ict teachers guide to open source software

8/6/2019 Ict Teachers Guide to Open Source Software

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An ICT teachers guide to Open source software.

Rationale

According to Pamela Derringer in her article When Free Isn't Free: the realities of running open

source in school(2009) school districts spend between $60 000 and $200 000 each year in software-licensing fees. Imagine if that funding were available to spend on other resources such as additional

technical training for school staff? The Open source philosophy is one that caters for the needs of

students while also saving schools thousands of dollars each year.

What is Open source software?

Open source software (OSS) is software that is "freely provided that permits users to use, change

and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified forms." (Fredricks, 2009).

This means that schools can receive, edit and distribute any Open source software they like. OSScomes in many shapes and forms ranging from simple (or possibly not so simple) text editors to fully

functional operating systems. This article will look in particular at Open source software relevant to

the current IPT/ITS Curricula in schools in Queensland and compare them to their Closed-source

counterparts. For a list of the software to be reviewed, see table 1.0 below. The comparisons will

be critiquing the software based on;

Ease of use Hardware requirements Product support Features and functionality Satisfaction of outcomes for the IPT/ITS Curricula

In addition to the above criteria, a number of volunteers who have never used any of the software to

be analysed will examine and comment on their experiences through a questionnaire.

Finally, this report will conclude by examining a number of additional Open source programs that

will make teaching in an ICT classroom significantly easier.

Table 1.0 List of open and Closed-source software to be examined.

Operating System Windows 7 Ubuntu

Content

Management

System

Blackboard Moodle

Text-editor Microsoft Word Open Office Writer

Presentation-editor Microsoft PowerPoint Open Office Impress

Spreadsheet

program

Microsoft Excel Open Office Calc

Database program Microsoft Access Open Office Base

Project

management

systems

Microsoft Project OpenProj


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Photo editing

programs

Photoshop Gimp

Video editing

programs

Premier Elements Avidemux

Animation

programs

Flash Pencil

Web design

programs

Dreamweaver NVU

Sound editing

programs

Sound Booth Audacity

Game creation

software

Game Maker

Programming

software

Python/Scratch

Video capture

software

CamStudio

Classroommanagement

system

Italc

Video

player/Converter

VLC Media Player

Virtual machine Virtual Box

Database suite XAMPP

Web browser Mozilla Firefox


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Operating Systems

Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04

Closed-source Open source

Program name Windows 7 Ubuntu 10.04Price $235 (OEM) Free

System requirements 1Ghz processor

1GB RAM

16GB hard drive space

1Ghz processor

512MB RAM

5 GB hard drive space

Windows 7 is Microsoft's 7th and latest generation of operating systems. Windows is currently the

most popular operating system in Australian schools today for a number of reasons. Firstly, because

it is also the most common OS used outside of schools. Secondly, most software that has been

designed for other OS' has also been adapted for Windows and thirdly, because there is a stigma

that has entrenched itself in schools that it is the 'only viable operating system' for general, large-

scale use. Windows 7 as a whole is a polished, stable OS that also comes in both 32 and 64 bit

versions. Ubuntu 10.04 is the latest version of the Ubuntu OS' that has been designed under LINUX's

Open source code. Downloading and installing Ubuntu is very simple and although at first glance it

doesn't appear as polished as Windows 7, it comes bundled with the open office suite (see open

office comparison) as well as GIMP (see GIMP comparison). As an educational tool Ubuntu presents

itself as a package that is capable of catering to many student needs. Volunteers were quickly able

to complete basic processes on Ubuntu such as web searches, text editing, playing music and video,

though, the flash plug-in was required to watch YouTube, Windows also had this problem.

Both Windows 7 and Ubuntu have a huge amount of support documentation available online and in

text. However, there are no courses at TAFE institutions that focus on Ubuntu functionality while

the majority of cert II and III training (imparticular modules such as Installing and optimising

operating system software) are primarily hosted in Windows

(http://www.tafe.qld.gov.au/cis/index.php?script_name=coursedetails&course_id=768, 2010). This

can present issues for system administrators who are unfamiliar with LINUX. Ultimately however,

tasks for educational purposes are just as accessible on the Ubuntu OS as it is on Windows.

