How to use VLC as a Media Player in order to Listen to Internet Radio

Languages are taught in a different way today. Some years ago, students could sit for a language exam without speaking that particular language. Nowadays it’s impossible! Part of the exam includes listening and speaking. How about using a radio to improve the level of the language? It would be a good idea because students would start listening to a native speaker, speaking at his/her own speed! 

 

I do remember some students who would take great interest to participate in a quiz. Besides practising the language, they had to use their minds to formulate the answers. The best of it was that as they were listening to a live transmission, they could take part in it. On the other hand, they couldn’t play back at the moment to re-listen to some parts! So they had to listen in silence and work together as a team!

Today we’re showing how to use VLC in order to listen to the many internet radios!  It is available for Windows, Mac, Android and Linux. Just click here.

 

Apart from using the search field, you can search for radio stations by countries, languages, and tags.

Open Source 3D Printing

It’s very easy to go and buy from shops ready made products if money is not a problem. Yet as educators, we know that money is a problem for most students. Besides the financial problem, one wishes to present our students with a challenge: why not build it yourself? In this case open source becomes an integral part of modern education where students do their research work and make the product themselves! It might take much longer but the learning benefits outweigh all challenges!

 

We wish to introduce something which is gaining popularity nowadays: 3D printing!

Open Source 3D Printing eliminates all the issues created by proprietary products. Not only does it reduce costs, it enables easier innovation to solve issues faced during 3D manufacturing.

Apparently, the phrase, “Open Source 3D Printing” is also gaining popularity as is evident with a simple search online. 

 

It is now possible for users to completely go Open Source, making it possible to greatly reducing production time and manufacturing costs!

Some quick examples where 3D printing is of immense use are:

• Vehicles
• Environment
• Construction
• Dentistry
• Gadgets and Tools
• Organs

More information is found in this website. YouTube videos are found here. Another interesting website would be here. If you would like to read about the best open source 3D printer, go to this website. 

 

jBilling : Complex billing solved

Some students in high school are practically in a very delicate situation: they’re still studying, yet they are on the verge of coming into close contact with the business world. One hand they’re studying in class, on the other hand they would like to have some experience in the real world!

Today we’re presenting jBilling. It is the world’s leading open source billing solution as it gives you all the flexibility and customizable options you need for highly complex billing. Students will learn how to bill future clients in their own business office etc…

As it is open source, one can change the program according to his own business model! One can add new items as well. jBilling lets you get to market fast with your innovative products and services by allowing you to isolate your custom code and change it whenever you need to.

The official website is here.

YouTube tutorials are here.

Some screenshots are here.

Forum (practical challenges).

Hollywood Casts Open Source Software in Starring Role

There are still so many people out there who believe that a free program is non-sense or not worth it at all. We are used to pay for products, services etc...so when something is offered for free we say: what’s the trick? Is there something that I have missed? Are you kidding me?

Well, we’ve been saying that in our age transparency is imperative. The fact that an open source could be thoroughly looked at and scrutinized at, makes it a five star program. On the other hand, a propriety program, normally employs a small group of people who have access to the ‘inside’ of the program. The other side of the coin is that in Open Source, anyone who is able to code can 'see' the program and can contribute to it. Can a small number of people from the propriety company compete with such an incredible number of worldwide people who are willing to improve the program?

This time we have great news for open source: the famous Hollywood has teamed up with Open Source! This is not a joke. Yes it’s true! Could Open Source be a partner with such a famous brand if it hasn’t good quality to offer?

We are expected to see lots of positive results in the future! Let’s hope that it will be the door for more sections of society to make such a bold move and embrace open source! For more information click here. 

GoldenDict: a truly Golden Dictionary

It’s the not the first time that we receive a note from somebody which has mistakes. In today’s age, one can avoid that kind of embarrassment by checking one’s words with a good dictionary.

Today we proudly present GoldenDict: a feature-rich dictionary lookup program, supporting multiple dictionaries' formats, perfect article rendering with the complete markup, illustrations and other content retained, and allowing to type in words without any accents or correct case.

It supports multiple file formats. It has the ability to use arbitrary websites as dictionaries. It has the ability to index arbitrary directories with audio files for pronunciation look ups.

