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Educational Software To Donate With Laptop?
SlartibartfastJunior writes "I will be sending my four-year-old laptop to a school in Uganda this fall. I plan to load up an older version of Windows (or something free), and I need suggestions - what should I load on it? I need suggestions for educational games, educational software, etc. that won't drain my battery too much (since the computer will only be able to recharge at night), won't require a CD (since my drive doesn't work 80% of the time), and won't be too America-centered (most of these children have never been more than ten miles out of their own villages, and wouldn't understand "Oregon Trail"). Also, any great ideas on where I can acquire copies of this software?"
Ironic. That's a pretty good pirate impression. Just throw in a "matey" and give it a little more gusto.
OpenOffice or something of the sort would be nice. An office package is always useful.
Give them a couple old versions of Civ and Sim City.
Those are educational and addictive enough. And are not American centric.
Ted
Fantasy remains a human right; we make in our measure and in our derivative mode... -- JRR Tolkien
Years ago I set up a punch-card scanner for a correspondence school in Kumasi, Ghana. The staff had never really worked with a computer much; I was suprised at their level of interest in the computer itself (just a P3).
I had loaded a copy of Microsoft Encarta on the PC and they absolutlely loved that!
Sigs cause cancer.
...replace the CD drive.
Mike van Lammeren
It will challenge your head, your brain, and your mind.
I think they have multilingual games... Or maybe it's just their website.
This user account is inactive account replaced by the PDA
Celestia rocks. It's a free (GPL program/public domain data) program where you fly arond space and see stars and planets and stuff. Educational, fun, and free!
samrolken
The OpenCD is the obvious choice. Mod this down if it's already been listed.
CB
free ipod and free gmail!
I will be sending my four-year-old laptop to a school in Uganda this fall
Dear Sir,
I am Umbumbo Bumbalilo of Uganda. PLease send your Laptop.
Thank you.
Umbumbo Bumbalilo
HAMURABI: I BEG TO REPORT TO YOU.
IN YEAR 1997, 97,234 PEOPLE STARVED, 0 CAME TO THE CITY.
POPULATION IS NOW 2,123,872
THE CITY NOW OWNS 543,213 ACRES
RATS ATE 1,234,612 BUSHELS
YOU NOW HAVE 5,190,212 BUSHELS IN STORE
YOU WERE DONATED 1 LAPTOP
YOU STARVED 97,234 PEOPLE IN ONE YEAR!!!!
DUE TO THIS EXTREME MANAGEMENT YOU HAVE NOT ONLY
BEEN IMPEACHED AND THROWN OUT OF OFFICE BUT YOU
HAVE ALSO BEEN DECLARED A NATIONAL FINK!!!!
SO LONG FOR NOW
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Depending on the grade level of the kids, go with something like number crunchers.
... and of course good old tux typing
Childsplay
OFSET
Tux Typing
and that was just in 5 minutes on Source Forge
"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction here and merely hoped.
But when people donate stuff, they always make sure it is absolutely worthless to themselves first. Why don't you get together with a group of friends and buy a new laptop that the school will get some decent use out of? I have been on the recieving end of such charity, so I speak from experience. While I was a missionary someone sent us 10 P I's. Out of those 10 we actually got 2 of them to work by skavaging the lot. And the donators thought they were doing us a favor...
Project gutenberg makes there collection available as isos. Burn a couple copies of each and bundle with the laptop.
Bang: you've just donated a library not an obsolet laptop!
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
In all seriousness,
put 1 Gigabyte of JPG files of pretty California girls engaged in sexual activity.
They can erase it if they like with a simple:
Format c:\
Or, they can copy them to CDs and sell them. That way they can get enough money to buy several good PCs to go with the end-of-its-life donated PC that is being sent to them.
Label the files: 0001xyz.jpg; 0002xyz.jpg, ect...
I know it sounds silly, but you should ask the people you are donating to what specifically they need. It is much better for them if they get something they don't need to make any modifications to whatsoever. They will have some experience in the field and will have dealt with many people like you. Maybe they are more concerned about the shape of the hardware (perhaps they will format it as soon as they get it and put their own stuff on it).
So ask. :)
Slashdot in 5 Paragraphs
best matlab clone out there
I am very familiar with Uganda b'se it my mother country. One thing to note is depending on the location of the school and what type of school it is the software needs will be totally different. If you can give more info like the name of the school and where it is located in Uganda i can give u more useful data about the major requirements of different schools.
