Linux for Education

Site news

I've updated Moodle to the most current version 2.0 now.

There are two things that are currently missing:

our theme needs to be adapted
the sloodle extension needs to be adapted

Everything else is working fine and hopefully everyone enjoys the new version!

Our updated moodle instance now runs on an Intel i7 CPU with 12GB RAM (well, it's not the only instance running on this machine - but it should have enough space now, right?).

If there's something missing/wrong: please do not hesitate to contact me.

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Available courses

Using Moodle - Why use it?

Why use moodle? What are its advantages? Where is it used? How is it used?

Find out in this introduction to moodle course

How to copy a course from one moodle to another

This very brief course should guide you through the process of how you can copy someone's content, and then later restore it elsewhere. When doing this, make sure you have the appropriate license (creative commmons, bsd license) etc.

Moodle Features Demo

This course outlines Moodle's features by providing examples of activities and resources.

Power Publishing Gimp, Inkscape, Scribus

These three open source graphics and desktop publishing tools are free to use and redistribute. Learn to use them in this self-guided set of tutorials.

Digital Photography

Traditional photography course taught using digital cameras and photo editing software.

OregonPhotoBlog.org
PhotoK12.org
Download the GIMP

Film Studies

This course explores the tensions between technology and culture as represented in popular film. It ran as an e-learning Module for the University of Southern Denmark in March 2005, delivered by Dr. Deneka MacDonald, and is now being used, with Denmark's permission, as a demonstration module. Artwork for the course is courtesy of Alex Ronald, Judge Dredd & 2000 AD Copyright © Rebellion A/S 2004.

Inter Cultural Communication (EFL)

Inter Cultural Communication Special Topics (ICC-Topics) is a course for English majors in the communication course. This year's special topic is Cultures and Communication of Groups in Japan.

An introduction to data and information

Ever wondered how a computer processes data into information? This unit will help you to understand the distinction between the two and examines how a computer-based society impacts on daily life. You will learn what computers can do with data to produce information and how computers can be used to work with data and search for it, control machines, and support commercial operations.

Internet Safety, Acceptable Use, Research and Copyright

This a course under construction which will be provided to the GEOSS project for other teachers to utilize. The course is designed with two goals in mind 1. to provide sample resources about acceptable use and internet safety that could be utilized in the classroom, and 2. to provide additional resources for teachers looking to teach better research practices to their students. For more info just shoot Joe Thibault an email.

Web 2.0 - An online course for teachers

A course for teachers to learn and discover all of the wonderful ways that web2.0 can enhance the classroom experience and engage today's learners.

Introducing ICT systems

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) systems now dominate our everyday lives. This unit will explain what constitutes such a system and how ICT systems work. You will also look at how ICT systems convey, store and manipulate data, and how they process data. Finally you will learn how these systems are used.

Computer technology - information and communication thereofeveryth

The World Wide Web is a vast information resource. This unit will provide you with the foundation skills to use search engines confidently to locate both information and images on the Web. You will also learn how to critically assess and reference the information you have found for study purposes.

An introduction to data and information

Modelling object-oriented software – an introduction

How do you model a software system? This unit will help you to work through the processes necessary to produce a conceptual model, by analysing the requirements document to identify classes and associations appropriate for modelling the system domain, together with their respective attributes and multiplicities.

The database development life cycle

No idea how relational database systems are constructed? Did you know that they underpin the majority of the managed data storage in computer systems? This unit has been designed to give you an overview of the developmental lifecycle for a database system, explaining the importance of data analysis and highlighting how database development differs from traditional software development.

An introduction to e-commerce and distributed applications

What is ‘e-commerce’? This unit will look at typical application areas including the internet, supply chain management and online auctions. It will also help you to understand the underlying technologies used to implement e-commerce applications before looking at some of the problems that can be encountered when developing distributed e-commerce systems.

Accessibility in interaction design

Technology is opening doors for those with disabilities. Being blind or deaf is now far less of a barrier than it was fifty years ago. This unit assesses various disabilities and describes how they might affect a person’s use of interactive devices. You will then look at some of the most common assistive technologies and discuss the requirements that each disability group might have for computers, and for other interactive products

Distributed paradigms

This unit looks at some of the architectural and programming paradigms used in distributed system development. You will learn about synchronous and asynchronous message passing, distributed objects technology and event-based bus architecture, before finally moving on to tuple architecture.

Models and modelling

Models are mechanisms for communication. This unit looks at what a model is and what the process of modelling is about. The techniques discussed here are applicable to a wide range of systems and have one thing in common: they are all commonly used diagramming techniques. The five techniques are: data flow diagrams, use case modelling, activity diagrams, entity–relationship diagrams and state machines.

