Re: [school-discuss] Open-source alternatives

[garry saddington <garry@joydiv.fsnet.co.uk>]

On Saturday 09 October 2004 21:53, Aaron Tyo-Dickerson wrote:
> troy@banther-trx.homeunix.com wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> >
> > Is anyone on the list using completely open-source alternatives in
> > their schools? Specifically GNU/Linux and educational programs. I
> > would love to hear of the combinations, types of software, server setups.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Troy
>
> Thanks for asking this question, Troy, as I have been meaning to join
> the conversation with a similar inquiry. I work for a regional public
> school consortium in Upstate New York and have been exploring FOSS
> possibilities for our area schools.
>
> We currently have one district piloting several FOSS apps on their
> Windows PCs. Their "shortlist" includes OpenOffice, The Gimp and the
> Firefox web browser. (Not a very daring move by the standards of the
> FOSS community, perhaps, but pretty fringe stuff for this region.) At
> the same time, another school district has contacted me with a request
> very similar to what you ask here: Can I take a laptop PC, wipe its hard
> drive and then created a FOSS-only educational computer?
>
> While the obvious, short answer is "Yes, simply install any flavor of
> Linux and then add some of the standard desktop apps (see the non-daring
> list above) and *Presto* an 'educational computer'", the actual response
> is "I am not sure." Schools have very specific needs and I have had
> difficulty finding FOSS replacements for things like Inspiration, which
> we rely on for graphic organizers / concept maps / idea webs. I have
> searched SchoolForge and SourceForge and not found a similar product and
> would love to know if there is one out there.
>
> Aaron Tyo-Dickerson
Try Freemind at 
http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
regards
garry