Our Blog has moved..!

As from today, Monday the 31st of January, 2018, we are on the new social media called MeWe. Our new writings are found at:

https://is.gd/70HwSn

See you there! 

 

 

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.

Cpod : An Open Source, Cross-platform Podcast App

Listening and speaking are two of the most important assets in education. Students, teachers and parents need to listen to each other. On the other hand, communication consists in a 2 way traffic. In this sense speaking becomes important too.

Today with this explosion of electronic sources one finds that podcasts could be a wonderful way in order to promote better teaching, understanding and communicating with all the partners involved!

As podcasts involve the audio part, it becomes easier for busy people to listen to as they can perform other tasks whilst listening to the podcast.

It could help busy teachers to give instructions to students in order to listen to it at home or elsewhere. On the other hand, students themselves can produce wonderful podcasts to show what they have learned or else to work together in a project and explain the part played by each one of them! There could be many other uses for, in education. If one is creative, one can find numerous reasons to use a podcast in class.

Today we are suggesting a podcast which is free, open source and available for Mac, Windows and Linux. It is Cpod. One can download it from here. There is no documentation available online but it’s very simple to install and use. The cpod was mentioned in this article. 

 

Sourcegraph : An Open-Source Source Code Search Engine

One of the most challenging exercises when it comes to coding, is to remember a code you have used some time ago...but alas you can’t figure it out this time! What makes it frustrating is that you have built something on your own, where you have used a lot of time, now because of memory loss, you can’t simply remember how you did it!

Well today we’re presenting Sourcegraph to our ICT students. Sourcegraph is a free, open-source, self-hosted code search and intelligence server that helps developers find, review, understand, and debug code. Use it with any Git code host for teams of any size. Start using it now, then install the Sourcegraph Docker image on your private code.

Search in files and diffs on your private code using simple terms, regular expressions, and other filters. Syncs repositories with your code host and supports searching any commit/branch, with no indexing delay.

One can use it on a browser too as an extension (Firefox or Chrome).

Download;

Documentation;

YouTube videos.

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).

Open Online Physical Education Network

How many teachers seem to hold all their notes, books, experience under a tight padlock? It seems that they are holding on to their ‘secret’ lessons! Well the advantage of having an open mentality and sharing your experience means that others will share too. Consequently one gains rather than loses information, tips etc…!!

This is the experience of the Open Source software. Besides, some challenges can never be solved by one person. More people means more input. It’s a win win situation.

Today we’re presenting just a normal website. Yet it is completely open. One can give one’s contribution. It regards the physical education of our students. It was created for the US but one can adopt it for other countries of the world [obviously doing the necessary changes].

It is Open Online Physical Education Network. Hopefully more teachers in other areas will develop the same concept of sharing online other educational ideas with the rest of the community. 

 

DocuWiki : Another way of creating an online space for students, parents and teachers!

One knows, that during lessons there is never enough time for students to learn. They need time after the lesson to try to understand it with their own pace. Others might need more information to understand really well. Some students would need to look for more information, to compare the received information with other sites. 

Some projects in schools would need colloboration from other schools. All this could be done using docuwiki! School could host their own server (computer). This space would be accessible just by school students and other persons allowed by the school administration.

DokuWiki is a simple to use and highly versatile Open Source wiki software that doesn't require a database. It is loved by users for its clean and readable syntax. The ease of maintenance, backup and integration makes it an administrator's favorite. Built in access controls and authentication connectors make DokuWiki especially useful in the enterprise context and the large number of plugins contributed by its vibrant community allow for a broad range of use cases beyond a traditional wiki.

For downloads, questions, forum and other queries one has to go here. If one prefers YouTube videos, it is here. 

SoX : the Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs!

Walking in any part of the Western Civilization, one notices that music has become easily accessible and more popular. One notices people walking with headphones nearly most of the time! One can see people talking on their own (!). Our young students are crazy for music. Besides one uses various formats of audio files. Transferring an audio file to anther media outlet is simply, yet not all apps can read all kinds of music!

We have experience with students in classes when they record other sounds on their mobile/laptop etc...but then they cannot hear it on some media outlets!

