What Kind of Freeware/Shareware do you use?

[Tom Jenkins]

Hello,

Each year I like to look at new software to integrate into my class. Alice (Animation) is one that I'm going to use for the first time this year.

Given that I have a software budget near nil, I have to rely on programs that are free or cheap. Posted below are ones that I used last year along with links for those of you that are curious.

What are some of your favorites?

Thanks,
Tom

Scratch (Animation)
Google Earth (Mapping)
Open Office (Productivity)
Audacity (Audio Mixing)
Moodle (Course Management)
Gimp (Image Manipulation)

[Mike Gorman]

Tom,

I have a Wiki I have been building that addresses this issue. It contains some items you talked about along with others. I will be expanding it. Feel free to take a look. I have also just started a blog which I also pasted below. The two ideas you should be sure to check out in my wiki are West Point Bridge and Sketch Up. Also take a look at Intel's thinking tools.

Wiki
http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/
Blog
http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/

Let me know if it helps,

Mike

[Alice Mello]

Hi Tom,

Alice is a powerful animation software, but it requires good programming skills. Let me know how your students deal with it, how much they learn in terms of programming and how much they enjoy it.
In which grades are you going to use Alice? I have seen research of college students using Alice a few years back, but perhaps by now, they managed to have brought it into the high school.
Great choice, I believe programming skills to be an important asset to our kids.
Alice

[Karolee Smiley]

Thanks for starting this, Tom. I am dependent on free software as well. I also need to find software that is fairly easy to use since I do not have a "tech" class. I need the tech to enhance my content lessons, not take too much of my content time to introduce. VoiceThread was one mentioned this summer, and I am looking at adding that to my tech idea bank.

I have used pbworks - to create wikis
google groups - as a class group for assignment and connecting with another school
google docs and presentations - for online collaboration with students from another school
i-movie - for video production

Visual Communicator is not free, but it is an interesting piece. It is fabulous for creating a "news" style presentation since it has a built-in teleprompter and uses a green screen effect. Once you set up a "studio", kids can create some great projects!

[Tom Jenkins]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the software links. In fact I think that I'm going to use both of them this year. Sketch Up not only looks cool, but has some solid instructional videos to go along with it. And West Point Bridge is perfect for a bridge design contest that I run along with a former student of mine (who is now at Ohio State). I especially love the cost calculator and the load tests. Thanks so much!

Mike Gorman said:

Tom,

I have a Wiki I have been building that addresses this issue. It contains some items you talked about along with others. I will be expanding it. Feel free to take a look. I have also just started a blog which I also pasted below. The two ideas you should be sure to check out in my wiki are West Point Bridge and Sketch Up. Also take a look at Intel's thinking tools.

Wiki
http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/
Blog
http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/

Let me know if it helps,

Mike

[Tom Jenkins]

Hello Alice,

I know......Alice does look pretty heady- however, I think that many of my 8th graders will make good guinea pigs. They've worked with Scratch for a couple of years and I think that it's a logical progression.

I plan on holding their hand for the first couple of days and hopefully by the end of the week- as usual- they'll be teaching me a few things. I'll make sure that I let you know how it goes. Wish me luck!

Alice Mello said:

Hi Tom,

Alice is a powerful animation software, but it requires good programming skills. Let me know how your students deal with it, how much they learn in terms of programming and how much they enjoy it.
In which grades are you going to use Alice? I have seen research of college students using Alice a few years back, but perhaps by now, they managed to have brought it into the high school.
Great choice, I believe programming skills to be an important asset to our kids.
Alice

[Tom Jenkins]

Hi Karolee,

I think that Todd also mentioned VoiceThread. After looking at the site for a few, it seems that it would be a wonderful way for students to share projects with each other and folks at home. Are there any VoiceThread experts out there?

Karolee Smiley said:

Thanks for starting this, Tom. I am dependent on free software as well. I also need to find software that is fairly easy to use since I do not have a "tech" class. I need the tech to enhance my content lessons, not take too much of my content time to introduce. VoiceThread was one mentioned this summer, and I am looking at adding that to my tech idea bank.

I have used pbworks - to create wikis
google groups - as a class group for assignment and connecting with another school
google docs and presentations - for online collaboration with students from another school
i-movie - for video production

Visual Communicator is not free, but it is an interesting piece. It is fabulous for creating a "news" style presentation since it has a built-in teleprompter and uses a green screen effect. Once you set up a "studio", kids can create some great projects!

[Mike Gorman]

Tom,

Thanks for checking them out. I will be adding to the Wiki and plan on building the Sketch Up site. You may be interested in the newest section I put on the Wiki that covers a great site on using probe ware and models. Even instructions on building your own probes.

http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/


Mike

Tom Jenkins said:

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the software links. In fact I think that I'm going to use both of them this year. Sketch Up not only looks cool, but has some solid instructional videos to go along with it. And West Point Bridge is perfect for a bridge design contest that I run along with a former student of mine (who is now at Ohio State). I especially love the cost calculator and the load tests. Thanks so much!

Mike Gorman said:

Tom,

I have a Wiki I have been building that addresses this issue. It contains some items you talked about along with others. I will be expanding it. Feel free to take a look. I have also just started a blog which I also pasted below. The two ideas you should be sure to check out in my wiki are West Point Bridge and Sketch Up. Also take a look at Intel's thinking tools.

Wiki
http://21centuryedtech.wikispaces.com/
Blog
http://21centuryedtech.wordpress.com/

Let me know if it helps,

Mike

[Tom Jenkins]

Mike,

Thanks for adding resources to our community. Nice to have you on board.

Tom

[Bonnie Feather]

I've just been introduced to Curriculum Pathways. It used to be for a fee, but it is now free for all educators. http://sascurriculumpathways.com You can see demos of it here: http://www.sas.com/govedu/edu/curriculum/demos.html You will need to request a login, and give the tech contact person for your school, but they will get you set up within 24 hours. You'll find great interactives about science and math as well as other curriculum areas.

[Kim Lightle]

I just read through these comments - some really good stuff here. What we'll do is put together our own wiki page but with links to Mike's edtech wiki pages (very nice) and content from each of the posts - we can capture everything that has been said here and continue to update it as new ideas come in. We'll call the page Freeware and Shareware and link to it in the MSP2 Resources box on the main page of the network. I'll post to this discussion when it is up. Kim

[Tom Jenkins]

Hi Bonnie,

Wow. Do you know how much of that is free? I looked at the preview and immediately sent a link to a couple of our 8th grade teachers. Definitely looks worth checking out........ Thanks.

Bonnie Feather said:

I've just been introduced to Curriculum Pathways. It used to be for a fee, but it is now free for all educators. http://sascurriculumpathways.com You can see demos of it here: http://www.sas.com/govedu/edu/curriculum/demos.html You will need to request a login, and give the tech contact person for your school, but they will get you set up within 24 hours. You'll find great interactives about science and math as well as other curriculum areas.

[Tom Jenkins]

Funny....I saw Karolee's "funding" thread and Mary's suggestion and thought the same thing. Good idea!

Kim Lightle said:

I just read through these comments - some really good stuff here. What we'll do is put together our own wiki page but with links to Mike's edtech wiki pages (very nice) and content from each of the posts - we can capture everything that has been said here and continue to update it as new ideas come in. We'll call the page Freeware and Shareware and link to it in the MSP2 Resources box on the main page of the network. I'll post to this discussion when it is up. Kim