interactive web page use! It's a great tool!

PDF Converters - "Portable Document Format" (PDF) has become one of the most common fixed-document formats on the Web. Adobe gives away its reader, but charges for Acrobat, the software which will generate this format. However, there are several shareware packages that'll do it for free.

PDF995 - http://www.pdf995.com/ - a simple converter offered as shareware for free as a come-on for its more flexible (and not free) PDFEdit995.
CutePDF - http://www.acrosoftware.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp - same story as PDF995, reviewed in The E-Line on January 23, 2004.

Content Area Software

Art/Image Creation

Tux Paint

http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/

From open-source developers NewBreed Software under the Tux umbrella comes this very nice primary-level paint program (ages 3-up). Aimed at the KidPix market, there are lots of instant-creation helps, "rubber stamp" image cloning, and other young student affordances. Since it's freeware and open source, you can install it everywhere - even send it home with your students!

The Gimp

http://www.gimp.org

This open-source software is in direct competition with PhotoShop...except it's free! With a sophisticated development workspace, this program is an image creation and manipulation package aimed at high schoolers and above. Also, don't forget Blender 3d for animation, reviewed in the May 24th, 2002 of The E-Line.

Squeak

http://www.squeakland.org/

This very simple and easy to use freeware program allows primary and middle school students to tell stories through animated multimedia. There is an impressive collection of participants and sponsors, and the website has a wide range of supports and resources.

Mathematics

Simple Tutorials - There are bunches of simple, primary-level math tutorials out there. Here are an assortment....

2 + 2 - http://www.2plus2.prv.pl/ - Simple arithmetic, completely freeware, available in several languages
MathFlash - http://home.earthlink.net/~chiuchimu/ - flashcard-style K-3 math facts program.
Loose Change - http://www.adders.org/freeware/ - This freeware program, one of many from Grey Olltwit on this site, helps kids develop money skills.

Reading/ Writing

Tux Typing

http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/

Here's another open-source freeware program, this one from SchoolForge. Tux Typing is a simple typing tutorial, with finger placement helps, and games for motivation. (Sorry, no data accumulation or networked scoring...)

Sebran

http://www.aw.nu/Sebran/index_eng.asp

Sebran is truly international, with a dozen languages or so supported. It's aimed at the very young - K-1 - with simple letter and number recognition games and exercises in a very nice graphic environment. It is freeware.

General Utilities

Microsoft Power Toys

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Microsoft always offers a cluster of tweaks for its operating systems after commercial release. This cluster includes an image re-sizer, HTML and CD slide show wizards, and time-lapse photos from your web cam. Although these might qualify as freeware, they cannot be redistributed, and, of course, can only be used with Windows.

Lesson planning

Lesson Plan Creator, and Unit Mapper, from LPC

http://www.lpc-k12.com/

Unit Mapper , a powerful, Kentucky Core Content-embedded software package, first appeared in The E-Line on March 21st, 2003. Versions of Unit Mapper and Lesson Plan Creator are freely downloadable from LPC, but use and functionality are restricted.

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