Today we are suggesting SoX, what is called the swiss army knife for sound processing programs! We have to make you aware that it calls for a steep learning curve. It seems so daunting in the beginning, but that’s what communities are for – to help you sort out any teething problems! It could be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Download;

What SoX can do in one page;

YouTube tutorials and other help;

Homepage;

0 A.D. Is A Free, Open-Source, Historical Real Time Strategy (RTS) Game.

“Macedonia or Macedon was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic ...”

Imagine this kind of introduction in a history lesson...would you be cut off? Would you sleep in class? Would you start fiddling around?

Well, today we’re presenting 0 A.D. is a Free, Open-Source, Historical Real Time Strategy (RTS) Game. It’s a game which students (why not parents too?!) play to learn historical facts by having some time understanding how past generations dealt with life challenges! The students would go back in time in encounter these generations and understand better their challenges in a given historical time! What an excellent way to bring history so near our life today!

Students would not be passive listeners but feel empowered to see things from a different point of view. It will surely help them to see today’s life from a different perspective and be more prepared to face challenges!

It’s an open source game which means that it could be played on mac, windows and linux OS. 

More info is here.
YouTube videos (which are very useful) are here.
One can download it from here.
Forums, channels and contact form are here.

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. 

Words, Images, and Sounds to tell interactive stories : all in Ren'py

Teachers and educators are all the time looking for ways and means to improve the delivery of their lessons. Today we are presenting a different answer. It’s Pen’Py.

Pen'Py is a visual novel engine – used by thousands of creators from around the world – that helps you use words, images, and sounds to tell interactive stories that run on computers and mobile devices. These can be both visual novels and life simulation games!

It should brighten up our language lessons! Students could be part and parcel of the story writing where they can show their talents and skills. If students were to take part, it won’t be boring, but quite interesting!

If one wants to go for documentation or to download it, one should go here;

You tube videos;

Examples of how it was used;

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.

A Modular and Open Source Router is Being Crowdfunded

The router is the gateway for many people to the internet. We’re all in favour of open source. Most of the routers we find on the market are propriety. How about an open source one? There is a bunch of individuals who are trying to find funds for such project.

It’s important that we do support open source if we truly believe in freedom! It has been proved beyond any doubt that open source supports 100% freedom for its users. Other propriety programs and routers can’t guarantee that because they don’t disclose their code which might contain anything.

More people, after the Facebook scandal, are becoming aware of how many people are watching us behind our backs, registering every movement of our keyboard in order to sell that information to the first buyer!

Educating people is not simply helping them overcome exams, but first and foremost training them to be independent, in thought and action. Those choosing open source are the ones who are not afraid to learn new actions and practices for the sake of freedom of thought and expression. 

This router supports open VPN server. It has parental control features and an internet measuring tool. 

Let’s give a free world to the young people who are growing up today!

The link is found here.

If you need more information about other open source routers then go here. 

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

E-portfolio: Mahara

Exams have become part and parcel of any education system. But is it just? An exam is just one time photo! How many talents which students achieve or master, yet they can’t show them during exams? A portfolio is an example where a student can show many skills which are not easily tested during exams!

Nowadays we speak of an e-portfolio. Today we present Mahara: an open source modular e-portfolio system. It can easily be integrated with other educational programs or Learning Management System (LMS).

In one link one can find several links to look for particular help. One finds a musical tune of Mahara too! Link to Mahara. If you prefer more youtube videos for help then go here. More youtube videos can be found here. The best advantage of Mahara is that it is student centered. A student can simply not only present the final product but present as well the struggles and challenges faced during the duration of the action taken.

Rogo – An e-Assessment Management System

One of the objectives in teaching is to have a reliable assessment of students. Students and parents too would like to know the true level of students.

Can open source help in this area? Of course it can! Today we are presenting Rogo. Rogo is a leading e-assessment system that is scalable, secure, useable and extensible.

If you’re interested in quickly seeing a demo, then go to: https://rogo-demo.nottingham.ac.uk/demo/register.php.

If you want to download the open source license go to: https://bitbucket.org/rogoOOS/rog/get/6.4.1.zip

For documentation please go to: https://rogo-eassessment-docs.atlassian.net/

If one prefers Youtube videos then go to: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rogo+assessment.

If any educator would like to see any case studies, please go to: https://www.eciu.org/case-study/rogo-an-e-assessment-management-system.