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This page is designed to provide schools with a wide array of useful
tools and utilities to help manage and maintain computer labs. It
contains software that is free, and often "open source" software, which
means that if needed, the school can modify the software to fit its own
needs.
This was originally (and with any hope still is) a resource CD for
schools in Jamaica which had little if any Internet, but did have
computers that desparately needed virus protection, educational
software, and so on. Obviously, in changing it to a website, I didn't
want to get into any hot water about copyrights/distribution rights, so
I merely provide links to the software on the developer's site.
It is loosely modeled after the excellent project, TheOpenCD, which is
a showcase of free/open source software.
By clicking on the other tabs above, you may navigate to the sections
of software available on the Internet. Each section has its own
instructions
and recommendations for use. In general, here is what is found under
each section:
- Media
>>
- This contains various media players to listen to music, watch
videos, and also some tools for media creation -- a professional
graphics program, as well as a tool to broadcast music over the
Internet.
- Office
>>
- This contains productivity software, like OpenOffice -- a free
Office suite that can read and write MS Office files.
- Educational >>
- Games and learning software that can be found useful in classes to
teach math, literacy, critical thinking and typing/computing skills
- Internet >>
- Programs useful for utilizing the Internet -- up-to-date web
browsers, FTP programs, etc.
- Reference
>>
- References, documentation, and curricula to use in your lessons
Installing "Zip" Software
Many computer will already have "WinZip" installed, and Windows XP
handles it automatically. However, if, while you are installing any
software from this listing, to locate the program to read ZIP files, you
need
to install what is called archiving software. This
software allows you to shrink one or many files into a single, much
smaller, file. Two programs are included to do this. One is
completely free, called ICEows. It supports ZIP and many other
formats, and has its own format (ICE) that can be used to
split up files across many floppy disks if you have a really large file
to copy. You can install ICEows
here. This listing also includes WinZip, which is familiar and easy
to
use. It expires after 30 days, but can still be used to unzip files.
You can install WinZip here.
Where to start?
Admittedly, there is a whole heap of tools and software
to
use. Start off
with the next chapter, Optimization, and once you get your
computer in
top shape, consider what you need, and what the computer will be
used
as. If it is to be used by children, you might focus on the
Educational
section and look at the paint programmes and typing programmes
aimed at
children. If it is to be used in an office setting, you will
want to focus
on the Office section, and possibly the Media and Utilities
sections.
If you have students interested in media creation, you can use
tools from
this list to do things such as fly
around the solar system, create web pages, make live
Internet radio stations and more!
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