GPL Edutainment Software 190
haxot writes "I'm the technologist at a local library. In our lab, I've managed to get some recognition for tools such as GIMP and Open Office, and even such toys as Bomberman and BZFlag. Now I'm turning towards the children's computers, which are mostly filled with ancient, buggy, rather boring games that try to be interactive TV shows rather than something entertaining. I'm looking for good OSS games and education suites (preferably multi-platform — I want to be ready for an OS switch to Linux). I'm not picky about the license; I'd just like the software to actually have that 'neat' appeal. Some examples I've found already are Gcompris and Tux Paint. My focus is the 2-year-old to 8-year-old range, but I'm happy to hear teen-oriented suggestions too. Since it's a public library, however, I can't have any software on the computers that is risqué, gory, or violent."
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Re:Media production for Linux (And OSX, And Window (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:Media production for Linux (And OSX, And Window (Score:5, Funny)
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I agree. Intact digits are even more overrated than computer software
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Edutainment - games (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.food-force.com/ [food-force.com] Made by the U.N. Free, MacOS X or Windows. (sorry no Linux afaik) Probably the best one in my list for the 6-8 years old.
http://www.tqworld.com/ [tqworld.com] - Tranquility. After years and years, this game has something no other game offers. Well suited for the youngsters. Free, but not open source.
http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/ [stopdisastersgame.org] U.N. too. Free and web-based. Excellent. Probably best for 8 years old (older ones of your range). Surprisingly informative.
http://www.stepmania.com/ [stepmania.com] Not sure that ones counts as edutainment, but it sure is good for the children! Open source and available for all platforms.
http://www.openttd.org/ [openttd.org] A railroad tycoon open source clone (gosh I'm getting old
For the curious ones, here's the other worthy (subjective) open source games I discovered with time. http://del.icio.us/Satri/game+opensource [del.icio.us]
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(javascript "mastermind" program, entirely client-side) [nemitz.net]
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I put linux on ancient computers for my cousins, who cover the gamut of elementary school ages. By far, their favorite toys are tuxpaint and frozen-bubble. They think globulation2 is great as well, but it's a bit too hard for them.
I remember loving simcity when I was in elementary school. I believe there is an open source clone of the original somewhere, but it's probably not pretty enough for today's kids.
3D CAD (Score:4, Insightful)
Thanks for this! (Score:2, Insightful)
BRL-CAD has languished long enough. This is a great project that could be brought up to date quickly with modern stuff.
It's good to see it in Google's SOC program.
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If nothing else, it should light a fire under some asses.
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CFD programs like ChannelFlow graphically show how things like water change course and create all kinds of currents when you add obstructions.
F
Re:Media production for Linux (And OSX, And Window (Score:2)
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Re:Media production for Linux (And OSX, And Window (Score:4, Interesting)
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The OP also said that stuff for teens is fine as well.
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That's not a slight on you, just that it's well known that kids pick up things quicker than adults. That's why "child-proof" caps really end up being adult-proof -- my parents always used to ask me to open them, as a kid.
Sorry, I'll get off your lawn now.
Mindrover (Score:5, Informative)
There's a demo available online, I recommend at least trying it out: http://www.mindrover.com/ [mindrover.com]
Oh, and there's a Linux version too.
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Their link to the Linux version is broken.
Which figures. I tried to start my nieces on Linux, but didn't get far. The first problem is that some children's websites use Shockwave. Flash goes a long ways, but not enough. Must have Shockwave. While it's possible to run Shockwave in Wine, it doesn't work well on the very old and slow computers that parents typically give youngsters. I managed to persuade them to stick with Linux since there wasn't that much that required Shockwave. But it didn't last.
Take a look at MIT Scratch (Score:5, Informative)
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There's an article [squeak.org] at news.squeak.org that mentions an interesting series of posts by one of the developers of Dr Geo II who is building up an introduction to Squeak features for educators.
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Layne
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Layne
Anyone else laugh at the last two sentences? (Score:5, Funny)
No gore, cuz it is a public library. Otherwise it'd be cool for the 2-8 year olds.
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Going back to my youth (Score:5, Informative)
Disclaimer, I haven't actually tried the software in the links above.
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educational games suck (Score:4, Insightful)
There's just no motivation to be fun. Speaking from a proprietary standpoint, what factors does an educator look for when deciding which games to purchase? Cost and what the learning topics are. "Here's a game that teaches multiplication and is $10 cheaper than all the others." Fun doesn't fit into the equation. And it's not like many educators are test-driving these games either. Oh, and these are typically poorly written games too.
