37stars » Software http://www.37stars.org Learning for the 21st Century! Thu, 27 May 2010 21:07:22 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Computer Science 101: Using Scratch http://www.37stars.org/2009/05/computer-science-101-using-scratch/ http://www.37stars.org/2009/05/computer-science-101-using-scratch/#comments Thu, 21 May 2009 21:52:01 +0000 Matt http://www.37stars.org/?p=1361

Scratch

A big thank you to Mr. Becker for working with our class all day!  Mr. Becker joined our class to introduce students to computer programming using MIT’s free software Scratch.

Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art — and share your creations on the web.

Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

I encourage all students to download the Scratch program, create some games or programs, and then post them to our online gallery.

This link will take you to the page Mr. Becker created for our class.  

Here is a video about Scratch:
 

Click here to view the embedded video.

Learn more about Scratch and how to use it here.

I look forward to seeing everyone’s projects!  I will try to post some pictures and videos this weekend.

]]> http://www.37stars.org/2009/05/computer-science-101-using-scratch/feed/ 0 FOSS: Free and Open Source Software http://www.37stars.org/2009/01/foss-free-open-source-software/ http://www.37stars.org/2009/01/foss-free-open-source-software/#comments Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:03:46 +0000 Matt http://www.37stars.org/?p=468

I am encouraging the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) whenever possible.  

If you don’t have a copy of Microsoft Office no problem, Open Office is a wonderful, powerful free office suite available for Windows, Linux or Mac.  I have also listed links for Mac and PC FOSS.  If you have a need, there is probably a great FOSS application available.  

Check this list out and let me know what you think in the comments area!

Open Office

OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-sourceoffice software suite for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more. It is available in many languages and works on allcommon computers. It stores all your data in aninternational open standard format and can also read and write files from other common office software packages. It can be downloaded and used completely free of chargefor any purpose. 

http://www.openoffice.org/

 

Free and FOSS software for Macs

Free and FOSS software for Windows

]]> http://www.37stars.org/2009/01/foss-free-open-source-software/feed/ 0 Audacity http://www.37stars.org/2009/01/audacity/ http://www.37stars.org/2009/01/audacity/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 01:04:01 +0000 Matt http://www.37stars.org/?p=385

The Free, Cross-Platform Sound Editor

 

Screenshots

Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.

We will be using Audacity this year because its easy to use and we can use it at school and at home for free!

If you need some extra help, check out these Tutorials.

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