{"id":2945,"date":"2009-10-25T15:48:47","date_gmt":"2009-10-25T23:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/?p=2945"},"modified":"2010-11-27T13:34:41","modified_gmt":"2010-11-27T21:34:41","slug":"open-source-as-a-classroom-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/2009\/10\/25\/open-source-as-a-classroom-alternative\/","title":{"rendered":"Open-Source as a Classroom Alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Blog Question<\/strong>: Would you support implementing FOSS\/OSS in your work environment?<\/p>\n

As a secondary teacher I support the use of FOSS and OSS in schools.\u00a0 I think they are a cost-effective and useful way to bring great software to students.\u00a0 Not only does most of the software “just work” it is often frequently updated based on user comments and could even provide an opportunity for students to help out with the software.<\/p>\n

Although OSS software may not always be the best option, I still prefer Word and Powerpoint for instance, but they often they can bring software to the classroom that might not otherwise be there.\u00a0 For instance open-source CAD software (Cademia <\/a>and avoCADo<\/a>, video editing software (Virtual Dub<\/a> and ZW-4<\/a>) or audio-editing software (Audacity<\/a>).<\/p>\n

To give an example of OSS in the classroom I thought I would share an experience I had with OSS in my classroom. \u00a0 A few years ago I was asked by my principal at the time to develop a new computers\/information processing class for the grade 9’s.\u00a0 After weighing out the various options and considering that I had zero budget I decided to develop an image and photo editing class built around the amazing FOSS photo editor Paint.net<\/a>.\u00a0 The software is nearly as\u00a0 advanced as high-end, and extremely expensive, editors like Photoshop and also has a similar interface and shortcuts.\u00a0 This is great for students who might pursue photo editing further and makes the transfer of skills easy.\u00a0 The software also had numerous online tutorials, guides and help pages that were easy to use and navigate.\u00a0\u00a0 All of this made it extremely easy to develop a course around the software and give my students some valuable technical skills.<\/p>\n

In the end the class was a huge success and I they are still using my materials and Paint.net to teach the class.\u00a0 Although Paint.net has undergone over 2 years of revisions most have been additions, not major changes and most of the material required little or no change to support the new software.<\/p>\n

Anyways, it is this and other positive experiences with OSS that have led me to use it more personally and professionally and I encourage other people to think twice about buying new software before exploring what OSS has to offer.\u00a0 A handy site is Open-Source as Alternatives<\/a> which lists alternatives for many types of software we normally pay for.\u00a0 The site allows you to list commercial and alternative software by OS and by use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog Question: Would you support implementing FOSS\/OSS in your work environment? As a secondary teacher I support the use of FOSS and OSS in schools.\u00a0 I think they are a cost-effective and useful way to bring great software to students.\u00a0 Not only does most of the software “just work” it is often frequently updated based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":617,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179],"tags":[5377,5159,956,51,3869],"class_list":["post-2945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mod06-open-source","tag-5377","tag-lacoursiere","tag-m7","tag-open-source","tag-oss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/617"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2945"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3717,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2945\/revisions\/3717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/etec522sept09\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}