If you go the windows route (which frankly I don't recommend) I'd go with OpenOffice, TheOpenCD and Gnuwin II for lots of free software.
Dave.
If MS does not like that, I will get them a spoon so they can eat my ass.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I need suggestions for educational games
I taught computer literacy in Ghana, West Africa (see my site), and I didn't find much use for games, educational or otherwise. For one, such software usually assumes a native-level English language ability, which I doubt any student in Uganda will have. Also, you have to keep in mind that most students there may never have even seen a computer before. They will likely be intimidated even by the most basic educational software.
You know what program my students really loved? Notepad! None of them had ever used a computer, so the chance just to type their names was a huge thrill. It helped them overcome their fear of the computer and move on to more advanced programs...such as Minesweeper. (Seriously! They loved it.) They also loved Paint for similar reasons; it was a great way for them to learn how to use the mouse. So, instead of fancy games or educational software, I recommend supplying a simple typing tutor with your laptop. The students will likely benefit from and enjoy it far more than any game.
However, I did find that certain educational titles such as The Way Things Work are helpful as visual aids for science lessons. They do not provide much benefit when used by students alone (again, because of the language barrier and intimidation), but when used by a teacher as part of a group lesson, they can be quite useful.
any great ideas on where I can acquire copies of this software?
Half.com has lots of stuff available second-hand. I've picked up software there for one or two dollars per title.my drive doesn't work 80% of the time
Then perhaps there is no point donating this laptop. Without a CD-ROM, it will be nearly impossible for the recipient to add new software, upgrade the OS, etc. And I doubt they will have the ability to fix or replace what is likely a proprietary part. I strongly suggest getting the drive replaced before sending it, or at least providing an external one as an alternative. (You can get second-hand ones pretty cheap.) Otherwise, the gift you are sending could be just a liability.
TrevorTux Paint isn't a teaching tool, but it contains educational aspects. It's already been translated into 40+ languages, and we're always happy to accept more!
:^)
Other stuff from Tux4Kids would be good, as well. All/most of it is cross-platform and, of course, open source.
-bill!
If you're going to donate software, just remember that most people in Africa do not speak English.
1. Outlook and a browser would be first on the list. Congolese want to explore and the most impotant thing for them is exploring the world through WWW and keeping in touch with loved ones.
2. Second on the list is antivirus and anti-spyware. After various worms like Blaster receed here, they persist for months in the RDC because no one protect their computers. I often hear about the crippling effect viruses have on computers there.
3. With few printers and no projectors, Powerpoint, Excel, and Word are possibly over the top.
4. RPGs, Strategy game would just not make sense . Sport, Racing, and first person shooter would be a better choice.
She says that the situation there is dire. The school system is rudimentary and most have never seen or touched a computer. The average person there finishes school before 6th grade to work. Most work laborful jobs, the lucky ones work as maids, sentinels, chauffers, and other service jobs making $30-$50 a month.
With computers costing twice as much there than here and Cybercafes charging several dollars an hours, very little of the population can afford computing of any kind. FYI, With almost no phones lines, everyone uses cellular phones and to connect to an ISP, you need to buy a $1000 transmitter that gives you about 6 Kilobytes max a second. The monthly charge is > $100 a month.
In 2003 and then in 2004, They had an Internet Festival aka "Fête de l'Internet" . The most popular booth was by far the President's booth. He had some computers with free internet access and there was apparently a line around the corner to use this access.
A craigslist for RDC called infoCongo was started and this is one of the most popular sites there. Unfortunatley, with a small amount of user base, what's popular there looks quite void to US Standards.
I have several good friends who have been to Uganda on a number of occasion, and have done extensive service work there. (One of them, in fact, earned a Rhodes partly because of his efforts). At one time I was considering setting up a Ugandan-American service organization, and I picked their brains about what is and is not needed in general. This may come as a surprise, but computers (especially junky ones) are firmly in the NOT NEEDED list.
Many American charities and organizations send used equipment to Africa. One of the principle functions to the giant tax write-off foundation that Bill Gates created years ago was to send brand new computers to African schools. The net effect is that computers are not difficult to acquire and your laptop, although probably still appreciated, would be less useful than many other things you could send.
What they really need, as I understand it, are plan, old everyday books. The student-to-textbook ration in most schools is 20 to 1 or greater, and many libraries are downright pathetic. What books they have are arcane, products of the 1950's and 1960's. Since they speak (British) English in Uganda, why don't you do them a favor and ship some of your old textbooks, or some good children's stories instead. These will probably go a lot farther than a half-useable laptop.
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