Software development for enterprise systems

Enterprise systems are software applications that automate and integrate all many of the key business processes of an organisation. With some understanding of software development, you will learn about current development practices for this type of system and develop relevant skills to apply them to real-world problems. You will develop core skills in object-oriented analysis and design, allowing you to develop software that is fit for purpose, reusable and amenable to change.

An introduction to information security

Headline news scares about stolen or missing data are becoming a frequent occurrence as organisations rely more and more heavily on computers to store sensitive corporate and customer information. This unit discusses the importance of protecting information and gives an overview of information security management systems.

ICTs in everyday life

We now live in a global village where distance in no longer a barrier to commercial or social contact. This unit will enable you to gain an understanding of the information and communication technologies that drive our networked world and how they now permeate our everyday lives.

ICTs: information

BBC News 24, Sky News, CNN – we live in an era where news has become almost instantaneous. This unit will look at how news is gathered and the technology used for its dissemination. You will also be encouraged to examine how information might be manipulated by questioning its reliability.

Information on the web

ICTs: Technology news

To develop as an independent, confident learner you will need to learn the study skills involved in reading articles, taking notes and summarising the information that you have obtained from an article. The unit explores the use of the Web as a resource for keeping up to date, looking in particular at how to assess material available online.

ICTs: e-government

www……..gov.uk You can now access government directly through the web. E-government in action. While studying this unit you look at the scope of e-government, the databases that are necessary, the use of biometrics in identification and verification of identity and assess the usability and accessibility of websites.

Living with the Internet: online shopping

Online shopping – think of it as a shopping centre in cyberspace, with online auctions as the car-boot sale in the car park. This unit will help you understand how to use online shopping sites, how to ensure that you are using the best sites and the best ways to protect your security.

Information on the web

Living with the internet: keeping it safe

Computer crashes are often the result of viruses, worms or Trojans as unfortunately some internet users want to cause havoc or vandalise your computer. This unit provides a guide to the downsides of living with the Net. Advice on how to deal with these dangers is provided and security issues like spyware and adware are explained. The unit also deals with protecting children online, and provides links to various helpful websites which deal with the problems raised.

Designing the user interface: text, colour, images, moving images and sound

Why is the way something looks important? Text, colour, images, moving images and sound all interact to produce a user friendly environment within a user interface. This unit will help you understand the effect each software component has on the user and explain how a consistent and thoughtful application of these components can have a significant impact on the ‘look’ of final product.

Groups and teamwork

Are you always the quiet one when it comes to group discussion? This unit will help you improve your working relationships with other people in groups of three or more. This unit also deals with project life cycles, project management and the role of the leader.

using Git, bazaar, or ssh from within a completely firewalled environment

This course shows the user how to connect to git, bazaar, ssh, or any other number of programs that require connecting to a closed port. That is to say, it bypasses the port blocker (you must have at least port 80 and 443 open though)

Getting and installing a developer key

This course should help users obtain a developer key for their xos which can be used to 'unlock' the machine. This is required to install different images from the norm.

Using Sugar - for the non Developer

Documentation for using sugar, which contains links to all the online help sources and offers some lessons/activities.

Developing Sugar with jhbuild

Sugar Development using the jbhbuild procedure. This procedure is what is used by the actual sugar developers themselves.

Setting up a Sugar development environment

How to set up a sugar development environment in most distributions so you can either hack at the sugar code, or help create new activities for it

Making a Sugar activity

This tutorial explains how to creaet the hello world activity bundle. It should be the first step in making your own activities to be bundled for the Sugar platform. It is assumed you have read the Sugar developer's manual and you have a sugar development environment, ready for hacking with PyGT

Groups and teamwork copy 1

Beautifying / jazzing up the opensuse-edu desktop

The perfect openSUSE desktop

This tutorial shows how you can set up an OpenSUSE 11.1 education desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

Jazzing up your Ubuntu

This course will guide you through the steps of turning your ubuntu into a beautiful, all bells and whistles jazzed up computer experience. It will turn it from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan

Creating the perfect Ubuntu Desktop experience

This tutorial shows how you can set up an Ubuntu Karmic education desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

An introduction to sustainable energy

The search for sustainable energy will dominate the twenty-first century. This unit provides an introductory overview of the present energy systems and takes a brief look at where the world may find energy in the future – cleaner use of fossil fuels or renewable energy sources?

Icy bodies: Europa and elsewhere (astrobiology)

The new discipline of astrobiology – that is, the science of searching for extraterrestrial life – is not only rapdly growing, but has also captured the public imagination. This unit examines the emergence of icy satellites of distant planets as potential sites of extraterrestrial life. Focussing on the case study of Jupiter's moon Europa, the unit looks at the potential for life there, and speculates on the ethics of searching for life elsewhere in the solar system.

Electronics GCSE

This course provides all the material for the theory part of the GCSE exam.

