Educational Software To Donate With Laptop?

SlartibartfastJunior writes "I will be sending my four-year-old laptop to a school in Uganda this fall. I plan to load up an older version of Windows (or something free), and I need suggestions - what should I load on it? I need suggestions for educational games, educational software, etc. that won't drain my battery too much (since the computer will only be able to recharge at night), won't require a CD (since my drive doesn't work 80% of the time), and won't be too America-centered (most of these children have never been more than ten miles out of their own villages, and wouldn't understand "Oregon Trail"). Also, any great ideas on where I can acquire copies of this software?"

Check into Linux For Kids

[VisorGuy]

http://linuxforkids.org/ [linuxforkids.org]

I think they have multilingual games... Or maybe it's just their website.

Redundant?

[Mr. Certainly]

How can this guy be redundant, he's the first poster!

The Gutenberg Project

[m_xiphias]

Granted, I don't know if they speak english or not, but putting on classic literature (and possibly including a cheap printer) might be a good idea.

Great Idea :)

[baddogatl]

I've been donating 3-5 year old equipment for years. Usually it all has come with OEM copies of Microsoft software so licensing isn't an issue, and even if we may not consider software to be "educational" (such as word processors, spreadsheets, etc.) any software is helpful.

My parents are currently in Ethiopia where they run a library for students to study for their high school graduation exams. The tests are required to pass high school and get into college, and the books are in such short supply that they can't even let them out of the library. Just having computers with basic software could dramatically change things in that part of Africa.

I dont know what it is...

[add2700]

But when people donate stuff, they always make sure it is absolutely worthless to themselves first. Why don't you get together with a group of friends and buy a new laptop that the school will get some decent use out of? I have been on the recieving end of such charity, so I speak from experience. While I was a missionary someone sent us 10 P I's. Out of those 10 we actually got 2 of them to work by skavaging the lot. And the donators thought they were doing us a favor...

Re:Came with a license?

[0racle]

Technically, I don't believe that the licenses are transferable.

Re:Burn project gutenberg CDs

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a cool idea. Perhaps someone should maintain a set of CD's / DVDs of free stuff (from sourceforge, project gutenburg, etc.). That way, any future "obselete" laptops that are donated can use them. just fonate the masters to the program...

Just thinking of the future beyond this particular laptop donation...

Re:My own experience

[General Wesc]

That's a good idea. Better might be the Wikipedia. there's probably one in whatever language they speak (well, I guess that would be English in Uganda.) and is certainly one in English.

You can download the Wikipedia database [wikimedia.org], export out static pages, and shove those on the computer. I'm pretty sure there's software to do this.

Of course, you'll end up with a lot of Star Trek and Middle-earth articles, as well as an article for every tiny town in the US, at least if you use the English database. You could sort out useful subsets using things like their new categories system.

Maybe I should ask a MediaWiki-knowledgeable person to post. I'm mostly just a user.

k12ltsp.org

[huckda]

go there.. get the ISO's...
let 'em have fun...put it in their language...
all jazzy and juicy!!! They'll love it!!
Especially the educational games!

--Huck

Wikipedia

[jefu]

While it may sound dull, I think information rich content such as the Wikipedia would be good to send along and I'd second the recommendation for the project gutenberg texts.

Similarly there are open source content sites like planetmath.org [planetmath.org]. I think there are similar sites in other discplines worth sending along.

I'd also think about toolsets that might be of use in the third world like cad software and the like.

If you have disk space (or get the CD working), collections of art and photographs would be good too. Toss in a copy of the Gimp.

Finally, music generation software would probably be very popular.

Don't Waste Your Shipping Money

[tidewaterblues]

I have several good friends who have been to Uganda on a number of occasion, and have done extensive service work there. (One of them, in fact, earned a Rhodes partly because of his efforts). At one time I was considering setting up a Ugandan-American service organization, and I picked their brains about what is and is not needed in general. This may come as a surprise, but computers (especially junky ones) are firmly in the NOT NEEDED list.

Many American charities and organizations send used equipment to Africa. One of the principle functions to the giant tax write-off foundation that Bill Gates created years ago was to send brand new computers to African schools. The net effect is that computers are not difficult to acquire and your laptop, although probably still appreciated, would be less useful than many other things you could send.

What they really need, as I understand it, are plan, old everyday books. The student-to-textbook ration in most schools is 20 to 1 or greater, and many libraries are downright pathetic. What books they have are arcane, products of the 1950's and 1960's. Since they speak (British) English in Uganda, why don't you do them a favor and ship some of your old textbooks, or some good children's stories instead. These will probably go a lot farther than a half-useable laptop.