Building the XO Learning Tablet | www.morphoss.com

This is a great project that I'm keeping an eye on: a kiwi company that has built a management interface for Android tablets. The big features for educators are parental controls, app curation and deployment, all of which will help educators who want an alternative to iPads, but also want a way to manage multiple devices and stay sane.



"Freeing an idea by One Laptop Per Child, based around a graphical design by The Fuse Project, Morphoss has spent the last year developing & building the user interface and related software for the XO Learning Tablet.

The project to build the XO Learning Tablet was a complex and demanding one, requiring us to delve deeply within the Android OS in order to provide parental controls, support tracking of usage by multiple children. Outside of the direct user interface development we also built web-based administration software to help OLPC track the inclusion and classification of over 100 third-party educational applications. At the same time we also contributed code and translations back to the free software community for a number of projects which are used within the product.

We're proud to have been a part of this process and look forward to continuing to work with One Laptop Per Child as the tablet revolution evolves and develops.

Visit http://www.xotablet.com/ for more information."

Dia | Diagram editor

Dia is roughly inspired by the commercial Windows program 'Visio,' though more geared towards informal diagrams for casual use. It can be used to draw many different kinds of diagrams. It currently has special objects to help draw entity relationship diagrams, UML diagrams, flowcharts, network diagrams, and many other diagrams. It is also possible to add support for new shapes by writing simple XML files, using a subset of SVG to draw the shape.

It can load and save diagrams to a custom XML format (gzipped by default, to save space), can export diagrams to a number of formats, including EPS, SVG, XFIG, WMF and PNG, and can print diagrams (including ones that span multiple pages).

Xmind | mind-mapping software

"XMind is a brainstorming and mind mapping software tool developed by XMind Ltd. of Hong Kong. The program is intended to assist users in capturing ideas, organizing various charts, and share them with collaboration. It supports mind maps, Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams or cause-and-effect diagrams), tree diagrams, organization charts, and spreadsheets. It can be used for knowledge management, meeting minutes, task management, and GTD." [1]

Besides the Mind Map structure, XMind also offers Org-chart, Tree-chart, Logic-chart, and etc. These charts will play an important role in some circumstances. For example, Org-chart can show the company/department/team structure clearly. Logic-chart is very useful in sorting the reasons. More important, all these charts can be used within one map! Every branch can have the most proper structure, even every topic. [2]

Freemind | mind-mapping software

"FreeMind is a free mind mapping application written in Java. FreeMind is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It provides extensive export capabilities. It runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS X via the Java Runtime Environment.

As with other mind mapping software packages, FreeMind allows the user to edit a hierarchical set of ideas around a central concept. The non-linear approach assists in brainstorming new outlines and projects as ideas are added around the mind map. As a Java application, FreeMind is portable across multiple platforms and retains the same user interface, causing some amount of variation from the common interface on each platform." (Wikipedia)
(Link)

VLC | Media Player

This is the Swiss Army Knife of video players. It will play just about anything you can throw at it:

"Simple, fast and powerful media player:

• Plays everything: Files, Discs, Webcams, Devices and Streams. 
• Plays most codecs with no codec packs needed:
• MPEG-2, DivX, H.264, MKV, WebM, WMV, MP3... 
• Runs on all platforms: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Unix... 
• Completely Free, 0 spyware, 0 ads and no user tracking. 
• Can do media conversion and streaming."

(Link)

Koha | Open source library management system

"Koha is the first free software library automation package. In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of users collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha’s feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base.

In use worldwide in libraries of all sizes, Koha is a true enterprise-class ILS with comprehensive functionality including basic or advanced options. Koha includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more."

(Link)

Scribus | Desktop Publishing

Easy-to-use, powerful desktop publishing that allows people to produce professional-quality brochures, magazine layouts, newspapers, advertisements etc. easily from just about any computer.

"Scribus is an Open Source program that brings professional page layout and desktop publishing to Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows with a combination of press-ready output and new approaches to page design.

Underneath a modern and user-friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as color separations, CMYK and spot colors, ICC color management, and versatile PDF creation." (Link)

Libre Office | Free Productivity / Office Suite

"LibreOffice is a comprehensive, professional-quality productivity suite that you can download and install for free, with no fear of copyright infringement. There is a large base of satisfied LibreOffice users worldwide, and it is available in more than 30 languages and for all major operating systems, including Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux.

What's outstanding about LibreOffice?

• LibreOffice is a feature-packed and mature desktop productivity package with some really great advantages:
• It's free – no worry about license costs or annual fees.
• No language barriers – it's available in a large number of languages, with more being added continually.
• Supports large number of file formats, including Microsoft Office, OOXML, and RTF – both loading and saving."

Flashcards | Anki

"Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.

Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless.
For example:

• Learning a language
• Studying for medical and law exams
• Memorizing people's names and faces
• Brushing up on geography
• Mastering long poems
• Even practicing guitar chords!"

Use the forks Luke!

Luke Skywalker: These chopsticks are driving me nuts!
Darth Vader: Use the forks Luke, use the forks.

A few big forks in the open source world: OpenOffice.org has become LibreOffice and Open Solaris has become Open Indiana. I've installed Libreoffice and have been quite impressed with it. For one thing, mail merges work perfectly (something I've always struggled with in Open Office) as well as a few other nice touches.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about these forks is that their presence reminds us that no large company can ever control an open source project. As soon as Oracle began putting noses out of joint over their handling of Sun's open source assets, the community just up and left, taking its goodwill with it. A cautionary tale for quite a few companies I would have thought.