My point being, the educational games sector is filled with poorly made products that feature very little fun and are a pain to administer. Hopefully some open source options don't suffer from the same issues. Hopefully you'll be able to sort through the crap and find some good ones though.
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Online emulator for all Apple II and Apple IIgs games. Includes Oregon Trail, Number Munchers and lots others.
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Wasn't that the one funded by some US health org to try and get people to fix the health problem in the US, Canada, and other places facing the same situation?
Of course, I don't think anybody got a "good" score in that game. We went after it for years and barely got close.
SimEarth was fun too. A bit less "educational" from a quick glance, but playing in it you do understand concepts of how species need some things and will adapt to satisfy needs and how they react to other species, ho
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In the Ubuntu repos i spotted a few but none seamed promising, id suggest finding a computer with over 512 ram and using a liveCD to test out the games, if you find anything, as its OSS chances are it will be available for windows too.
However here are very few programs for kids under GPL, they dont really confor
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http://www.jwz.org/doc/groupware.html [jwz.org]
Basically its a rant about why groupware sucks and why if OSS wants to kick outlooks arse we should do what he says, If somebody had listend maybe we wouldnt be stuck with facebook
The theory goes something like if users like the software they're going to show it to people, they're going to use it your user base keeps
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This is true for the entire software industry not just educational games. Also I think branding something 'educational' is kinda silly, education happens when you learn something new and modify your worldview to account for it. As a child in the 60's I loved Disney comics, adults told me they were a waste of time yet when I got older I realised I had I learnt stuff
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Lemonade Stand (Score:2)
Just like the Apple II classic. Teach them capitalism so they don't end up on drugs
Re:Lemonade Stand (Score:5, Funny)
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I submit as my two pieces of evidence: a TED talk by Levitt and his book.
Steven Levitt: Why do crack dealers still live with their moms? [ted.com].
You may also want to check out his book (Freakonomics [amazon.com]).
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Otherwise, that 1 meg probably includes an Apple II emulator. Did your entire Apple II box fit into a 1 meg compressed file?
there's Sqeak e-Toys and others (Score:3, Interesting)
I believe they have other education software too so here's a link for you to search for yourself:
http://www.squeak.org/Features/Education/ [squeak.org]
LoB
crap, it's Squeak not Sqeak dumbass (Score:2)
LoB
Dope Wars (Score:5, Funny)
Physics and Software (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.vrlab.umu.se/research/phun/ [vrlab.umu.se]
Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience.
http://www.alice.org/ [alice.org]
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Step is part of the KDE Edutainment [kde.org] module (or rather, it will be soon...)
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google for the others since you'd need to install an application.
You can't. Really? (Score:3, Insightful)
Since it's a public library, however, I can't have any software on the computers that is risqué, gory, or violent.
Exactly why not? Does your library also lack risqué, gory, and violent books? What the hell sort of library is this?
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The library that has a children's section. The library that restricts access to other collections.
try K12LTSP (Score:2, Informative)
Frozen Bubbles (Score:2)
http://www.frozen-bubble.org/ [frozen-bubble.org]
Free alternative (Score:3, Insightful)
Having children in that age range, and having looked to some degree I haven't found any GPL educational games that really got my kids interest (Tux paint held the 6 year olds attention for an afternoon).
What has held my children's interest are games on the following websites:
http://www.pbskids.org/ [pbskids.org]
http://funschool.kaboose.com/ [kaboose.com]
http://www.starfall.com/ [starfall.com]
http://kids.discovery.com/ [discovery.com]
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Most young kids will love it. You can argue if it's educational or not, but that debate itself may be educational.
"Why is it not art Daddy? It looks like my dwawings."
Line Rider (Score:2)
http://www8.agame.com/mirror/flash/l/linerider_v1_5.swf [agame.com]
OpenDisc and OpenEducationDisc (Score:5, Informative)
Clones of Classic Titles (Score:2)
kde-edu is a nice start, but if there were more education programs, I think Linux would make more inroads in schools. Introducing kids early on to the concept of free software, and choices in picking your software is very important.
KDE4 Education and Games (Score:4, Informative)
Edubuntu? (Score:4, Interesting)
http://www.edubuntu.org/UsingEdubuntu [edubuntu.org]
My daughter is 3-1/2 and loves the stuff on Linux. She was typing her name on TuxPaint before she turned three but we had to click on the icons for her to set it to text or other modes since the mouse was too big and unwieldy.
