Slashdot Mirror
GPL Edutainment Software
haxot writes "I'm the technologist at a local library. In our lab, I've managed to get some recognition for tools such as GIMP and Open Office, and even such toys as Bomberman and BZFlag. Now I'm turning towards the children's computers, which are mostly filled with ancient, buggy, rather boring games that try to be interactive TV shows rather than something entertaining. I'm looking for good OSS games and education suites (preferably multi-platform — I want to be ready for an OS switch to Linux). I'm not picky about the license; I'd just like the software to actually have that 'neat' appeal. Some examples I've found already are Gcompris and Tux Paint. My focus is the 2-year-old to 8-year-old range, but I'm happy to hear teen-oriented suggestions too. Since it's a public library, however, I can't have any software on the computers that is risqué, gory, or violent."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
There's a demo available online, I recommend at least trying it out: http://www.mindrover.com/
Oh, and there's a Linux version too.
Website is here. It's a different approach to teaching programming fundamentals to kids, somewhat akin to the concept behind LOGO.
Disclaimer, I haven't actually tried the software in the links above.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
http://phun.cs.umu.se/wiki
It is really intuitive to use and the name just about says it all. It is however perhaps slightly heavier on system requirements than other 2D educational games out there (more so if you start playing with large volumes of water)
You should at least take a look at the kde4 and Education projects. Arguably, they're the best parts of KDE4 (no argument about the games; they *are* the best parts), and since KDE4 is destined for Windows too, it's cross-platform, although I don't know what state the Windows port is actually in.
Phun is an educational, entertaining and somewhat addictive piece of software for designing and exploring 2D multi-physics simulations in a cartoony fashion.
http://www.vrlab.umu.se/research/phun/
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.
http://www.alice.org/
Take a look at http://k12ltsp.org They focus on educational software and thin clients. Both would be a good fit for a library environment.
I'm pretty sure that, given the ages specified in the actual post, there'd be plenty of parents objecting to that material being aimed at their children, just as parents protest the inclusion of said material on television. That's not to say there aren't kids (like myself at that age) who will be reading those books anyways, but I suppose the idea is that it requires the kid to actively seek it out, rather than stumble onto it rather easily.
Check out OpenEducationDisc and OpenDisc.
http://www.virtualapple.org/
Online emulator for all Apple II and Apple IIgs games. Includes Oregon Trail, Number Munchers and lots others.
Yeah but Blender wasn't always open source.
Mada mada dane.
Somewhat similar and GPL:
Botsnscouts is a Java version of Roborally (though without option cards).
But use the CVS version, it's way better than the ancient release.
The KDE Education package contains some impressive applications. The KDE Games package contains some nice casual games. In KDE4, many of them were given new good-looking SVG graphics. Also since KDE4, they can be run on Windows and Mac OS X natively (and on Linux too of course). The Windows port is a work in progress; maybe not something you should install tomorrow, but something to keep an eye on.
If you have Linux, goto http://www.cnr.com. In addition to the usual Linux games for Linspire/Ubuntu, they have a ton of links to Linux friendly web games. One of my girls favourites is http://www.clubpenguin.com, which ironically does not have anything to do with Linux, but runs fine on it.
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
Stellarium for star charts and constellations. Windows, Mac, Linux versions. Highly recommended.
Bender and OpenOffice.org are both formerly closed source programs. OO.o (then StarOffice) was purchased by Sun and released so that they would have a viable alternative to MS Office on their platform, while Blender wwent under and was purchased through donations from the FOSS community.
Put identity in the browser.
You don't really need individual suggestions, as most of the decent open-source educational programs out there are part of KDE. The latest version of KDE will hopefully be installable on Windows this year.
Just install the full package, and you'll have stuff like KLatin and KVerbos for learning languages, as well as star-gazing software, plus KTurtle, KTouch and a load more.
Here's the educative games I suggest.
;-). Suitable for your oldest ones?
http://www.food-force.com/ Made by the U.N. Free, MacOS X or Windows. (sorry no Linux afaik) Probably the best one in my list for the 6-8 years old.
http://www.tqworld.com/ - Tranquility. After years and years, this game has something no other game offers. Well suited for the youngsters. Free, but not open source.
http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/ U.N. too. Free and web-based. Excellent. Probably best for 8 years old (older ones of your range). Surprisingly informative.
http://www.stepmania.com/ Not sure that ones counts as edutainment, but it sure is good for the children! Open source and available for all platforms.
http://www.openttd.org/ A railroad tycoon open source clone (gosh I'm getting old
For the curious ones, here's the other worthy (subjective) open source games I discovered with time. http://del.icio.us/Satri/game+opensource
Animoog.org
The original version of SimCity was recently Open Sourced, more info at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micropolis_(software) and download. at
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/micropolis/