An Open Source Tool for Every Task

For the last several years, I’ve organized sessions on open source software (OSS) at ed-tech conferences. But this year was markedly different, with an awareness of these tools among educators that I’d never seen—a result, perhaps, of restrictive school budgets (there are no licensing fees with OSS). There may also be a growing understanding of the concept of open source, in which contributors, who do not expect compensation for their efforts, write software for which the actual programming code is “open” and freely available. Personally, I think that Wikipedia has made a big difference. While the online reference isn’t software, but rather “open content,” Wikipedia demonstrates the potential of volunteer contributors to create a serious project for the benefit of all.

Following are some of the most popular OSS applications for schools. All are freely available, requiring no license fees, and can be loaded on an unlimited number of computers or distributed to students for home use.

GIMP. This graphical image-editing program is a sophisticated alternative to expensive commercial software.

Blender This 3-D design and animation program (pictured above) is used in the film industry.

OpenOffice.org A fully-functioning office suite, including word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation programs. Compatible with commercial program files and exports to PDF format.

Firefox A fast Web browser with the capacity to add functionality extensions like resource citation tool Zotero —a library favorite!

Scribus A professional desktop publishing program with complex page layout features and print shop-quality output.

Freemind Mind-mapping software with extensive export capabilities.

Celestia A planetarium program with a real-time 3-D space simulation featuring a database of more than 100,000 stars.

Ubuntu A complete computer operating system with access to thousands of OSS programs, including all of the above. Great for repurposing older computers.

For more information, visit the K12OpenSource wiki.