Re: [seul-edu] Math teachers...

[Chris Hobbs <chobbs@silvervalley.k12.ca.us>]

Jason Mellen wrote:

> > So, my current goal is to come up with not only a list of usable
> > software, but also hopefully testimonials from math teachers using the
> > products in their classrooms.
> 
> Wouldn't it be great if we could assemble a decent catalog of Free software
> with all the deails like that. Thoughts?

This gets back to something that struck me yesterday - the biggest
benefit to buying "Educational" software is probably not the
software/code itself, but the canned lesson plans and other supporting
materials that come with it. That's what impressed me the most about the
InvestSmart Stock Market Game
(http://library.thinkquest.org/10326/market_simulation/index.html) I
came across yesterday - coding a stock market game doesn't seem like
it'd be all that difficult (i.e. I could probably do it :). But the
wealth of support materials - online lessons for students, lesson plans
and aids for teachers, supporting articles - all of that is what makes
this something I could see teachers using. Let's face it, it takes a lot
of time to plan that sort of thing from scratch.

How much free educational software comes with this sort of support
material as well?

For those teachers interested in helping Open Source software take hold,
but don't (know how to|want to) write code, this may be where your
largest contribution could be made.

IMHO...

-- 
Chris Hobbs       Silver Valley Unified School District
Head geek:              Technology Services Coordinator
webmaster:    http://www.silvervalley.k12.ca.us/chobbs/
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