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GPL Edutainment Software

Posted by Soulskill on from the number-munchers-2k8 dept.

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."

12 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. Mindrover by khayman80 · · Score: 5, Informative
    I highly recommend "Mindrover". In this game, you build and program a little robot that goes through obstacle courses, fights other robots, etc. It's got an intuitive graphical programming language (though you can edit the files directly for a more hands on approach). You get to program the robot's default behavior, define how it responds to threats, program "hunting" strategies, etc.

    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.

  3. Take a look at MIT Scratch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Website is here. It's a different approach to teaching programming fundamentals to kids, somewhat akin to the concept behind LOGO.

  4. Going back to my youth by joeflies · · Score: 4, Informative
    It seems that there are modern day ports of LOGO and Robot Odyssey, both of which were pretty influential in my early education and gravitated me towards computer science ever since.

    Disclaimer, I haven't actually tried the software in the links above.

  5. Physics and Software by macneib · · Score: 4, Informative

    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/

  6. OpenDisc and OpenEducationDisc by PineHall · · Score: 4, Informative

    Check out OpenEducationDisc and OpenDisc.

  7. Re:Media production for Linux (And OSX, And Window by Narishma · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yeah but Blender wasn't always open source.

    --
    Mada mada dane.
  8. KDE4 Education and Games by MtHuurne · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  9. For astronomy by SlowDancing · · Score: 4, Informative

    Stellarium for star charts and constellations. Windows, Mac, Linux versions. Highly recommended.

  10. Re:Media production for Linux (And OSX, And Window by Daengbo · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.
  11. Just get KDE by ChameleonDave · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  12. Edutainment - games by Lord+Satri · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here's the educative games I suggest.

    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 ;-). Suitable for your oldest ones?

    For the curious ones, here's the other worthy (subjective) open source games I discovered with time. http://del.icio.us/Satri/game+opensource

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    Animoog.org