--Angelo R. Basilio
It has been proven that incorporating ICT in teaching is one of the effective methods in transferring knowledge and skills to our students. This is the very reason why teachers are encouraged to keep updated with the latest know-hows on Information and Communication Technologies and to integrate these to teaching and learning. On the other hand, one of the problems that are being encountered by the teachers in integrating ICT to education is the financial limitations to acquire computers and commercial software products, particularly in the public schools.
Nevertheless, software should not be a big problem anymore if your school does have computer units already. Below is a short list of free software products which can be used and installed on many computers. These software programs may be as good as or better than their commercial equivalents.
- Ubuntu 12.04. It is a free, open source, fast, secure and easy-to-use operating system and one of the best alternatives for the commercially available Microsoft Windows. Why do you spend thousands of pesos if you can have an operating system for free? Furthermore, Ubuntu is available in 24 languages. To get your copy for free, just go to http://www.ubuntu.com/.
- LibreOffice Productivity Suite. This free software suite coming from The Document Foundation is consists of productivity programs such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and databases. Almost anything that you can do with MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access can also be done with this application suite, so, if your school does not have enough budgets to buy a licensed MS Office, LibreOffice application suite is the best alternative. It also works with many operating systems like MS Window, Linux and Mac. To get your free copy just go to http://www.libreoffice.org/.
- Scribus. This is a free, open source and multiplatform desktop publishing application that brings professional page layout to Linux, Mac OS X and Windows desktops. It features modern and user friendly interface that supports desktop publishing features such as color separations, CMYK and Spot Color support, ICC color management and useful PDF creation. To get a free copy, point your browser to http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus.
- Greenfoot. It is a free and multiplatform interactive JAVA development environment used primarily for educational purposes at the high school and college level. It can be used to write two dimensional graphical computer programs such as simulations and interactive games. This program is available in Operating Systems like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and many others. To get your free copy, go to http://www.greenfoot.org/download/.
- GIMP. This is a free, open source and multiplatform photo-editing software, used for tasks such as editing, retouching, image rendering, image format converter and more. This is a free and good alternative for Adobe Photoshop. To download a copy, just point your browser to http://www.gimp.org.
55 comments:
I agree. It's time we make education tools up to speed with the current trends. After all, education is one of our great investments for the future. I am only familiar with GIMP here. Ubuntu I've heard of but not really that well-acquainted with it so thanks for the links and short descriptions. :-)
It is high time that technology be used in our school. I hope public school can also afford that.
Mommy Maye (http://momayes.blogspot.com)
i've heard of Ubuntu but since I am not the IT in our company, i get to follow whatever they installed on our PC...at home, i use the free versions ;)
what's good in our country is that youth has embrace new technologies. sometimes, naiiwanan pa ang mga teachers. i hope na maincorporate na sa mga schools natin ang mga system na yan.
kids are very lucky that they have different tools to improve their knowledge and i just hope even public schools can use this new technology.
I haven't encountered any of these except for ubuntu. It's pretty good for a freeware.
I love GIMP! It's pretty easy to use, I guess with a little patience :)
And I agree with most of the comments that hopefully our schools will be able to utilize these free software to help educate our children.
Cool terms! Haven't encountered any of those! Since I'm not in the ICT world (I'm in the educ field), I was not aware with those terms..
GIMP lang ang alam ko sa mga software na ito, at di ko pa alam gamitin
Great post!
The kids these days are more techie than any adult. Because of their interest to use the computer, they learn fast and develop the skills needed to use one.
I pray that our government will find ICT vital and provide this information to all the public scohols.
having ICT in our curriculum should be done ages ago... kaso lang laging walang budget... great that you've posted these free softwares...
dapat kasama talaga..dapat kids should focus on the educational side di lang puro DOTA ang ginagawa nila
back in the days i also used these open source OS like ubuntu,fedora,knoppix,etc.
now im only using the live CD to salvage my broken hdds.
~CorbyLove
Thank God for technology. Life is really much easier.
wow! thanks for all this info and links. this is really helpful for me :)
http://khyutee.wordpress.com
Thanks for the info and links... I am not really techie when it comes to this stuff. So reading them from your site has helped me a lot in discovering other forms of software products that are free.