Windows 7 and Ubuntu


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With regards to the IPT/ITS Curricula Windows 7 only offers core OS functionality and as such,

requires additional expenditure to meet student outcomes. Ubuntu's pre-packaged office and image

editing suites means it satisfies more of the outcomes necessary to complete an IPT/ITS course.


Program name Microsoft Office suite Open office suitePrice $200 ($400 including access) Free

System requirements 500Mhz processor

256MB RAM

1.5GB hard drive space

500Mhz processor

256MB RAM

650MB hard drive space

Word and Writer

PowerPoint and Impress

Excel and Calc


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Office 2007 is the latest version of Microsoft's suite which offers text editing, presentation editing,

spreadsheet and database creation software. It has become so prolific that it is often recognised as

the industry standard and is available across all OS platforms (even on Ubuntu when using Wine).

Many students are already familiar with the office layout and as such, can often use many of itsfeatures without guidance. Open office is the Open source counterpart to MS office and offers

identical functionality. It can recognise MS file types, preventing software conflicts between home

and school (or better yet, students could install Open Office at home as well). both programs offer

extremely similar functionality and are both very stable. Open office stands out by offering Base and

Draw in its base suite while Access and Publisher are both purchased separately. Volunteers were

able to complete tasks in both suites in the same amount of time and one volunteer even mistook

Writer for Microsoft Word 2004. Other volunteers liked the presentation creation wizard in Impress,

claiming they felt it was more user friendly than PowerPoint. Another advantage of Open Office is its

size. With a total size of 500MB, many schools have taken to installing Open Office on student's

flash drives so the software is available wherever the students are.

Product support on both programs is equally available and tutorials are equally widespread for both.

Office has a larger range of templates and has further templates available online and also gains a

slight advantage because of the courses many institutions offer in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. This

training however, is often applicable to Open Office because of their similarities and considering the

software is free, Open Office is the clear choice for use in schools.

With regards to the current IPT and ITS Curricula, Neither suite stands out over the other. It should

be noted that when using Microsoft Access and Open Office Base, both are effective in teaching the

principles of databases, but teaching SQL should be left to programs like MySQL as it does not

modify its SQL language.

Access and Base

Publisher and Draw


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Program name Microsoft project OpenProj

Price $600 Free


256MB RAM

1.5GB hard drive space

300Mhz processor

128MB RAM


As part of the IPT/ITS curricula, appropriate project management skills must be taught. In most

schools, this is done in the form of critical path analyses using Pert and Gantt charts. Some schools

use spreadsheets to layout these diagrams but there are more in-depth programs available in the

forms of Microsoft Project and OpenProj. Although Ms Project was one of the first commercially

available project management systems and has become the 'industry standard' OpenProj has been

downloaded from its primary website over 1.2 million times to over 142 different countries and is

100% compatible with MS Project's .MPP file format. Microsoft project offers a huge amount of

product support as well as an array of advanced features like class levels for restricting and enablingaccess as well as the ability for multiple users to edit different sections of the project at a time across

a network. While these features are excellent for an expansive multi-million dollar project, many of

these features are not necessary for use in schools. OpenProj offers a very straight forward, simple

interface that allows students to learn the principles of project management without getting bogged

down in trying to understand the software. Editing one part of the project automatically updates

the information on all the appropriate charts and its very visual layout is useful for introducing

students to PERT and Gantt charts. OpenProj falls short in product support but it's simple interface

means it rarely requires such support.

Volunteers were asked to make a simple project that had 4 stages. In most cases the task wascompleted faster in OpenProj than in Microsoft Project and all volunteers commented that in this

case, a simpler interface made their work more productive.

While Microsoft Project offers more functionality, OpenProj has no problems introducing students to

the concepts of Project Management. And at $600 less than Microsoft Project, it is the clear choice

for any classroom.

Project and OpenProj


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Program name Photoshop (standard) Gimp

Price $200 Free

System requirements Pentium 4 or Athlon 64 CPU

1GB RAM


500MHZ processor

128MB RAM (more is

recommended though)100MB hard drive space

While Photoshop has been the industry standard for image editing for some time now, there isn't a

professional in the industry that hasn't heard of or used gimp. Both are powerful Image editing

programs that can import, edit, filter, layer and generally enhance images. Both are compatible with

the popular image formats such as PNG, RAW, TIF, GIF, JPEG and BMP and both behave similarly

under identical hardware specifications and both are stable pieces of software. Both come with a

very in-depth help guide as well as online support. The only advantage Photoshop has over Gimp is

more variety in its functionality. While Gimp and Photoshop have the same features, Photoshop has

more variety in its features (e.g. while both software have a filter feature, Photoshop has more

variety in its filters). This does not necessarily make Photoshop the better software however.

