OSV Launches Open Source Software Catalog for Education Sector
Dec 5th, 17:40 UTC
Open Source Victoria, Australia's government-funded open source industry cluster, has just published an 80-page catalog highlighting some of the best open source software available for schools, teachers and students.
"The catalog, available online, consists of education-oriented applications, or applications which are potentially useful within an educational context," explained OSV convenor Con Zymaris. "The catalog is segmented into broad categories, such as Office Productivity Applications, Scientific, Mathematical, Graphics, Multimedia, Computer Programming, Primary School and more. Software which is available for the Windows, Mac, Linux and Unix platforms is listed."
In preparing this catalog, our objectives were:
- to increase the awareness of open source software amongst all
schools,
- to provide an easy mechanism for educators to review and select software,
- to increase the understanding of the merits of open source software
- to help the education sector save money on software licences, which could be re-deployed on hardware or staff professional development.
"By using open source software, educators can save money, save
time and legal hassles with licence administration, legally copy
and distribute software and save their students money, as they
can hand CDs with software out to the kids," continued Zymaris.
"For those studying programming, there's no better way than learning from existing code-bases and open source software offers
us the best of these. Even if schools have already paid for
software like Microsoft Office, by teaching students OpenOffice.
org as well, they ensure that students learn word-processing and
spreadsheets, rather than Word and Excel."
Roland Gesthuizen, ICT Manager and IT Teacher at Westall
Secondary College in Victoria added that "Choosing open source
software solutions for staff and students has enabled us to
invest more of our IT budget in staff development and equipment
upgrades. This new catalog is a great reference for users to
first check when considering any new software purchase or
upgrade." Chris Ellis, a year 12 student at the school, added
"Cool, I can even use this stuff at home!"
"By making available, in one package, an easy to use,
accessible information resource, we hope to boost the adoption of
open source software throughout the education space. It's all
about ensuring that students receive a better, broader technology
education, and open source can deliver on that promise by making
powerful yet free software available to every school," concluded
Zymaris.
More information: http://www.osv.org.au/index.cgi?tid=155
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About Open Source Victoria
Open Source Victoria is an Industry Cluster consisting of over
100 Victorian firms and developers which provide services and
technology related to Free and Open Source Software (FOSS.) Open
Source Victoria offers marketing, advocacy and information
referral services, and aims to raise the profile of FOSS in
Victoria and work with other similar organisations across
Australia.
http://www.osv.org.au/
(Submitted by Con Zymaris of Cybersource Pty. Ltd.)
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