It has full Unicode case, diacritics, punctuation and white space folding. This means the ability to type in words without any accents, correct case, punctuation or spaces (e.g. typing 'Grussen' would yield 'grüßen' in German dictionaries).

It can pop up a small window with the translation of a word chosen from another application.

It is free and open software (GNU GPLv3+ license.)

One can download it from here. More written help is found here. YouTube tutorials are found here. 

Anki : Helping you to remember things!

We would like to help anybody who wants to memorise any type of content: students, parents and teachers.

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 practising guitar chords!

Besides, one can have several other features such as synchronization, flexibility, Media-Rich, Fully extensible and can handle decks of more than 100,000 cards!!

It is and open source and it can be used on any operating system!

If you want to download the program, please go here.

YouTube tutorials, please go here.

More tutorials are found here.

Forum where you can write about your challenges etc….go here.

Explore, create and collaborate website.

A few supporters of open source, do so because all products are free. We know that in some families, countries, schools etc….the financial limitations could inhibit students from advancing in their career. We would help any student who because of money problems, cannot study. We do so because we firmly believe that education is the best investor. It is the best guarantee for the future of our planet earth.

On the other hand, once one enjoys the services or products of the open source world, one realises that other people have worked for long, tedious hours in other to offer the final product. The open source is great not because the people participating are the best in the world. Yet the fact that everything is out in the open, anybody can participate, suggest, examine, change and/or rewrite. The propriety programs are made up of a very limited group of people. They never reveal how they built the program. The users are not allowed to tinker with the program. You are expected to pay and use it as the programmer intended when he/she started to code it.

The open source is not simply a provider of alternative programs. You are not expected to pay and obey! It encourages people to criticise and change the way a program works. In other words it needs people who are very active and do give their valid contribution.

In the education department we are aware that most teachers have never been introduced in the sharing aspect of the open source. Some teachers are too jealous to share their lessons worldwide. They always point out that some might take advantage of their valuable work.

Surprisingly one notes that they have become educators because others have chosen to share their information, knowledge, expertise etc....!

The educators’ role is not to be let by others but by trying to do one’s part in order to change the world! If the others are not following the rules or are behaving badly, the educator does not change his/her way of life!!

We are aware that the change in the mentality of the educators does not happen overnight! It won’t change just because of one article. Yet we do believe that the open source is giving a great helping hand in changing the behaviour of educators, students and parents. The more we share, the better the world will become.

One positive thought is that social networks have introduced an important aspect in our lives – that of sharing thoughts, photos, discussing material, opinions etc….Let’s hope that schools and educational institutions will build on this social feeling in order to enhance teaching!

Today we are presenting the explore, create and collaborate website. We leave it in your hands to get to know how to use it correctly without indicating any additional help (ie to learn how to collaborate with other people).

Kolibri: a free and open education for all

Education is very expensive. This is for many reasons: books, courses, tuition etc.. 
We've been offering open source material in order to make it possible for all to 
educate themselves. Today we are presenting Kolibri. Kolibri makes high quality 
education technology available in low-resource communities such as rural school, refugee camps, orphanages, non-formal school systems and prison systems. 

We print language learning books, distribute digital language learning materials, build tailor-made products, print smart notebooks and more; all our products are to inspire the teachers and students to achieve their potential in learning a foreign language. That’s what we care most. We produce an extensive range of top-notch educational materials including readers and activities, picture dictionaries, online learning materials in various sizes, formats, and color, as well as tailor-made products to meet the customized needs of students and teachers.

Kolibri installers, updates, and content can be downloaded once to a device in an area that has an Internet connection.

That "seeded" device can then share new content and updates with other devices over an offline local network.

To reach the most remote communities, a device can be carried by foot to share installers, updates, and content with other devices over local networks.

To facilitate broad, low-cost adoption, Kolibri is designed to run on as many devices and operating systems as possible, leveraging existing legacy hardware or low-cost off-the-shelf devices. This includes Windows, Linux and OSX. The cost of Android tablets is plummeting, so we're also building Kolibri to run standalone as an Android app.

We developed special processes to package online learning materials to be taken offline. One of our innovations is a video compression technique that convert the pen strokes and objects in a blackboard-style video into scalable vector objects. In our tests, a 250MB video can now be compressed into just a single megabyte, while retaining most of the original quality. This reduces the time and cost needed to download a large set of videos, and allows a large amount of content to be stored on a small, low-cost device.

