OStatic

It's that time again. Youngsters are polishing apples for the teacher, parents are buying school supplies, and university students are wincing at the high cost of textbooks. Fortunately, there are several free open source computer- and Web-based applications students can use for everything from note-taking to scheduling classes projects. These apps won't do your homework for you, but they'll take the sting out of getting it done.

Task Coach - Set tasks to alert or reoccur, sort by attribute, view by list or as a tree, and more. You can also drag and drop emails from Thunderbird to create a new task, and add files, emails, and URLs as attachments. Task Coach is even small enough to be transported on a thumb drive.

Today marks the final installment in our series that takes a look at educational versions of popular Linux distributions ideal for students returning to class in the next few weeks. We've already talked about Edubuntu and openSUSE Education, so today let's take a look at Debian Jr.

While many distros provide educational software for students all the way up to college-age, Debian Jr.'s age-specfic apps top out around the 12-year old mark. According to the project's Web site, Our goal is to make Debian an OS that children of all ages will want to use. Our initial focus will be on producing something for children up to age 8. Once we have accomplished this, our next target age range is 7 to 12. By the time children reach their teens, they should be comfortable with using Debian without any special modifications.

This week, I've been going over some options students have for setting up a computer with educational software and applications. Monday, I gave readers an overview of Edubuntu, an education edition of the popular Linux distribution Ubuntu. Today, let's take a look at openSUSE Education, a community-driven project backed by Novell.

The openSUSE Education Project is an effort to support schools using Linux and to provide an openSUSE-based Live DVD that can be used to set up a quick educational environment without installing any software. The KIWI-LTSP server supports up to five users from the Live DVD. The Live DVD is also installable, so classrooms that are switching to Linux on a full-time basis can use the Life (Linux for Education) DVD to do a permanent install.

Back-to-school time is right around the corner and computers are on the top of most students' lists of things they want or need in time for the first day of class. Of course, there's no reason to drop a ton of cash on expensive software when open source versions work just as well or better. In fact, unlike commercial operating systems from Microsoft or Apple, some Linux distributions have entire versions or application bundles dedicated just to users in educational settings.

This week, I'm going to take a look at three of the most popular open source software bundles created just for student and classroom use. First up, Ubuntu Education Edition, better known as Edubuntu.

Last fall we heard the news that Russia mandated all schools in the nation must use free software. The transition was to be completed by the end of 2009 and the number of computers running free software in Russian schools was expected to top one million by 2010. Unfortunately, things haven't gone quite as planned.

Installation disks were recently shipped to school districts and contained four different GNU/Linux distributions so schools could choose the best distro for their particular hardware. A mistake was made by one of the companies responsible for assembling the software, rendering the disks completely unusable.

The Linux Foundation has added another member to the fold. mimio, creator of the only interactive teaching platform available for Linux, joined the foundation and plans to use popular tools such as the 'App Checker' to ease code development as it makes Linux applications more portable than ever before. Having educational software and appliance vendors on the membership roster of the Linux Foundation is a terrific way to reinforce that open source technology is indeed compatible with the needs of educators and learning institutions.

Though today's piece in The Chronicle of Higher Education is less about the advantages of open source courseware and more about the advantages that open source courseware has suddenly been given, it's worth taking a few moments to read and consider.

The leading proprietary course management system, Blackboard, announced this month that it was purchasing another of its major competitors. Many Angel Learning clients said they chose the company because of its low-key approach and helpful customer service, coupled with the open nature of at least portions of its source code.

It's an area where software preferences -- not necessarily in regards to open or closed code, but service, features, and responsiveness to client needs -- are not simply a matter of favorites. As the Chronicle explains, the course management system isn't just a platform for managing coursework, schedules, and grades. It's an extension of the school.

Where Blackboard has seemingly fallen short, where Angel Learning excelled, and how this acquisition is being received has resulted in many educational institutions giving open source alternatives a much closer look.

The South Carolina Department of Education and the non-profit Palmetto Project have teamed up to get a laptop in the hands of every elementary school student in South Carolina. Inspired by the vision behind the OLPC Initiative, educators, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and government officials started working together in 2005 to see if they could make this happen.

The OLPC/SC hopes to distribute as many as 50,000 laptops this spring to eligible students. The effort is underwritten and managed by the Palmetto Project, whose mission is to put new and creative ideas to work in South Carolina. While low-performing school districts with limited resources are a special focus for the OLPC/SC, the group is adamant on one point: There are no free laptops. In fact, there are two requirements for children wishing to receive a laptop -- one is merely a token, the other puts the greater meaning of the laptop in perspective.

Even as a child, I knew that Pixie Sticks were just trouble. The paper tubes loaded with colorful yet mysteriously flavorless sugar weren't particularly tasty, and too many of them led to mom and dad either threatening to pull the car over or hinting ominously about what would happen if they had to tell me again. Parents today know that in addition to the traditional side effects, Pixie Sticks aren't terribly good for USB ports, either.

That's not the case with the other sort of Sugar. Sugar, the kid-friendly open source desktop that was featured first on the OLPC XO laptop is now available (in a beta release) as a liveUSB image. The Sugar on a Stick environment is powered by Fedora 11 and features familiar Sugar desktop applications and functions, as well as new educational and collaborative tools, such as the InfoSlicer online content editor, remixer, and delivery application.

We've written on numerous occasions about open source adoption in government and education. The ways that open source solutions make sense in (and even philosophically complement) these areas are many, and often make any obstacles involved seem less critical. But for reasons that are frequently unrelated to the utility or appropriateness of open source software, adoption in the public sector has been slow.

It is on the increase, however. The Daily Gazette in Schenectady, New York, recently ran a piece detailing the reasons why the public sector has been hesitant about -- but not entirely resistant to -- adopting open source software.