K12 Open Tech Blogs

Open Source at NECC

jklein — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:44:46 -0700

NECC is the largest educational technology conference in North America, and it attracts 12,000+ participants. For the fourth year Steve Hargadon will be running an "Open Source Pavilion" there with 40+ computers running Linux, and with a speaker series that's now a part of the main program.

Here is the schedule of Open Source sessions at NECC...

Dean Millot's (Open Source) RFP of the Week

Tom Hoffman — Tue, 20 May 2008 13:56:05 -0700

One of this week's School Improvement RFP's of the Week from Edbizbuzz's Dean Millot should be of special interest to open source advocates:

The Alabama Department of Education (SDE) is seeking responses to this RFP for the hosting and management of the Moodle open source learning management system.

Consider This...

jklein — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:02:53 -0700

Consider the classroom of tomorrow. That place where students come not just to gain, but to consolidate their gains. That room with no barriers, no boundaries, no limits. That place of infinite height and depth, unlimited reach and unhindered access. A space with many addresses, many cultures, many views. A place where success is honored, and failure is embraced. Where creativity is rewarded, where collaborations are built, where teams are celebrated.

There are no time limits there, no restrictions, or walls. Ideas are welcome, voices are heard, friends are cherished, connections are nourished. This is the classroom of tomorrow, the "open" classroom, and it's time to start building it today.

30 Things That Are the Same In Microsoft Word and in OpenOffice.org Writer

Solveig Haugland — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:40:31 -0700

Using a new product requires some re-learning. That’s unavoidable. But you rarely have to learn an entirely new set of skills—it’s just that the new stuff sticks out as us. This article is to emphasize the similarities between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office; the things you don’t have to re-learn. I hope that not only will this show some of the similarities but will show you some shortcuts you might not have known about in either program.

Open Source and Open Content: A Student's Perspective

jklein — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:50:44 -0700

Today I was referred to this excellent article by a high school senior from Plano Independent School District in Texas, entitled Open Minds with Open Source (page 46, should your browser not automatically take you there.) It was written by Alex Hirsch, son of Plano ISD's Jim Hirsch, who is a long time open-technologies advocate and former board chair of CoSN. I was particularly taken with his perspectives on open content and invasive copyright enforcement in our digital age...

Open Source Roundtable at Tech Forum West

jklein — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:18:11 -0700

Last Friday I had the pleasure of hosting a round table on the topic of open source software in education at Technology and Learning's Tech Forum West in Long Beach, CA. Our lively discussion included K-20 classroom teachers and IT people from both education and industry. Topics truly ran the gamut of open source, including desktop applications, security, deployment, perception, web applications like Moodle, and ultra-mobile devices like the Asus EeePC.

It's a little noisy, but I hope you enjoy the recorded discussion and, more importantly, will share your thoughts on the topic!

[ Download - audio/mp3 ]

Cross-posted from Absence of Limitations blog

Distributing Clip Art to OpenOffice.org Users

Solveig Haugland — Mon, 5 May 2008 12:29:51 -0700

One of the most helpful non-technical configurations that IT administrators can do is to take all free clip art they can get ahold of, assemble it and categorize it, and give it to every user to make OpenOffice.org more fun and more usable. This is especially beneficial in schools.

A Few of My Favorite Open Source Desktop Applications

jklein — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 11:45:14 -0700

Below is a list of a few of my favorite open source applications for the desktop. Most are available for any platform, and many are available on the OpenDisc for Windows systems (which you can download here.) It's important to keep in mind that these applications:

Are free
Can be given to students to install and use at home
Offer educators the opportunity to introduce new technologies in their educational environement
Provide essential skills that are transferrable to applications of similar types in the commercial world

The World of OpenOffice.org Extensions

Solveig Haugland — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 12:36:35 -0700

One of the benefits of open source software is that anyone can download the source code, throw together a feature or two, and make it available to anyone who wants it. This sounds great, and is great, but until recently I'm not sure how much it happened on an individual level. I know I don't remember writing up any cool new features.

The Extensions capability changes this, though. Visit http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/ and you're in a Disneyland of cool features, ranging from nice little add-ons to immensely helpful. If you're evaluating OpenOffice.org, or have been running it for years, you don't have the whole picture without investigating the extensions.

I've described a few of my favorites in this blog entry, but you're going to want to at least read the names of all of them.

SIF Needs An Open Source Zone Integration Server

Jeff Crawford — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:36:35 -0700

How can a great specification that is desperately needed by K-12 schools by definition not have any certified solutions?