Free and Open Source Software in Education Kathy Reid 20 September 2008 [email_address] [email_address] http://blog.kathyreid.id.au

Free and Open Source Software in Education In an ideal world, schools and higher education institutions were given appropriate budgets for their IT spend... and everyone was happy Schools and colleges have limited $$$ IT spend must be maximised IT needs to be easy to use IT needs to be easy to administer IT needs to be easy to 'pick up' when the one person who knows the system leaves...

Free and Open Source Software in Education

In an ideal world, schools and higher education institutions were given appropriate budgets for their IT spend... and everyone was happy

Schools and colleges have limited $$$

IT spend must be maximised

IT needs to be easy to use

IT needs to be easy to administer

IT needs to be easy to 'pick up' when the one person who knows the system leaves...

Free and Open Source Software in Education What this talk will cover; Overview of Moodle Overview of Sakai Overview of Alice Overview of WordPress

Free and Open Source Software in Education

What this talk will cover;

Overview of Moodle

Overview of Sakai

Overview of Alice

Overview of WordPress

Free and Open Source Software in Education Moodle Open source learning management system Has roughly 70% of the functionality of tools such as WebCT, Blackboard etc Is completely open source You still need to take into account costs such as hosting / servers / administration / training etc However it is a cheap option, particularly for smaller colleges

Free and Open Source Software in Education

Moodle

Open source learning management system

Has roughly 70% of the functionality of tools such as WebCT, Blackboard etc

Is completely open source

You still need to take into account costs such as hosting / servers / administration / training etc

However it is a cheap option, particularly for smaller colleges

Free and Open Source Software in Education Sakai Also an open source learning management system More geared towards research groups and collaborative teams Runs on Java and Tomcat (more difficult to install than Moodle)

Free and Open Source Software in Education

Sakai

Also an open source learning management system

More geared towards research groups and collaborative teams

Runs on Java and Tomcat (more difficult to install than Moodle)

Free and Open Source Software in Education Alice Developed at Carnegie Mellon (by Randy Pausch's team – of 'Last Lecture' fame) Provides an environment which makes learning object oriented programming techniques both intuitive and fun There is a version available suitable for younger (lower secondary) students

Free and Open Source Software in Education

Alice

Developed at Carnegie Mellon (by Randy Pausch's team – of 'Last Lecture' fame)

Provides an environment which makes learning object oriented programming techniques both intuitive and fun

There is a version available suitable for younger (lower secondary) students

Free and Open Source Software in Education WordPress Originally developed as blogging software, but has evolved to become a personal publishing platform Useful for students studying in journalism and writing Can be used collaboratively by research teams / those in disparate geographic locations etc Extendable via plugins

Free and Open Source Software in Education

WordPress

Originally developed as blogging software, but has evolved to become a personal publishing platform

Useful for students studying in journalism and writing

Can be used collaboratively by research teams / those in disparate geographic locations etc

Extendable via plugins