Category: open source
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Tech hungry schools should look to Linux
The February 26, 2006 article in the Orlando Sentinel, “At schools, not all computers are equal,” laments low levels of educational technology funding, especially for schools “in the middle:” not low income and federally funded but not high income with wealthy PTA budgets either. These introductory paragraphs will give you a flavor of the article’s…
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In praise of Spam Karma
Spam Karma 2 is an outstanding plug-in for WordPress I regard as priceless. (It is in fact, free.) It is sad so many people (apparently) find it productive to spend their time figuring out ways to fill email inboxes with spam as well as blog comment databases. These people really should get a life….. Thanks…
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Encouraging content creation
Jim McNelis left a comment today on Miguel Guhlin’s blog, related to a post on reasons for embracing open source software solutions in schools. I am reposting my reply to both Jim and Miguel here, because hey– this is my blog and I can write whatever I want… and more seriously, because I feel strongly…
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Exemplar CMS designs?
I spoke with Steve Dembo of Teach42 today about the relative merits of open-source content and course management systems like Moodle and Drupal. A team at the Discovery Educator Network is working on creating a new website portal for educators related to some international trips educators will take and students can virtually follow, related to…
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Podcast33: March of the Penguins – Linux on the Student Desktop!
David Thornburg shared this message at TCEA 2006 in Austin, Texas on February 9, 2006, and generously gave me permission to share it as a podcast. The official session description was: This presentation shows the capabilities and challenges of Linux as an operating system for students and explores the likely evolution of this software. Program…
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March of the Penguins: Linux on the Student Desktop
This was a presentation this morning at TCEA 2006 by David Thornburg. David gave me permission to share the audio recording I made of the session later as a podcast. I’ll be posting that here soon (probably next week.) Presenting with the Linspire Linux operating system today Questions: – how many of you are using…
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Google aims at the desktop
Desktop operating system software (“Windows”) and productivity software (“Office”) are the bread and butter for Microsoft. OpenOffice continues to offer a powerful, free alternative when it comes to productivity software. Now it appears that Google is taking aim at the desktop operating system environment with an upcoming distribution of Linux. Ubuntu Linux is continuing to…
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Antivirus Recommendations
People ask me fairly frequently what the best antivirus program is for their home computer. Generally I irritate them by first suggesting they purchase a Macintosh and don’t worry about malware, since OS X Macs basically don’t have any virus and spyware problems at all. (At least not yet.) Since most people (sadly) reject that…
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Good thoughts on school computer technologists
Jeff Moore posted some good reflections about the evolving role of computer technologists in schools back in November as a short podcast. I heartily agree with Jeff’s contentions that educational technologists in schools should be developers rather than installers, and should be viewed as TEACHERS rather than technicians. Schools serious about helping students and teachers…
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Open University goes with Moodle
I missed this headline back in November, but it is very significant– The UK’s Open University has adopted Moodle as its official course management solution. If you are not familiar with Moodle as a free, open-source course management solution for web-based courses and distance learning, you need to be. I taught a 2 day series…