NZOSS Education Group
The goal of the Education Group is to assist in the adoption of open source software in New Zealand's educational institutions.
Global Resources
Some of the resources available around the world today are:
- edubuntu
- "Ubuntu" is an ancient African word, meaning "humanity to others". Ubuntu also means "I am what I am because of who we all are". The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment.
- Eduforge
- Eduforge is an open access collaborative learning and exploratory environment designed for the sharing of ideas, research outcomes, open source educational software, and tools within a community of educators, researchers and developers.
- K-12 Linux Project
- Information about the K-12Linux Project - a project that has developed an excellent server based system that allows old, cheap or diskless PCs to connect to the server as thin clients (thus making them "run faster")
- Organisation for Free Software in Education and Training
- Another directory of free software for schools. They also have a live bootable Linux CD (based on Knoppix) that demonstrates some of this software without requiring Linux to be installed on the user's computer.
- Simple End User Linux
- The end goal of SEUL is to have a comprehensive suite of high-quality applications (productivity applications as well as leisure/programming applications) available under the GPL for the Linux platform, as well as a broader base of educated users around the world who understand why free software is better. SEUL is a volunteer project currently focusing on Linux in education, Linux in science, advocacy documents, managing and coordinating communications between projects, and hosting related development projects.
- Skolelinux
- SkoleLinux is another project to develop a linux distribution for schools (in this case developed in Norway and based on Debian Linux).
- INGOT: International Grades in Office Technology
- INGOTs provide a motivating progression route from complete beginner to professional level expertise in commonly used productivity tools found in the modern workplace such as word processing, presenting and searching for information. Training is generic, and students learn how to use, for example, a word processor, rather than a specific WP package. Trainers and students are free to use open source or proprietary packages, although Open Office is the recommended office suite. NZQA approval is currently being sought for INGOT certification.
Local Resources
New Zealand based Open Source Education Support, Resource and Infrastructure projects that may be useful.
- OSLOR
- This open source learning object repository (OSLOR) project aims to implement a unique New Zealand learning object repository (LOR) based on quality open source code provided by leading educational institutions globally.
There is an eduforge project here and a moodle site here. - ITOC
- iToc is a virtual learning environment available to industry, trainers, organisations and community groups. The moodle site is here.