Track educational growth for individuals and groups of learners accurately and easily, even in informal educational contexts. Kolibri comes with tools such as a coach dashboard, exam creation, exercises, assignment of content for differentiated instruction, and a recommendation tool that displays useful and relevant next steps based on a learner's history, progress and goals.

Free Resources: OpenStax

Time is precious. Today time has become more precious because we live in the age of buttons and the answer we’re looking for pops up in a split of a second.

When preparing lessons, tips, comments etc… about lessons, we notice that most educators simply repeat what others have been already doing for years. On the other hand, those who are responsible for resources are not in contact with the real learning situation of the class.

All these concerns can be diminished if something like openstax becomes more popular amongst teachers, parents and students. Finally they can adopt, edit and change the textbooks!!!

Openstax is 100% free. Any author can change the resources found according to his situation! There is no need to invent the wheel as there are already some resources which are commonly shared! They are written by professional content developers who are experts in their fields. Besides these resources undergo a rigorous peer review before becoming available for the general public. 

If one wants to know more just go to: openstax

weeWX: open source software for your weather station

Some schools did experiment with a change in methodology ie how to teach students today. They are going for project based teaching. One of them could be the setup of a weather station! Obviously it involves the collaboration of several teachers and students but that is a great asset for students today as nobody can work all alone. They see the example of teachers helping each other. They see various students giving their input,comments, questions…..and that makes teaching and learning real fun!  It could be the best preparation for their future when they would be called to work with different type of people!

Today we are presenting an open source program called weeWX. On the same page one can: download; read documentation; go through the users’ group; learn how to publish readings etc…...If one prefers youtube videos in order to learn, here is the link. An interesting factor is that most schools are using the raspberry pi 3 in order to maintain the weather station!!

The weeWX program can do several things:

Support for many popular weather stations;

Uploads to popular weather sites including WeatherUnderground, PWSweather.com, CWOP, WOW, and AWEKAS and others;

Uploads to your website using FTP or rsync;

Extensive celestial almanac;

Ability to create or modify skins (the look and feel of your weather site);

Support for localization;

Simple, but extensible templating system;

Native support for US or Metric unit systems;

Support for sqlite or MySQL databases;

Calibration corrections;

Filtering of anomalous values;

An easy to understand, simple, extensible micro-kernel architecture;

Ability to extend weeWX with new services and reports.

Avoiding too many emails: SpamAssassin

The use of ict in schools should have given more free time to students, teachers and parents. Alas in some cases it did not happen! One of the reasons is that when one opens up his/her email account, there are so many emails! Email marketing is still being used. Some companies do sell our information. In other times we do give our information for some free goodies….yet in the end we are overwhelmed by the amount of junk mail we receive. I’ve heard people saying that they have hundreds if not thousands of emails in their inbox!! The overall result will be that such people will not open their email account as they see it as an impossible task even though they receive urgent emails!

Is there a solution? Well first of all working in a school we should all be educated to start thinking before giving in our information. Will they share our information? Please do take some time to read the information before signing in!

Secondly we have an open source program in order to train our email program to know what’s spam (unwanted emails) and what’s not. We introduce SpamAssassin. On that page one has where to download; wiki; forum; documentation and FAQ.

If one prefers YouTube videos then one should visit: YouTube

ArgoUML

ArgoUML is the leading open source UML modeling tool and includes support for all standard UML 1.4 diagrams. It runs on any Java platform and is available in ten languages.

ArgoUML 0.26 and 0.26.2 were downloaded over 80,000 times and are in use all over the world.

If you need to download, read the manual or write to the forum your own personal difficulties, you have to visit just one single webpage.

If you prefer a you tube video, it is here.

Claroline Connect

We do receive from schools around the world, as to what kind of e-learning platform to use nowadays.  Everybody wants to share, discuss, question, help, search etc…..The classroom of today is not simply closed between four walls! Sometimes, some parents can come forward to help in a unique way. It has to be colloborative between different generations too. It has to be user friendly and to be used in various operating systems. Some would like to have a free e-platform! Open Source can bridge all these gaps!

There are various answers. Today we’re going to focus on Claroline Connect (CC). If you want a quick summary of what it can offer to your school, then go here. More information is found here.

