Free Software for the Classroom Compilation

I'm working on making a compilation on a DVD of educational software that can enhance student learning and productivity. Here is a list of the programs that I'm planning on putting on the disc. Please feel free to add your suggestions. Many of the programs are open source while others are simply free.

Office/Desktop Publishing:

• Open Office (Win, Mac, Lin) http://www.openoffice.org
  Create and edit office documents.
  
• Scribus (Win, Mac, Lin) http://scribus.net
  I've used this for creating yearbook, newsletters, brochures, and event programs.
  
• PDF Creator (Win) http://www.pdfforge.org
  Create a PDF file from any program that can print.

Graphics:

• Gimp (Win, Mac, Lin) http://www.gimp.org
  Photo editor. I've used this program extensively for editing images from simple crops to image creation.
  
• Picasa (Win, Mac, Lin) http://picasa.google.com
  Photo album. Can be used to create basic video clips or slide shows. I used this extensively to organize the files for the yearbook this past year and found the face recognize feature very useful.

Organizational:

• Xournal (Win, Lin) http://xournal.sourceforge.net
  Digital paper, can be use with a smart board or to annotate PDF files. For our daily grammar activities in class I would scan them to a PDF and then my students or myself would mark them up using a Wacom Bamboo pad as students called out corrections.
  
• FreeMind (Win, Lin, Mac) http://freemind.sourceforge.net
  Concept/Mind-mapping software. Students used this extensively to create study guides. Very quick and easy to use.
  
• Dia (Win, Mac, Lin) http://dia-installer.de
  Create diagrams and flow charts. I used this more in the past but it is still a good piece of software.

Audio/Music/Video:

• VLC (Win, Mac, Lin) http://www.videolan.org/vlc
  Plays most any audio or video file.
  
• Audacity (Win, Mac, Lin) http://audacity.sourceforge.net
  Sound file editor/recorder. I've used this program extensively when creating my online spelling tests. Both the Windows and the Linux versions.
  
• MuScore (Win, Mac, Lin) http://musescore.org
  Musical score editor. I have not used this very much yet but plan on using it in the classroom this next year.
  
• OpenShot (Lin) http://www.openshotvideo.com
  Video editor. I just started using this program this last spring and am very impress with its offerings.

Science:

• Celestia (Win, Mac, Lin) http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
  Allows you to explore space from your desktop
  
• West Point Bridge Building Software (Win, Mac) http://bridgecontest.usma.edu
  Bring the engineering lab to your classroom. This software allows you to build and test bridges within the confines of your classroom.
  
• Google Earth (Win, Mac, Lin) http://google.com/earth
  Explore the world. Note: Internet connection required.
  
• Online Interactive Science Simulations (Win, Mac, Lin) http://phet.colorado.edu
  Excellent science lab activities that can be done and manipulated on the computer.

Internet:

• Google Chrome (Win, Lin) http://google.com/chrome
  Alternate web browser.
  
• FireFox (Win, Mac, Lin) http://www.mozilla.org
  Alternate web browser
  
• Thunderbird (Win, Lin) http://www.mozilla.org
  Email client
  
• FileZilla (Win, Mac, Lin) http://filezilla-project.org
  Transfer files to a server using FTP, SFTP, or SCP.
  
• WinSCP (Win) http://winscp.net/eng/index.php
  WinSCP allows you to securely copy to a server Linux or other SSH/SFTP server .
  
• Putty (Win) http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty
  Allows secure communication and tunneling with an SSH server.

Misc:

• Word Search Creator (Win, Lin) http://wordsearchcreator.org
  Create word searches that can be printed.
  
• Hot Potatoes (Win, Mac, Lin) http://hotpot.uvic.ca
  Create a several different electronic activities such as word sorts, crossword puzzles, matching, and multiple choice activities.
  
• GnuCash (Win, Mac, Lin) http://www.gnucash.org
  Persona/Business accounting software. I have not yet integrated this into my classroom but I'm working on it and see that it has some great potential.

Computer Maintenance:

• CCleaner (Win, Mac) http://www.piriform.com/products

Word Fun

A classmate of mine shared this website with me that she uses to help her with an icebreaker activity. The website is Wordle.net. You can make interesting word designs patterns given a list of words. Here is a sample that I made using a list of prepositions. I'm sure that I will come up with some more creative uses for it as I later.

Word Scramble Creator

ASchool.us is pleased to offer yet another script to help make your teaching life simpler. Especially for you moodlers. The Word Scramble Creator is a simple web application that takes a list of words and scrambles the the letters of each word. The student then has to unscramble the letters. The output is very simple friendly so that it can be printed or copied to a word processor.

Here is a sample of what the output looks like.

