Classroom help

not sure of meaning of "k12 teaching tools" but take a look at italc

http://italc.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?title=Installation

k12 refers to teaching in the American public school system...Kindergarten thru 12th grade.

there is a ubuntu v=copy only for education it calls edubuntu

google it, download it and try it

I also recommend checking out the following distributions:

http://distrowatch.com/search.php?category=Education&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active

For example: the "Qimo 4 Kids" distribution is more suited to Kindergarten than Edubuntu.... (I think)

but he don't want it only for Kindergarten
he want something suitable for Kindergarten to 12th grade
that mean he want to use it for Kindergarten Kids to 12th grade graduates

@Hsn: Please leave that decision up to Charles. He has not yet clarified, if he wants one Linux distribution to be used for ALL classes or if he wants tailor-made distributions for certain age segments.

I think it is better to have special distributions for certain age groups, even if they are in the same school.

The one-size-fits-all approach is not what GNU/Linux or Ubuntu is about.

There are more than 300 different Linux distributions. They are there for a reason....

I recommend using Qimo for Kids for the 3 to 5 year old age group (Kindergarten).

And I agree on using Edubuntu for the 6 to 18 year old age group.....

It is up to Charles to decide what he prefers.

I also suggest reading this:

http://<email address hidden>/msg02720.html

and this:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/linux/articles/43224.aspx

and this:

http://mairin.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/a-k12-educators-guide-to-open-source-software/

@Mark: ok sorry
i only said that because the only Linux education i know is edubuntu

and you talked about the Kindergarten

No problem. :-) My only goal is to make sure that Charles is aware that there are more options than just Edubuntu....

 Thanks for all of the good sources. We going from Word to Google Docs; my Principal is encouraging the staff to pursue other application than Microsoft apps.

I think American public education is looking for alternatives to fee based applications. I'd like to pursue this more with Ubuntu. Is there much of a collaborative effort/community to develop apps?

Charlie

Your principal is also a smart guy :-) It is a lot better to use Open Source Software, or else your school is just wasting away precious taxpayer dollars....

I believe that there is a lot of collaborative effort to develop educational software for Linux. If there was not a big collaborative effort, then there would not be so many Linux distributions (and educational LiveCD's in particular).

The best thing to do is to test Edubuntu and "Qimo for Kids" and evaluate for yourself if the quality of the provided software is high enough or not.

You can install lots and lots of educational packages in Ubuntu. You do not really need to use Edubuntu, but Edubuntu already has the packages in the LiveCD, so you do not need to hunt down the required packages....

There's Ubuntu Education Edition, now called Edubuntu operating system that covers educational software by grade level.
https://essaytyper.pro/