Upon giving the software to our volunteers and asking them to break an image into layers, then

apply a filter to one of those layers, with no previous experience in image editing software, the time

to complete the task in both Photoshop and Gimp were roughly the same. Volunteers preferred the

simpler layout of gimp and were often led astray trying to operate the right hand pane in Photoshop.

Both Photoshop and Gimp present powerful tools for the IPT/ITS teacher and regardless of the

image editing task, students will still be able to produce polished, professional images for their

classroom tasks. The only reservation teachers may have about transitioning to Gimp is the fact that

it is not the 'industry standard' software. After using both software suites however, it becomes

apparent that skills learnt in Gimp are easily transferrable to Photoshop and vice versa, meaning

students will not be disadvantaged should they choose a career in the image-editing industry.

Photoshop and Gimp


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Program name Premier Elements Avidemux

Price $129 Free


1GB RAM


500MHZ processor

128MB RAM (more is

recommended though)100MB hard drive space

Today there are dozens of video editing programs available if end-users are prepared to pay large

sums of money and receive functionality that is often beyond the understanding of anyone but a

professional editor. Most of these programs are extremely powerful and extremely capable but

when it comes to completing more advanced tasks, they become less and less user-friendly. Adobe

Premiere is one of the more user-friendly Closed-source programs that can be found in some

schools. It offers a fairly simple interface that is similar to Windows movie maker for basic features

and also has more advanced filtering and editing functions. In contrast, Avidemux is an Open source

program that allows binding, filtering, cropping as well as most other basic video editing features

students will need. Once the appropriate formats have been selected and the files have all been

configured appropriately, Avidemux is quite easy to use. When combined with the Open source

software blender, it can accomplish almost all the tasks that premier is capable of.

While Avidemux does have help and support in the form of web tutorials and forums, even some of

these can come across as cryptic and confusing, In a number of cases, volunteers were forced to

search online for assistance to complete basic tasks. On the other hand, Premier comes bundled

with help and support software and also has the full support of the adobe forums, giving it an

advantage in this field. At the time of writing the Premier software couldn't be acquired and

volunteers were unable to sample the software. Avidemux also experienced a number of crashes

and slow performance while filtering on a Windows based system, however, the software appeared

more stable running within Ubuntu.

Although many ITS work programs tend to ignore video editing because of the costs and the heavy

system requirements, Avidemux does present itself as a relatively capable piece of software.

Regardless of the software however, Video-editing still appears to be a system heavy process that

many ITS classrooms may not yet be ready for. Compared to Adobe Premier however, it still

presents itself as a valid alternative to costly closed-source software.

Premier and Avidemux


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Program name Adobe Flash Pencil

Price $950 (In CS) Free


1GB RAM


500MHZ processor

128MB RAM


In recent years flash animation has become prolific across the internet, It's key frame animation

allows the creation of videos just like drawing a cartoon in a flipbook. Many schools cover flash as

part of a web development module, as an introduction to programming, or in basic image editing

and creation. As flash has evolved over the years the software has also expanded to work with both

Dreamweaver and Photoshop in the Adobe suite. It also comes with an easy to understand manual

and numerous text and internet tutorials to introduce students to flash.

Pencil is the Open source alternative and like flash, uses key frame animation to create animations.

Many of the features available in flash such as the symbol library, sprites and tweening aren't

available and layers don't work quite as well but the interface is simpler. The volunteers who used

both programs agreed that while pencil was simpler, both were extremely hard to use without

direction. After then giving volunteers a brief introduction to key frame animation they found pencil

to be marginally easier but that both were still very complicated. Pencil's tutorials are very limited

and what does exist is usually either very basic or overcomplicated.

Both Flash and Pencil are able to satisfy certain aspects of the syllabus relating to web development

and the creation of multimedia. Flash presents itself as overcomplicated and expensive however

and Pencil presents itself as too simple and both are time consuming practices where slight mistakes

can mean confusion and hours of additional work for students. Ultimately, there are better ways to

satisfy outcomes for the ITS syllabus using neither of these pieces of software.


