Open Source Server Side Apps
I prefer working with open source server side apps because of concerns over student privacy. My, as an adult, using a hosted solution is one thing, but telling students to use such software is another. Besides, my students are too young as the TOS of many require they be 13 or older. Furthermore, I can customize the code to meet our needs.
I have enjoyed using the following with my fifth grade students:
- WordPressMU for their blogs
- MediaWiki for reposts and things wiki
- RNews as an online RSS aggregator
I have also used Moodle as an LMS and Joomla for our school website.
Next year I plan to introduce my students to Elgg for many things including, hopefully, distance collaboration with other fifth grades as we have rather small classes with 10-12 students in a typical year.
I'm also eyeing Pligg, an open source Digg Social bookmarking app, as well as, Posh, an AJAX based portal similar to PageFlakes.
I've written about my experiences with most of this software on my blog.
What I really want to find is an open source equivalent to googledocs. Perhaps they will release the code.
Steve