Collaboration: it is with others that we learn best! One can exploit all the power of the group with CC.

Technology: because learning is not simply memorizing contents anymore, CC wants to put all the potential of technology in the service of learning.

Flexibility: CC allows you to learn anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Creativity: As a a learner or as a trainer, you can create innovative and meaningful contents.

Argunet - visualisation of an argument!

When it comes to writing, many students feel at a loss especially about argumentative writing. How can we help them? Well there is no easy solution but again, Open Source comes to our rescue. Today we are presenting Argunet which offers both an argument editor (similar to Argumentative) and a library of arguments that students can browse and analyze.

You can use it on a standalone system or in a client-server setup to encourage collaboration among students or debate teams. Operating System: Windows, Linux, OS X.

For some students, dividing their ideas in paragraphs or chapters is not enough. In this case, argunet, in a graphical way, helps students to organise and present their ideas in an easier way.

Home Page:

Tutorials:

Map:

Video tutorials: 

 

The Raspberry Pi

Teachers, educators, parents all those who spend countless hours with students know quite well that when students do and practice ‘hands on’ experience, their understanding, learning and enthusiasm shoots up!

Today we’re presenting the raspberry Pi. Although the small computer is NOT free, yet it has free software installed and could be used for various experiments in order to help students master some important principles. This is surely one of the most economical computers of them all. What’s more, it could be used for various projects by students in order to show the practical side of their studies.

One can buy more hardware in order to do more projects.

Here are several links which might be helpful:

Teachers' guide

Buying the Raspberry Pi

Tutorials 1 (written)

Tutorials 2 (written)

Tutorials (video)

Tutorials (video)

More hardware

More Resources

Is Open Source important for the world today?

Some of the most pressing questions that I’ve heard about open source programs were: ‘Are there many open source (OS) programs out there?’ Is OS being used just by a few persons? Could I read my files and documents? If I go for OS programs, will it read my files? Can I send my files to others?’

This shows that rather being taught how to use a computer or any other device we were brainwashed into how to use a particular program of a closed source company!!!! One teacher was transferred from one school into another. He prepared his lessons for a particular kind of a white interactive brand. When he arrived in the new school, he found out that the school had a different kind of interactive white board. He couldn’t use his files. The second interactive white board couldn’t read his files from the first interactive white board!!!! The teacher panicked as he had ‘wasted a lot of time to prepare his notes!!!!’

Most of the people who are all for an adventure in education go for open source. Why? Because it easily transferable from one system to another; you can never be locked out as in the case of a propriety software; it saves a lot of time etc.. The best thing about it is that a student can experiment with the system without being charged for breaking the law. Indeed how can our students be professionals if we never let them delete, install, program on computers ?

OS will change teachers’ set of mind in many ways. One of the most important is that of sharing. How many times the students see the teacher using a program but they cannot have a copy (unless they pay)? Worse than that, is the fact that some teachers don’t want to share their power point presentations neither! It all shows that we still need to grasp the benefit of sharing with others. When we share our ideas, we are not losing at all! If we start sharing, there will be many people who will do the same. There are so many more ideas online and meeting other new people. By the way, other people already share a lot of their work online so it’s only fair to give our part after all.

Today we are presenting a link to the EU’s portal where most of the OS projects are published. The list is very long and very interesting. Have a look!

Virtual Box

Who Needs a Virtual Machine (Virtual Box) ?

When one tries various distros (operating systems like windows, mac or Linux), one may become attached with a particular program which is hard to copy in other distros. Instead of going through the complexity and pain of dual booting, you can easily use virtual machine to run practically any software.

Looking at the vulnerabilities found in Microsoft Windows, I would be extremely careful with it running on my main system. I am much more comfortable keeping Windows in a contained virtual environment. That way, even if it is compromised, it will not damage my entire system or data and will only affect the limited set of files it was accessing. 

 

VMs also can be useful for those non-Linux users who want to play with Linux or who want to migrate to it but don't want to jump shark by formatting the OS they were used to and switching to Linux. Virtual machines get these users comfortable with Linux, so they can make the switch with confidence when they are ready. And, you can be running Linux “inside” your shiny Mac OS X or Windows 10.