Program name Adobe Dreamweaver NVU

Flash and Pencil


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256MB RAM


300Mhz processor

128MB RAM


In the website design industry Dreamweaver has been the standard for some time. This is mainly

due to its integration with other programs like Flash, Photoshop and Premier, creating a neat

package that allows seamless integration of Flash animations, images and movies optimised for

internet viewing (provided one can afford the entire creative suite). Comparing Dreamweaver to its

Open source counterpart, NVU, reveals that while NVU isn't quite as polished, it is easily as

functional. While NVU will require users to spend more time in the coding tab, the software offers

enough functionality to create basic websites. At times, NVU even created neater HTML code than

Dreamweaver did.

Dreamweaver is the clear winner in terms of software support. In addition to having software

designed to work with it like Flash and In Design, Adobe also offers good customer support in the

form of manuals and online tutorials. NVU does have a fairly extensive help document bundled with

the software however and as a major plus, it teaches student's to be less dependent on the software

to write the code for them. This may create problems for teachers who aren't yet proficient enough

in HTML to troubleshoot code but with the money saved from buying Adobe's creative suite, training

becomes a viable option.

Volunteers found the basic features of both programs equally easy to run and access but found that

Dreamweaver was more user friendly when it came to advanced features such as button creation,

anchoring and slicing.

Overall Dreamweaver offers a professional and more in-depth web-design experience than NVU.

And while Dreamweaver allows for simpler web site creation and editing, students can still receive

an authentic experience using NVU for web-design.


Program name Sound Booth Audacity

Dreamweaver and NVU


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256MB RAM


64Mhz processor

128MB RAM


Audacity is an excellent example of Open source software that has been widely accepted by its

industry and now sets the bar by which all other software in its field is judged. This software fits

inside a tiny 10mb package, ideal for installation on USB storage drives and presents itself as a clean,

easy to use sound editing program. The layout of the program is extremely logical and is simple

enough for most to pick up and use straight away, plus, it's cross platform compatibility means it can

run on both Windows and LINUX. Additionally, the extensive functionality of Audacity also means

that it is frequently used by professionals in the sound-editing industry. For example, In 2009 Akai

began bundling its ATT022U Turntable with Audacity over a previously used close-source program

because Audacity performed better (Aguis, 2009). In comparison, Soundbooth is a powerful

program that features a larger range of filters than Audacity and also support for editing sound thathas already been complied to a video clip. Otherwise, the two programs are only different in their

Interfaces.

Volunteers who used both Soundbooth and Audacity preferred the look and feel of Soundbooth but

remarked that both were very simple and easy to use. In terms of customer support, both programs

come bundled with a help guide and both have equal shares of online and text tutorials, Soundbooth

has more support online from Adobe but Audacity has a substantial community of coders and

sound-enthusiasts permanently developing the program and supporting Audacity users.

For use in schools Audacity is the clear winner over Soundbooth for its ease-of-use, accessibility, and

community support. It's ties to the sound industry also mean that student's will not be

disadvantaged in any way by using the software and Audacity presents itself as a simple, easy sound

editing tool for helping students accomplish multimedia tasks.


Soundbooth and Audacity


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Program name Blackboard Moodle

Price

System requirements N/A N/A

Any good ICT teacher knows that while there are numerous software choices they have to make

when teaching their class, an electronic classroom is only as good as the infrastructure it's built

around. External remote access of classroom information, online submission of assignments and

virtual classrooms all require a well designed content management system. Blackboard began in

2004 and has since replaced the content management systems of many university and corporate

institutions as well a number of schools. It offers software packages to cater to specific client needs

and has constant product support for a price. The blackboard software is very extensive and is

stable enough to handle large amounts of data entries.

For most schools however, a costly content management system is far beyond normal budgets. This

is the reason most schools in Queensland have moved to Open source content management

systems. In this field, the three main systems are Joomla, Drupal and Moodle, although Moodle is

designed more for the educational arena than the other two and there are currently 48000 websites

using Moodle to date.