So I bought her a laptop mouse which is perfect for her small hand. Big mistake. She will now sneak into the computer and start up "Paint Penguins" (TuxPaint), draw something, print it and come show us.
If she's bored with that she plays "Running Penguins" (SuperTux) or "Bubble Penguins" (Frozen Bubbles) or steals my Blackberry to show where Nana lives on Google Maps.
If she finds my bank-account numbers I'm in trouble. But seriously, Linux has plenty of edutainment software available and Edubuntu packages it in one place. It it also designed for classroom (and therefore, I suppose, library) use with features like centralized-management (LTSP) and such.
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Astronomy software (Score:2)
One is Celestia [shatters.net], which lets you travel/fly through the solar system, the galaxy (including several other known solar systems), and the local universe!
I know there's also a similar FLOSS planetarium program (Earth-based, rather than space-based), but I can't find it right now. Through in a pinch, Celestia can work like a planetarium [cornell.edu] too.
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Tux Math (Score:2)
http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/tuxmath.php
Here's my five year old son playing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D20yCEDye2Q
Dev tools. (Score:2)
Firebug, for one...
Or just include source and compilers for everything you can find. Gentoo might be a good fit for that (though not for much else).
And of course, anything you can get as a shell/interpreter. irb, python, erlang, etc.
Another possibility: Xen. Make it possible for people to load whatever they want onto a (temporary) virtual machine image. See if people start writing their own OSes...
One more, while I'm at it: Core Wars. Allows you to write bots that attack each o
For astronomy (Score:4, Informative)
Just get KDE (Score:4, Informative)
You don't really need individual suggestions, as most of the decent open-source educational programs out there are part of KDE. The latest version of KDE will hopefully be installable on Windows this year.
Just install the full package, and you'll have stuff like KLatin and KVerbos for learning languages, as well as star-gazing software, plus KTurtle, KTouch and a load more.
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Why only GPL. (Score:2)
Tux (Score:2)
Tux Math: http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/tuxmath/ [newbreedsoftware.com]
Tux Typeing: http://tuxtype.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
Tux Paint: http://www.tuxpaint.org/ [tuxpaint.org]
The newbreed software site has a number of programs there. There are actually quite a few educational titles around, I like gtypist for the older students as it is fast, modifiable, and has a lot of lessons. Its curses based though so it will turn some people off if they have a fear of
My first thoughts (Score:2)
Of course, having Google Earth is bound to chew up a lot of bandwidth, so use your best judgment.
A Toddler Game - A Great GPL Gem! (Score:2)
Edutainment? (Score:4, Insightful)
Please enough already - no more of this Hollywood style, flashy, 'make believe' stuff with specious vocabulary. There is a certain spark in the Human psyche that gets lit whenever a person truly gains comprehension or insight into something they did not know before. Especially with Children, in my humble opinion, what's need is to light that little flame. 'Edutainment' makes it seem like it's a bitter pill that must be sugar coated with oodles of artificial sweeteners to be palatable.
I say, leave them kids alone. Let them discover the joys of the Earth without the myopic view of Google Earth and look for the Stars in the night sky
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SimCity / Micropolis (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.donhopkins.com/home/micropolis/ [donhopkins.com]
GPL Micropolis (SimCity) on Google Code (Score:2)
The GPL version of SimCity Classic from Maxis is called "Micropolis", and is available on Google Code [google.com].
There's an old version based on TCL/Tk, which runs on the OLPC, Linux, and also on the Mac with X11.
And I'm in the process of rewriting it in C++/Python/GTK/Cairo/Pango, which runs on Windows, Mac OS/X and Linux (including the OLPC of course).
Lots more stuff about it on my web site [donhopkins.com].
-Don
Celestia (Score:2)
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ [shatters.net]
bbc for kids (Score:2)
does it have to be GPL? (Score:2)
Ri-Li (Score:2)
Probably that falls into about that age bracket.
Includes a quiz section on the "Rights of Man"
I'm not sure if that can be disabled or made an arbitrary quiz module.
Seems likely, given it is OSS that is it possible at some level.
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Re:hahaha (Score:5, Insightful)
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At least, if I were a library worker, I'd be very concerned with keeping on top of ways-to-find-information.
Books??? (Score:3, Interesting)
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