Chapter+4

===Chapter 4: It's a Free Software World After All (Opener #3: Availability of Open Source and Free Software) === **Free and Open Source Course Management Systems (Opener #3):** Creating online courses and programs can cost a lot of money. Systems like [|Moodle] and [|Sakai] are free and open source options. As of February 10, 2009, there were 620,000 registered users of Moodle from 204 countries speaking 78 languages. And there were countless Moodle users who did not register.


 * 1 - Bookmark in our Diigo book study group at least ONE viable source that discusses some salient points to the educational benefits of free and open source/course ware.** (I have already bookmarked three articles which are sitting in there.)

Watch the follow two videos: Dr. Bonk offers advice to educational leaders who operate under the "either/or" decision-making scale instead of the more optimal "both/and" approach; that is, balancing innovation and security, being creative in leveraging the myriad of free and open source and course ware resources impacting today's schools and classrooms by creating a environment of sharing, collaborating, participating, and customizing learning.

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In the above segments, Dr. Bonk provides several practical suggestions for leaders to create viable options for teacher and student engagement, community and sharing from beginning conversations to piloting small to evaluating districts tackling similar approaches, to conducting intentional research to leverage open and free resources. Let's begin with the conversations: #2 - **What's available? What's possible? How do you know? Who is collecting, vetting, researching, and providing feedback on these applications?**

 [|Teacher's Guide to Open Source]  [|55 Open Source Apps]  [|OER Commons]  [|NROC]
 * Read the following articles, guides, strategies, and websites to explore the "What If" **
 * #3 - Choose two open source/course ware applications. Then, read about them, explore its uses and benefits and value add to leading, teaching and learning. **

Audacity: __http://audacity.sourceforge. net/__ Celestia: __http://www.shatters.net/ celestia/__ Cmap: __http://cmap.ihmc.us/__ Colonization: __http://www.bestoldgames.net/ eng/old-games/colonization.php__ Creative Commons: __http://creativecommons.org/__ Drupal: __http://drupal.org/__ FreeCol: __http://www.freecol.org/__ FreeMind: __http://freemind.sourceforge. net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page__ Freesound Project: __http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/ index.php__ Firefox: __http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/ firefox/__ Gallery: __http://gallery.menalto.com/__ Google Earth: __http://earth.google.com/__ Jmol: __http://jmol.sourceforge.net/__ Lessig blog (Larry Lessig): __http://www.lessig.org/blog/__ List of Open Source Tools: __http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/ tools.htm__ MediaWiki: __http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ MediaWiki__ Moodle: __http://moodle.org__ Moodle Philosophy: __http://docs.moodle.org/en/ Philosophy__ Ning: __http://www.ning.com/__ Ning in Education: __http://education.ning.com/__ Nucleus (blog tools): __http://nucleuscms.org/__ Open Learning Initiative (Carnegie Mellon University): __http://www.cmu.edu/oli/__ OpenLearn (UK Open University): __http://www.open.ac.uk/ openlearn/home.php__ Richard Stallman homepage: __http://www.stallman.org/__ Sakai ( __http://sakaiproject.org__ ) Serendipity (blog tools): __http://www.s9y.org/__ SigTE Book Discussion: Reinventing Project Based Learning: __http://sigte2008.ning.com/__ SourceForge: __http://sourceforge.net/__ Stellarium: __http://www.stellarium.org/__ TikiWiki: __http://info.tikiwiki.org/tiki- index.php__ Tree of Life: __http://tolweb.org/tree/__ Visual Understanding Environment (VUE): __http://vue.uit.tufts.edu/__ Vocabulary Trainer: __http://www.vocabularytrainer. net/__ WikiEducator: __http://www.wikieducator.org/ Main_Page__