The best thing about virtual machines is that I can run multiple Linux distributions on the same hardware, without having to reboot to switch between distros. It’s extremely important for me to run various distros and keep an eye on them. And it’s even more important to be well versed with all major distros instead of being “vendor-locked” or totally dependent on any one. Using VMs, I can also run different desktop environments on the same system without having to log out to change the environment.

If you are aspiring to become a system admin or developer, you certainly don’t want to know only one distro; you must be an expert in any operating system; you never know which OS your employer or client would be using. You can’t say “sorry, I know only XXXX.” If you are a developer, you need different distributions to test your applications.

You can clearly see that there are many advantages of using virtual machines. The biggest advantages of using virtualization instead of multi-booting is efficiency. One wastes way too much time in formatting hard drives and switching between distros. With virtual machines, you can start a new virtual machine for a distro without affecting your work; it’s as easy as opening a new application.

It’s “virtually” impossible for many people to have six physical machines, which waste financial resources and electricity and take up space. Instead of buying six physical machines, one would rather invest in more RAM and a multicore processor that can handle more virtual machines. One can run almost a dozen distros (including Windows) on the same machine; and there is no downtime!!!

The reason we go for VirtualBox is that it’s extremely easy to use. It has tons of features and functionalities that can be easily accessed without any hard-core technical knowledge. The biggest advantage is its cross-platform support -- you can install Virtual Box on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Obviously we go for the open source and free one.

Where to download;

Tutorials: video; written;

Screenshots.

Impro-Visor: a music notation tool

Music is part and parcel of education. Many people carry lots of songs on their mobile phone. Others go jogging with both ears having earphones attached. Maybe teachers and students would like to add more music to the school but sometimes you get one really great line or phrase for a song, but just can't get the rest. The Impro-Visor can help you finish your composition by suggesting improvisations and solos built on your theme. It's also a valuable educational tool for aspiring jazz musicians.

The objective is to improve understanding of solo construction and tune chord changes. There are other, secondary, things it can do, such as improvise on its own. It has also been used for transcription. Because rhythm-section (e.g. piano, bass, drums) accompaniment is automatically generated from chords, Impro-Visor can be used as a play-along device. Now having a wider array of accompaniment styles, its use is not limited to jazz.

It is free, open source and available for Windows, Linux and Mac. If you would like to download it, go here. Maybe you would like some tutorials. Other people might ask: with so many programs which deal with music, is there a place for another one? Well in this link, here the advantages of using Impro-Visor. Teacher who might query about its use in the classroom may visit this page.

Organizing photos

Who does not take photos nowadays? Nearly all the people, which includes both students and teachers. A photo says one million words. Consequently nobody says that it cannot be used for educational purposes. Obviously when one starts taking photos, the pc or mobile phone will soon be full of photos. How does one organize such collection?

Today we are presenting another open source and free program called digiKam. This program is available for Linux, Windows and Mac.

Besides making an album, one can manipulate photos according to one’s likes. One can simply use this program in a simple way or else go up to a professional level! With Digikam you can view, manage, edit, enhance, organize, tag, and share photographs. It is an advanced digital photo management application for KDE, which makes importing and organizing digital photos a "snap". The photos are organized in albums which can be sorted chronologically, by folder layout or by custom collections.

If you wish to download it, for windows go here; mac here; linux here. If you need some tutorials, then go here. Documentation is here. Enjoy playing with your photos!

Writing a DVD (video)

Some of our students learn faster when the lesson is presented in a video form! Others prefer the video format in order to present their studies/presentations. The American idea of a flipped class is all based on video based lessons. This gives the opportunity to teachers to present content in a personal way. Student would love to listen to their teacher’s voice rather than a strange and unknown one.

Today we’re presenting Open DVD producer. One can edit and generate DVDs on any platform: Ubuntu (linux), Mac or Windows. The main functions of the DVD specification are implemented in the software. For example, one can create a DVD in any supported format, with various menus, with directional buttons, videos with chapters and set sections of videos to play.

There is no need to use some external converter. Open DVD Producer is able to convert from any kind of known video format.

Want to play at some point in the video? No problem, you can set chapter marks directly on the timeline, and also set segmented pieces of video.

If one needs to download the program, here is the link: DVD. There is another link. If one needs help about installation, here’s how to install it.