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Simply stated, open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to freely distribute it to potential users. If you've never heard of open source software, you're not alone. Commercial, or proprietary, software has dominated the computer industry for many years. Most school personnel have understandably assumed that commercial software was the only option available.

Simply stated, open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to freely distribute it to potential users. If you've never heard of open source software, you're not alone. Commercial, or proprietary, software has dominated the computer industry for many years. Most school personnel have understandably assumed that commercial software was the only option available.

E is for EXPLORE is a one stop resource for teachers and parents. We develop unique learning activities, and search the internet and compile additional great ideas from other sources. Our index helps you find what you need quickly and easily. Where we have posted ideas from other sources we provide easy links to those websites. Please visit those as well to see what else they have to offer. All E is for Explore activities conform to state common core curriculum standards."

There's a lot of misinformation out there about legal rights and responsibilities in the digital era. This is especially disconcerting when it comes to information being shared with youth. Kids and teens are bombarded with messages from a myriad of sources that using new technology is high-risk behavior. Downloading music is compared to stealing a bicycle - even though many downloads are lawful. Making videos using short clips from other sources is treated as probably illegal - even though many such videos are also lawful. This misinformation is harmful, because it discourages kids and teens from following their natural inclination to be innovative and inquisitive. The innovators, artists and voters of tomorrow need to know that copyright law restricts many activities but also permits many others. And they need to know the positive steps they can take to protect themselves in the digital sphere. In short, youth don't need more intimidation - what they need is solid, accurate information.

Curriki is more than your average website; we're a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world. Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible. Curriki is built on the XWiki platform, an open source development platform and "Next Generation Wiki" application developed in Java and released the LGPL open source license. Curriki is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Download a summary of Curriki's history and mission: CurrikiBrochureApril2009.pdf.

"iPhone, iPad, Android App Builder and Content Management System (CMS) step 1 Create a buzztouch Account It's super easy and only takes a minute. No credit card or other top-secret stuff required. We respect your privacy, no SPAM here. step 2 Login and Start Building Our free app builder allows you to build a flexible app for your individual needs (or your clients needs). Update app screens and features anytime. step 3 Download the Source-Code Download the source code, compile it using XCode (iOS SDK) or Eclipse (Android SDK) then upload it to iTunes, or the Android Market, or both. "

"In the spirit of the open source movement, new copyright-friendly (and some copyleft) archives are emerging, removing many of the legal and ethical thorns relating to image use in student production. In addition, a number of government image archives provide their archives with limited restrictions. Check out this cool video for an explanation of new, alternate forms of licensing: Creative Commons Video http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/clicktoplay.html Most of the images in the collections below include images with a variety of less restrictive licensing. Though students may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing on the Web for educational purposes, they should cite these images unless otherwise notified! Important: Any copyright notices on these pages, should be read carefully and heeded!"

A few resources for the classroom, free and open source.

"Mibew Messenger (also known as Open Web Messenger) is an open-source live support application written in PHP and MySQL. It enables one-on-one chat assistance in real-time directly from your website."

convert your old cds to mp3 with one click. dead easy, open-source software.

ReadWorks.org has a complied list of articles, primary sources with curriculum and videos for black history month. Resources are grouped by grade level ranging from grades K-12. Thanks to Linda Flint for sharing this resource.

Interesting editable open source textbooks

Excellent source of projects integrating technology while addressing Common Core.

DuckDuckGo duckduckgo.com/ Provides a clean interface together with a no-tracking privacy policy. Offers keyboard shortcuts to navigate and zero-click information sources displayed in the ...

The Interactive Digital Playbook Suite for Professional & College Sports Teams Play More. Paper Less™. Digital Playbooks is the leading single source digital product suite tailored specifically to meet the needs of professional & collegiate sports franchises. Our Digital Playbook™ App for the iPad® is the premiere enterprise solution for transitioning print-based playbooks to a digital platform.

LibreOffice is the power-packed free, libre and open source personal productivity suite for Windows, Macintosh and GNU/Linux, that gives you six feature-rich applications for all your document production and data processing needs: Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math and Base.

An open source and free alternative to Photoshop ? No, much more than that.

"The app opens to a series of templates, which include basic, contemporary, modern type, classic, editorial, and craft. I'm assuming that you can also use custom created templates that have been downloaded from external sources as well. When a template is chosen, it switches into edit mode, which reminds me a lot of Keynote. There's a bar on the left that organizes all of your pages, and the window on the right displays the page currently being worked on. I chose to experiment with a picture book that also has some text. "

"By Kurt Schick My university recently convened an emergency "summit" for librarians, tutors, and concerned faculty members to solve a citation crisis. Our library help desks reportedly cannot complete their core mission of assisting students with information literacy (finding, choosing, and using sources) because students keep pestering them with questions about how to format obscure citations: "I'm analyzing poetry for my 'Punk Literature' seminar. Using MLA style, how do I cite a limerick scribbled in the third-floor toilet?""

"A raccoon with the word "why" Phylo is a project that began as a reaction to the following nugget of information: Kids know more about Pokemon creatures than they do about real creatures*. We think there's something wrong with that. Apparently, so do many others. picture of a bird with the word "what" Phylo is: (1) a card game that makes use of the wonderful, complex, and inspiring things that inform the notion of biodiversity; (2) an exercise in crowd sourcing, open access, and open game development; and (3) FREAKIN' AWESOME! picture of a plant with the word "who" The phylo project is the product of the kind and (frankly) amazing contributions of many many individuals who have given art, science expertise, gaming advice, programming chops, and more. A card usually begins its life by someone submitting art to this Flickr pool, but you can also develop new games, help out with programming, or providing general feedback by leaving comments on the blog or forum. picture of a lady bug and the word "how" You can Start quickly by printing yourself a starter deck and checking out a set of rules. Alternatively, you can just collect and print the cards by going to the card section and "select"ing the ones you like."