I really wish, mostly for public schools cos I'm sure that most private schools have computer classes already, that this will be utilized in schools.. Technology is a wonderful thing and learning will be a lot easier if only our public school children will have access to things like this.
- The Joyful Crafter
www.peachyalvarez.com
www.thejoyfulcrafterph.com
Thanks for sharing this information.
Teachers should learn how to use computer na so they can go with the flow, its good that free software is available, thanks for sharing!
Yeah, buti nalang may alternatives na. Not everybody can afford the softwares in the market. With these alternatives, even the less fortunate will have the chance to learn na.
This is good information. I just hope that these operating syste can perform the same as other OS.
This could also save the government since it can be downloaded for free rather than spending thousands of peso per school just to have the OS in their computer.
thanks for sharing this information
Thanks for sahring this very informative post.
I'm not familiar with any of these softwares. Very informative post. Thanks!
heard some from my husband ...but for me.. I don't know if i'll care enough to use any.. hehehe.. old dog here learning new trick.. argh tiresome..lol
i am familiar of these free software...my brother and dad usually talk techie things...
Great options of downloadable software programs. I agree that it's about time educations system integrate ICT.
I just recently paid for the 'tablet' at my son's school because it is now an "option" to have one instead of printed books. Hopefully this will inspire my son to study more :D
Very good source of free softwares. I just wonder why you've not included the OpenOffice application which is also an open source.
Bookmarked! I believe my eldest daughter will be needing this. Thanks for sharing:)
Good list of open-source softwares. I've only heard of Ubuntu.
That`s a good list. This will help especially public schools with no budget for softwares.
On a new machine without OS, I will install these but I already bought Windows 7 starter for my OS so windows it is.
I am not much of a technical person but this is one great way to be implemented in schools. Hopefully it will as incoming high school students get to finish after 5 years .
I'm not really familiar in geek words but I have already used ubuntu and it pretty fast.
http://pixiechronicle.blogspot.com/
Woot! Love the LibreOffice idea. I will check this out! I used Ubuntu in college during programming class and it's the sweetest and fastest free OS. in love with it. I just needed some software for work so I had to go back to mainstream Windows OS.
Great free software. I'm using ubuntu linux on my netbook and I'm using the libreoffice and gimp. You just need to get familiar with the software.
Those are very informative software :-) hope that every students can try it to help with their projects at school.
http://www.kidsnpet.com/2012/05/one-of-our-koi-fish/
Nice list of free software. Worth checking out!
Lizzie of Make More Money Online
Thanks for sharing,
i'm not really aware of ict but this looks very interesting. Will further read about it so i can understand. thanks.
There are tons of free software out there and many more to come I think. When I couldn't afford Photoshop yet, I used GIMP in making websites and editing photos.
Nice post!
a teacher's greatest challenge is how to transfer knowledge to their students when sources is very few to lacking, at least ict is recognizing that need, i hope all others would follow foot. :)
I didn't know that there's a lot of software for ICT learning. Thanks for sharing.
I haven't heard about those softwares but will check them out if I'm going to go for more ICT learning.
I'm so nontechie that everything sounds jibberish to me. :) This is useful stuff though for those who are looking for free software.
i used gimp =) i hope software companies will always have 'student' version and price for school :)
Do teachers have classes in ICT as part of their curriculum/training? They should! So that they can apply it when they get to the schools. Although, not all schools are equipped with technology, which is another thing that DepEd has to take care of soon.
Gimp is the only thing I know here. Which means I have to brush up on my techie knowledge.
Kudos to these open source, free software. They're helping so many people by making their software accessible to everyone.
Same here, I only know GIMP but I don't even use it hehe!
never heard of the softwares expect for GIMP. but thanks for the info. might check out the links you've given.
I hope our government will consider having this in our public school. This would be a great project.
omg! i think i need to read more and be updated, thank you for this info! :)
These days not only in the computer system but we are using many advanced software in the mobile and many small electronic devices. So the importance of software is there everywhere. Many people have no idea about the vomputer system but still they well known about certain popular software and it is due to the rapid use of that software. EDI
as a teacher, we need to be resourceful. I can relate to this because I've been teaching ICT subject for three years already.
I am not a techy person but when the need arise article like this are very useful for me.
These are useful software, I have installed ubuntu in one of my laptops and it is great.
http://mutualfundphilippines.com
Post a Comment