OStatic

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.

Part of the high cost of attending a college or university is due to the exorbitant fees for textbooks. It's an $8 billion dollar market and schools often pass on the high cost of textbook purchases to their students. Once a school selects course books, it's up to professors to mold their curriculum accordingly, rather than offer reading material that suits their teaching style and course content.

In an effort to make curriculum content more accessible to both students and teachers, New York-based startup Flat World Knowledge is going after the textbook industry by offering expertly-written books that educational institutions are free to modify to meet their needs.

There are loads of terrific general Web publishing tools available these days, but some industries require specific features to meet unique needs. Omeka is a free and open source Web-based publishing platform designed with libraries, higher-level learning institutions, and museums in minds. Funded by philanthropic organizations and licensed under the GPL, Omeka makes launching an online exhibition as easy as launching a blog and is perfect for groups that don't have IT-specialists on the payroll.

We talk a lot at OStatic about open source solutions in the classroom. In fact, just yesterday Kristin pointed to a recent article from the BBC discussing the strengths of open source software and the complexities associated with deploying it in an educational environment.

According to the BBC, Good teachers will always be looking to move forward but they are so busy that they are often conservative.

Datamation's Matt Hartley has a completely different take on why open source can't get a foothold in American classrooms, and he claims it's largely because teachers and school IT professionals are misinformation junkies.