Linux School Apps?

[DeadSuperHero]

I've been wondering lately...
I've been looking at Edubuntu, and I really like the ideas behind it. However, what about College and High School Students? Are there any Linux apps for education/school aimed towards the High School to College age group?

In my science comp lab at school, we use crappy Windows 98, for various old DOS programs. Here's a few ideas for an educational suite:

Science:
- Programs that demonstrated physics through charts, graphs, and models.
- A Chemistry app that would show compounds, and what different elements add up to.
- An advanced calculator that has dozens of scientific formulas, and also allows for various conversions.
- Interactive diagrams of the human body, with some sort of simple dictionary of bodyparts and explanations of how they work.
- A 3D solar system with facts about each planet, and built in constellation viewer.

Language:
- Language-to-Language Dictionary: Would work in the same way that the GNOME dictionary works, but would show both the corresponding word, and how it is used gramatically.
- A special reading app that would read copies of digitized books released before 1929.
- GNOME Dictionary
- A Thesaurus

History
- An app similar to Encarta or Microsoft Student. Would give a generalized history of things. The app itself could simply act as a wrapper around an online student Wiki that is only editable by specialized experts and individuals.

Study Guide:
- Some sort of random quiz generator, where the user enters information, and runs everything through a quiz format, to help study for tests.

Those are just a few ideas. I'm not going to be one to even try to make these, as I know very little about coding, but I think there should be more educational apps for Linux. It would lead to schools adopting it, and eventually widespread adoption possibly.

[Kingsley]

Thank Black Jesus for the Internet. Most of what you listed doesn't really require a program. There are so many decent online resources for them.

[DeadSuperHero]

Hm...true enough...
However, I still think some desktop-based apps could be useful for just getting Linux adopted in schools. Trust me when I say the people that run some of them haven't a clue about technology. My librarian actually opted to get Wikipedia blocked, and succeeded. We need to get people educated more, and if it has to be through the desktop, then so be it.

[FG123]

... the Molecule screensaver perhaps?

/runs

[Colro]

sudo apt-get install qalculate

Probably the most advanced calculator I've ever seen. It's made Calculus a joke for me.

[urukrama]

- A 3D solar system with facts about each planet, and built in constellation viewer.

What about Stellarium, Celestia, Openuniverse and Kstars?


- Language-to-Language Dictionary: Would work in the same way that the GNOME dictionary works, but would show both the corresponding word, and how it is used gramatically.
- GNOME Dictionary
- A Thesaurus

Stardict can do some of those, if you install the proper dictionaries. It also has a simple thesaurus, and some grammar oriented dictionaries.


History
- An app similar to Encarta or Microsoft Student. Would give a generalized history of things. The app itself could simply act as a wrapper around an online student Wiki that is only editable by specialized experts and individuals.

The encyclopedia Britannica can be run in Ubuntu, using Wine. The official Britannica website gives instructions how to do this. Not open-source and not free, but very doable and nice. You can use a shorter version of Britannica in Stardict (though I question the legality of this, it is available on the Stardict sourceforge page (http://stardict.sourceforge.net/Dictionaries_dictd-www.dict.org.php))



- Some sort of random quiz generator, where the user enters information, and runs everything through a quiz format, to help study for tests.

There are several flashcard applications floating around, but I can't think of their names now. I've used some briefly in the past. For learning Latin, there is KLatin (a kde app), for vocabulary in general there is kvoctrain or KWordQuiz. For geography, Kgeography.

There is also KDissert, a mind-mapping application. Pleny of KDE apps, it seems.

If you applications for RE or religious studies, Gnomesword is a pretty decent Bible studies program; Zekr can be used for the Quran. There are some christian windows apps that are ported to Ubuntu using wine available at the Ubuntu CE site.

[smartboyathome]

Congrats, you got a subscription from me. I am very interested in developing a version of Linux for my school for my senior project, and this would help me with some of the apps to include.

[DeadSuperHero]

Congrats, you got a subscription from me. I am very interested in developing a version of Linux for my school for my senior project, and this would help me with some of the apps to include.
Yay!
Though, I can't really code any of these things. I think I ought to look around for some guides on how to code in Python and GTK, then I could crack open some of these apps and look at them.
I just think this would be crucial in widespread school adoption of Linux. And, if students grow up with it, what do you think they'll be more comfortable with?

[smartboyathome]

And, if students grow up with it, what do you think they'll be more comfortable with?

They will be more comfortable with either Windows or Ubuntu (at least, that is how I was with Windows and Macs, since I grew up with the Macs at school and Windows at home).

[DeadSuperHero]

Ah! But there will always be a chance that they will be open minded to the idea of using Ubuntu instead of Windows. Or at least they'll support Open Source apps at least.

[p_quarles]

There's also Kalzium, which should fit the bill for a good chemistry learning application. Like urukrama said, there are a bunch of good KDE educational apps. Save yourself the trouble and take a look at them all:

sudo apt-get install kdeedu

[Scott-271]

Having recently started using Xubuntu, I'm really into the way it runs and the community here; I really want to set up a separate comp for my 3 yr old, and Edubuntu is looking to be it.

With her in pre-school, I'd love to find more stuff for the younger ages. If there are any recommendations, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks,
Scott

[MBro]

The most important app for linux to be used by students in schools imho is a decent note taking program like NoteBook for mac.

[DeadSuperHero]

The most important app for linux to be used by students in schools imho is a decent note taking program like NoteBook for mac.

Technically, isn't any old text editor good enough to take notes, if you make nice little bullet points and all that?

[xxrealmsxx]

Technically, isn't any old text editor good enough to take notes, if you make nice little bullet points and all that?

Yeah technically, but when it comes to use its so much easier.

MS Word vs MS One Note, one note wins hands down for note taking.

The ability to easily drag and drop information from other sources and have it cited and the tabs are my favorite tools I wish I had in Ubuntu.

[synthsrkl]

I study German and find myself constantly having to learn big vocab lists (about 2 a week) which is very mundane.

But applications can make it a lot more fun. I've seen some language programs for windows, but not for linux yet.

The way they work is you enter your list of vocab (foreign language and english) then it applies that to preprogrammed games such as wordsearches and matching the two words together and flashcards etc..

That's something I'd really like to see done for linux

[Mazza558]

- A 3D solar system with facts about each planet, and built in constellation viewer.

Have a look at Celestia - It's the best virtual representation of the galaxy I've ever seen. If Google Earth and Celestia merged... :o

[DeadSuperHero]

I'm going to bump this up by saying this:
Indywiki would be awesome for students as an Encarta competitor.

[Slystone]

Hi synthsrkl!

I think these programs should do the trick: http://edu.kde.org/languages/
But true enough, there aren't many apps made for linux to help you learn a language! I'm French by the way, I thought it would be fun to get membership for both the French and the English forums!