"Refactoring" this page on ProposedEducationalProgramsDev.

A page to list educational (or entertaining) programs suggested for inclusion on the donated computers.

PatrickDavila found five programs (listed below) on Freshmeat. More would be better ;-). Also, we may want someone who's actually used a program to comment on its suitability and perhaps the target age range.

I suggest you create and use a comment marker (usually your initials in parenthesis) to mark each suggestion or comment you make -- if someone has a question we'll know who to ask. (Of course, the information is also available in RCS, but this makes it easier.) Tentatively, I've created the comment marker (pd) for PatrickDavila pending his registration. (And (rhk) for myself.)

(dw) I added the website to most of the applications for others to easily view the selection. Futhermore, I put a grade level abbreviation after each selection to help determine the appropriate age level and try to make sure we do not skew the selections to far to one age level.

Perhaps a second level under each selection for comments may be the best avenue to continue with.

My final comment for the night is that we might want to start breaking these listings up into categories like Math, Science, Music, etc. (end dw)

Contents

Proposed Programs

Games

• (dw) Gtans ( http://gtans.sourceforge.net/ ) (all)
  • (dw) I find this program very addicting. Tangos via gtk. The Gifted program in our school uses a similar application.

Educational Programs

• (pd) Schoolforge website ( http://schoolforge.net/index.php )
• (pd) Childplay ( http://childsplay.sourceforge.net/index.html ) (el)
• (pd) GCompris ( http://www.ofset.org/gcompris/ ) (el)
  • (dw) My 4 year old daughter loves this program.
• (pd) Linux Letters & Numbers ( http://lln.sourceforge.net/ ) (ps)
• (pd) Tux of Math Command
  • (dw) There is a warning on their website (if I recall) about how this program may be deemed objectionable in the context of terrorism. Not that I necessarily agree.
• (pd) Tux typing
• (dw) Atomix ( http://triq.net/~pearl/atomix.php ) (ms,hs)
• (dw) LeoCAD ( http://leocad.gerf.org ) (ms, hs)
  • (dw) LeoCAD is a bit complex, but who could pass up a CAD program where you use lego pieces to create objects.
• (dw) Skill Literature ( http://norbertdejonge.sourceforge.net/SkillLiterature.html ) (el)
• (dw) Sticker Book ( http://stickers.seul.org/ ) (ps)
  • (dw) This is another program that my daughter started playing with since the age of 2. She really enjoys it.
• (dw) Tutor Shooter ( http://www.imperialpenguin.com/software/tutorshooter/ ) (el)
• (dw) Tux Paint ( http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxpaint/ ) (el,ms)
  • (dw) Currently, this is the program my 4 year-old want to play before bed time, or any other time she can.
• (dw) Xletters ( http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/madore/programs/#prog_xletters ) (el,ms)
• (dw) Xplanet ( http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/software/ ) (el,ms,hs)
  • (dw) I have used this program on my system and it is interesting for astronomy buffs. I would love to consider Celestia, but the requirments are a bit beefy for most of the systems we have available to us (OpenGL, 4meg card).
• (dw) Combo ( http://www.compo-music.net/en/accueil.php ) (ms,hs)
• (dw) Montessori Bells ( http://casquet.inet.net.nz/lisia/montessoribells.html ) (el,ms)
• (dw) Solfege ( http://solfege.sourceforge.net/ ) (ms,hs)
• (dw) SoundTracker ( http://www.soundtracker.org/screenshots.php3 ) (ms,hs)
• (dw) Gquiz ( http://nis.acs.uci.edu/~strombrg/software/gquiz.html ) (ms,hs)

Applications

• (rhk) AbiWord -- I'll refresh my memory and current status before suggesting the stable version (without tables) or the current development version (with tables)
• (dw) OpenOffice ( http://openoffice.org )
• (dw) Gimp ( http://www.gimp.org )
• (dw) Gthumb ( http://gthumb.sourceforge.net/ )
• (dw) Gnucash ( http://www.gnucash.org/ )

Dependencies and Libraries

• (dw) SDL (including mixer, ttf, image, net)
• (dw) Python (for Childsplay)
• (dw) Perl
• (dw) Java

Default Desktop

In previous discussions we have developed a standard look and feel for all the desktops. After some discussion Randy Plessor, Dann and I have come up with using the following:

• (lf) Icewm as tha basic windowmanager
• (lf) Rox-filer as the file and icon manager (after rethinking this though the icon manager used in VectorLinux may actually be dfm - need to check)
• (lf) Last but not least is a standard desktop background just to make everything look uniform. Examples will be available soon on the cfk website at lvcfk.webhop.org

Abbreviations

• (ps) Pre-School
• (el) Elementary Level
• (ms) Middle School Level
• (hs) High School Level

Contributors

• (pd) PatrickDavila - 11 Dec 2002
• (rhk) RandyKramer - 11 Dec 2002
• (dw) DannWashko - 13 Dec 2002
• (lf) LincFessenden - 1/5/2003
• (pd) PatrickDavila - 1/13/2003

• <If you edit this page: add your name here; move this to the next line; and include your comment marker (initials), if you have created one, in parenthesis before your WikiName.>