Though neither Drupal, Joomla or Moodle can compete with Blackboards customer service or

specific client catering, all three do offer a variety of templates and are quite easy to modify to suit

the specific needs of an institution. Additionally, all three offer extensive installation and server

establishment tutorials and all three have large community groups devoted to furthering the

programs functionality. While Blackboard offers itself as a premium package, pre built and installed

for its clients its cost is usually far beyond that of most schools. While it requires more skill and

effort on the administration side, Moodle is still the clear choice for a content/learning management

system for schools.


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having to be compiled, meaning there is less time between creation, execution and debugging of

code. And secondly because of the way it handles lists and arrays. Though Python is growing older,

it still serves as a very relevant educational programming language. Scratch was developed by

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) purely as an educational programming language. It is

effective because it gives a very interactive, colourful GUI (Graphical User Interface) that introduces

students to the concept of Object Oriented programming. The software sees students doing less

coding and more linking blocks together to achieve certain tasks. This allows those students who

have problems with the concepts of programming to ease in and learn in an abstract way. Most

importantly, both programs are also cross platform and work on Mac, Windows and LINUX based

machines.


Program name CamStudio

Price FreeSystem requirements

CamStudio is a simple yet powerful Open source program that can capture video of whatever

happens on the screen while at the same time, recording from an audio input. This allows teachers

to create tutorials of tasks before class to streamline lessons. The program also supports screen

annotations (notes over the video) so that key points can be highlighted and can also be paused mid

recording if necessary. The program is small, easy to use and outputs files in the AVI format,

meaning it can be played back in most video players. LINUX users can use XvidCap as an alternative

that works as well. Regardless of operating system though, video capture software is a must for any

ICT classroom.


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Program name Italc

Price Free

System requirements

Italc is a powerful cross platform classroom management tool that allows teachers to monitor

student computer use throughout lessons. With it, teachers can monitor, block, hijack and display

student's computer screens up on a projector. Though the version of Italc for Ubuntu isn't entirely

stable and the Windows version can perform slowly when accomplishing large tasks, when used

appropriately, Italc is a useful classroom tool when the required system resources are available.

Closed-source Open sourceProgram name VLC Media Player

Price Free

System requirements

VLC media player is another program that is widely accepted and used by both educational and

professionals institutions alike. It is used for a number of reasons. Firstly it is cross platform and

supports almost every available video and music file format in existence. Secondly, it can stream

video and music across a network. Thirdly, it has a built in, easy to use file convertor for making

formats to work in other programs. And finally, It is extremely small, stable and can be installed

Italc

VLC Media Player


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onto a USB hard drive. For any ICT teacher that plans on covering video or multimedia modules in

their classroom, VLC media player is an invaluable tool that will work every time.

Closed-source Open sourceProgram name Virtual Box

Price Free

System requirements

As part of the ITS syllabus, Students have the opportunity to install and maintain a variety of software

applications and operating systems (QSA, 2006). For teachers who don't want to see their computers

continually formatted there is an alternative. Virtual Box is a cross-platform program that allows

users to install a virtual operating system within a core operating system. This eliminates the

necessity for dual boots and means that students can install a number of different operating systems

quickly and easily without the need for formatting. The program itself it stable and hardware is 100%

compatible with the virtual system on installation. There are a number of other Closed-source virtual

OS programs that are available but for educational purposes, Virtual Box is more than adequate for

meeting student needs.


Program name XAMPP

Price Free

System requirements

XAMPP is a bundle of Open source software. Of mention it includes MySQL, PHPMyAdmin and Perl.

These programs offer a free alternative to larger database management systems like Microsoft

Access. MySql is a fairly simple database program that uses unmodified SQL code. Understanding

this code is integral for students who wish to advance their data basing knowledge and XAMPP

Virtual Box

XAMPP


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References:

Derringer, P. (2009). When Free Isn't Free: the realities of running Open source in school. Retrieved May 14,

2010, from http://techlearning.nbmediadev.com/article/16512.

Fredricks, K. (2009). No Strings Attached: Open source Solutions. Retrieved May 14, 2010, fromhttp://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7729/is_200906/ai_n42854378/.

Aguis, A. (2009). Monday Review: Akai Pro USB Turntbale. Retrieved May 14, 2010, from

http://www.mactalk.com.au/2009/07/06/monday-review-akai-pro-usb-turntable/.

Queensland Studies Authority. (2006). Information Technology Systems Syllabus. Retrieved March 13, 2010,

from http://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/cite/apa/examples/informal.jsp#webpage.

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