Open Source School

66
Open Source Schools Miles Berry Michelle Walters José Picardo Doug Belshaw BETT, January 2009

description

A presentation by members of the Becta-funded Open Source Schools project at BETT 2009.

Transcript of Open Source School

Page 1: Open Source School

Open Source Schools

Miles BerryMichelle Walters

José PicardoDoug Belshaw

BETT, January 2009

Page 2: Open Source School

What is Open Source?

Page 3: Open Source School

cc-by-nd tommetje, with permission

Page 4: Open Source School

cc-by-nc victor_nuno

Page 5: Open Source School

Free (as in speech)

cc-by-nc redjar

Page 6: Open Source School

cc-by-nc Socceraholic

Page 7: Open Source School

cc-by-sa The Master Shake Signal

Page 8: Open Source School

cc-by-nc-sa Sarah Parrott

Page 9: Open Source School

cc-by-nc Maggie T

Page 10: Open Source School

So, what are the advantages?

Page 11: Open Source School

cc-by-nc-sa spaceninja

Page 12: Open Source School

cc-by-nc-sa Adam Mulligan

Page 13: Open Source School

cc-by-nc Cambodia Trust

Page 14: Open Source School

cc-by-nc-sa thomas.merton

Page 15: Open Source School

cc-by LizMarie

Page 16: Open Source School

cc-by-nc-sa Vermin Inc

Page 17: Open Source School

Case Studies

• OpenOffice.org

• Audacity

• Linux Netbooks

• Moodle

Page 18: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

Michelle Walters

Page 19: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

A free, open-source alternative to Microsoft Office

OpenOffice has six basic components: Writer, a word processor and HTML editor; Calc, a spreadsheet; Draw, a graphics editor; Impress, a presentations program; Math, an equation editor; and Base, a database application

Page 20: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice uses a single interface for all its features, instead of running separate applications like Excel and Word.

Page 21: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

Retains the essential look and feel of Microsoft Office 2003 and earlier versions, instead of imitating the new ribbon interface of Office 2007. Anyone familiar with Microsoft 2003 or below should be able to jump straight into OpenOffice with minimal, if any, training.

Page 22: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

If you've been thinking about taking the plunge into Microsoft Office 2007 (or 2008 on the Mac), which often requires training because of significant interface changes, you should be evaluating OpenOffice as well.

Page 23: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

One attractive feature of OpenOffice is that it's the only major application suite that runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux with almost exactly the same feature set on all platforms.

For anyone thinking of switching from Office to OpenOffice, the biggest question is, How well will OpenOffice handle your old Office documents and worksheets? The answer is, incredibly well, even with the new Office 2007 formats.

Page 24: Open Source School

OpenOffice

In addition to read and write support for the Microsoft Office binary file formats (.doc, .xls, .ppt, etc.), OpenOffice is capable of opening files created with Microsoft Office 2007 or Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac OS X (.docx, .xlsx, .pptx, etc). Thus, OpenOffice users can interact with users still using Microsoft Office.

Page 25: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

The interface closely mirrors the familiar Office standard, and it places some features more logically so that, for example, headers and footers are on the Insert menu instead of the View menu.

Page 26: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

Adds some conveniences that Office doesn't provide, such as the ability to create .pdf files. This is useful when you want to guarantee what the recipient sees on their computer.

Page 27: Open Source School

For Pupils and Students

OpenOffice forms an ideal teaching platform for core computer literacy skills, without tying students to commercial products.

The free software licence means students can be given copies of software to use at home - perfectly legally - a useful 'added value'.

For IT students, OpenOffice's component based software is also an ideal platform for developing IT skills and understanding real-life software engineering

Page 28: Open Source School

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice is free software. That means you are free to download it, free to install it on as many PCs as you like, free to pass copies to as many people as you like.

More than a one-off cost saving. legal No need for software audits, No need for keeping invoices for years, No worry about ending up in court because

you misread some small print in a licence agreement.

Page 29: Open Source School

José Picardo

Page 30: Open Source School

Using Audacity in Schools

• What is Audacity?

• Why would you use Audacity?

• What can you do with Audacity?

• What do you need?

Page 31: Open Source School

What is Audacity?

Free and Open Source desktop sound recorder and editor

Page 32: Open Source School

Why would you use Audacity?

• It’s free

• It’s intuitive and easy to use

• It does the job as well as commercial alternatives

Page 33: Open Source School

What can you do with Audacity?

• Create and edit teaching resources• Podcasts: Deliver content to your students• Coursework, homework and assessment• Links with VLEs

Page 34: Open Source School

What do you need?

• A computer with Audacity (and Lame encoder for .mp3)

• A microphone

Page 35: Open Source School

Quick demonstration

Page 36: Open Source School

Netbooks in the Classroom

Doug Belshaw

‘Asus EeePC’ by TDR1 & ‘netbook’ by -eko- @ Flickr

Page 37: Open Source School

• Lightweight

• Good battery life

• Small form-factor

• Wi-fi enabled

• Robust

• Asus Eee 1000– Xandros Linux– Fast boot time– 10” screen– 5-6 hour battery life

Page 38: Open Source School
Page 39: Open Source School
Page 40: Open Source School
Page 41: Open Source School
Page 42: Open Source School
Page 43: Open Source School

Moodle

Miles Berry

Page 44: Open Source School
Page 45: Open Source School
Page 46: Open Source School
Page 47: Open Source School
Page 48: Open Source School
Page 49: Open Source School
Page 50: Open Source School
Page 51: Open Source School
Page 52: Open Source School

Getting Started

Michelle Walters

Page 53: Open Source School

Getting Started

OpenDisc / OpenCD Collection of free software that runs under

Windows

Page 54: Open Source School

Getting Started

Portable Apps Compact version of

software applications:

office suites, graphics programs, web browsers and

more

Page 55: Open Source School

Moving on

SchoolForgeUK List of education software for different

curriculum areas (incl case studies of schools)

• Open Source Schools Software directory

Page 56: Open Source School

Moving on

SourceForge one of the largest directories of software

Page 57: Open Source School

Moving on

Loving it? Install a completely free OS (netbooks)

Page 58: Open Source School

Ubuntu Live

Page 59: Open Source School

Support

Although free – you can get commercial support as well as free support

Training is available for software Because the code is available, it is possible

to customise the software, or request new features

Commercial support and hosting of particular apps by the vendor (Zimbra, RedHat), and community support

Page 60: Open Source School

Communities

Major applications discussed have community groups volunteers (often project's own support staff) developers

General forums Mailing lists Chat rooms

Page 61: Open Source School

For more information

opensourceschools.org.uk

Page 62: Open Source School
Page 63: Open Source School
Page 64: Open Source School
Page 65: Open Source School
Page 66: Open Source School

Any questions?

opensourceschools.org.uk

Miles: [email protected]

Michelle: [email protected]

José: [email protected]

Doug: [email protected]