Sample Scramble

Unscramble the following words.
bmelsrca: ________________________
wodr: ____________
nrrageote: ___________________________

Created at www.ASchool.us/scripts/scrambler.php

You can find the Word Scramble Creator at http://www.aschool.us/scripts/scramble.php

Math Facts Approaches 600,000 Correct Student Responses

I was creating some statistics from data at Math Facts this afternoon and realized that there are 600,000 correct student responses to math fact questions so I decided that again it was time to crunch some numbers.

Statistics:
Accuracy of student responses 87.1%
732,620 addition and multiplication problems solved.
638,347 addition and multiplication problems solved correctly.

Multiplication:
464742 multiplication problems solved at 87.51% accuracy.
Average time to correctly respond to a question was 2.049 seconds.
Fastest response times: 0.05 seconds to 2 × 1 and 0.062 seconds to 1 × 1

Addition:
267878 addition problems solved at 86.48% accuracy.
Average time to correctly respond to a question was 2.692 seconds.
Fastest response times: 0 seconds to 1+2, 0.116 seconds to 1+5.

Note that some of these statistics include times when students goof around and try to complete the activity as quickly as possible not paying attention to accuracy at all. But this is a very small percentage overall.

Observations:
I find it interesting that students respond on average about 0.5 seconds slower to addition problems than multiplication. Also it is interesting that the accuracy of the addition is 1% less than that of multiplication.

Graphing Multiple Inequalities Using Two Variables.

First graph each equation as explained in my previous post but only shade lightly. Next determine if the problem is asking for the intersection (and) or union (or).
If it is an intersection then the solution for the system of two or more equations is only where all of the graphs overlap.
If it is a union it is where any of the shading is located.

Be careful of infinite solutions and no solutions.

For example: Graph the equations y > 3x - 2 and y < x + 2.
First graph y > 3x - 2.

Since, this is a greater than equation like to make a little arrow pointing up indicating which side of the line will be shaded.

Now graph y < x + 2

Again, I like to make little arrow indicating which side of the line the shading is on.

Now shade where both lines are.

Give it a try.

Moodle XML Grading Assistant

I just finished writing a new web app that can save you some time, the Moodle XML Grading Assistant. The Moodle XML Grade Assistant allows you to quickly create an XML (or csv) file that can be imported into Moodle. Here is a list of the features:

Step 1

• Simple to use 
• Quick Fill. Fill in the same value for all student.
• You can bookmark your class roster so that you do not have to type it in every time. 
• Once grade values have been entered that can be modified. 
• iPod/iPhone compatible (with easy enter number pad)
• Optimized tab strokes. 
• Blank grades will not be over written.

Instructions:

First you will need a list of student ID numbers. The easiest way to get this is to do a gradebook export to either Open Office, Excel, or csv format.

Step 2

Next make sure that all assignments that you want to grade have and ID number. The fastest way to enter these is through the calculations link of one of the categories in the grade book. You cannot modify them there but you can see what they are and enter them.

Go to http://aschool.us/m/g/ and enter your roster with one line per student. First enter the student's ID number followed by a comma and their name. Note that their name is only for your reference while interacting with the web page. When you are finished click next.

Step 3:

If you are satisfied with your class roster you can bookmark it so that you don't have to type it in again. Nothing is saved on the server it is all encoded in the URL. Now enter the ID number for an assignment and points possible for the assignment. Note that the points possible is only for your reference. Click next. 

To enter the scores simply type in the number. Pressing tab will move you to the next save button and then the next text box. The number pads are for easy entry while using a touch screen device.

If you need to go back and modify a score the simply click the assignment ID at the bottom of the page, change your value and click save.

When are finished click download. You will be prompted for a place to save the file. Next go to Moodle and import the file from your grade book menu.

Your data is temporarily saved on the server while you are working on it. Pressing the reset link at the bottom of the the page will clear out all of the data from the server.

Future:

If I see that people are interested in this I'll enable the email feature so that you can truly enter your grades from your portable device. Currently you can enter them but it makes it pretty hard to save them from the portable device.

History:

One of my frustrations with Moodle is the ability to quickly enter grades into the grade book. You can import CSV files but that takes a while because you have to match up all of the titles manually. This could still save time if you a have a large class but my classes tend to be small. Next I looked into the XML import option but that wasn't very helpful because it was so hard to edit and add information. 

Xournal for Windows

Xournal is a note taking program that I've been using on Linux for several years and has finally been ported to Windows. This is great for those of us that work in hybrid environments. Thanks Dirk for posting your work and thanks Denis for making Xournal. Here are the directions of what Dirk did to get Xournal working on windows (http://dirkgerrits.com/2009/10/28/xournal-on-windows/). Now you can download the binary and simply extract the zip archive and double click the exe to run. I didn't even have to install it (download Xournal). Xournal is similar to Microsoft Windows Journal or to other alternatives such as Jarnal, Gournal, and NoteLab.

I quickly test the software on Windows Vista and the PDF annotation and export appear to work fine. It even opened the annotations that I made in Linux and stored in my DropBox. This is great since I've been wanting to be able to open my files at school from home and vice-versa.