The restless Universe (physics)

The restless Universe introduces you to major achievements and figures in the history of physics, from Copernicus to Einstein and beyond. The route from classical to quantum physics will be laid out for you without recourse to challenging mathematics but with the fundamental features of theories and discoveries described in sufficient detail to whet your appetite for further physics study.

Water for life (chemistry)

Atoms, elements and molecules are the building blocks of everything that makes up our world, including ourselves. In this unit you will learn the basic chemistry of how these components work together, starting with a chemical compound we are all very familiar with – water.

Earthquakes

Earthquakes shake the ground surface, can cause buildings to collapse, disrupt transport and services, and can cause fires. They can trigger landslides and tsunami – in short, earthquakes can be very destructive. In this unit you will look at why, where and what happens when they occur and also at how earthquakes are assessed qualitatively and quantitatively.

Geography: exploring definitions

This unit is aimed at geography teachers, or those with an interest in studying or teaching geography. This unit looks at the contribution that geography can make in the education of young people and the characteristics and purpose of geography as a subject.

High School geography: exploring a definition

This unit explores school geography, focusing upon how geography is currently being taught and understood. While studying this unit you will read about the significance of geography as a subject, looking at differing views as to exactly which disciplines make up geography. The unit also includes a lesson plan and a look at definitions of geography as a medium of education.

Algebra 1 - Exam Preparation

EXAM PREPARATION

Algebra 1

Diagrams, charts and graphs

Diagrams, charts and graphs are used by all sorts of people to express information in a visual way, whether it's in a report by a colleague or a plan from your interior designer. This unit will teach you how to interpret these tools and how to use them yourself to convey information more effectively.

Sound (also physics of sound)

By using the five strands (Queensland Science Syllabus), we can undertake an in-depth look at sound.

Creating musical sounds

How do different instruments produce the sounds we classify as music? How do we decide whether something – a piano, a vacuum cleaner – is actually a musical instrument? In this unit we investigate the way vibrations and sound waves are harnessed to create music.

Writing graduation thesis (EFL)

The purpose of this course is to help you write your graduation thesis in English. The teachers who administer this course will answer any questions you might have related to writing your thesis and give you advice as you write your thesis. However, they will not write you thesis for you. In addition, please remember that the answers to you questions will not appear instantaneously. If you need help and your paper is due the next day, we're sorry but it's too late. sad

Academic Words 1

This course is the first of several studying the "Academic Word List" words which are commonly used in academic texts in English.

Academic Words 2

This is the second course on the academic word list

Academic Words 4

The fourth sublist of the AWL

Exploring the English language

How has the English language changed over the course of the last 500 years? What are the social and political contexts that have affected how these changes have come about? This unit will consider the development of the English language from the 15th to the 19th century.

Science and Social Studies resources

Inservice on finding online Science and Social Studies resources specific for your grade level and the standards you teach. Once you take this inservice, you can come back in anytime and check out the resources again.

If you find a really great resource you want to share with other teachers, please post to the Sharing Database on the OSI Home Page. big grin

Psychology in the 21st century

Psychology is not a simple subject. This unit examines how different aspects of human behaviour provide the focus for different psychologists. Using learning as an example, you will discover how many different approaches can be adopted thus illustrating that there is no single way of answering psychological questions.

The Professional role of the teacher in England

This unit is an early study for people wishing to become a secondary teacher using the Open University's highly flexible route for graduates – known as the flexible PGCE. This unit, which considers the general professional standards and skills of a teacher whatever their secondary subject specialism, is studied following a brief two-week placement in school and prior to a much longer series of full-time school experiences.

Working with our environment - an introduction

Global warming: are we responsible? Is our environmental impact damaging the planet? This unit examines the use of ozone depleting technology, the impact of fossil fuel use and explores how the development of technology can influence the direction of a society. From the Industrial Revolution to the present day find out how we have changed the planet.

Forth Road Bridge

Scotland's Forth Road Bridge may not be the most beautiful bridge over the Firth of Forth, but it is an incredible feat of engineering and is integral to the economy of the entire area. However, rust is threatening to destroy the cables that suspend the road. This unit uses video to explore the issues associated with the potential demise of this great bridge.

Finding information in technology

The internet provides a world of information, but how do you find what you are looking for? This unit will help you discover the meaning of information quality and teach you how to evaluate the material you come across in your study of technology. You will learn how to plan your searches effectively and be able to experiment with some of the key resources in this area.

Assessing Design

This unit looks at the process of design – from assessing the complexity of design as an activity, to exposing the difficulty in making general conclusions about how designers work. You will be able to identify innovation in a wide variety of designed objects and evaluate the impact of this innovation.

Learning, thinking and doing

How do we learn? Understanding ‘how’ is the key to learning more effectively. This unit looks at the three main categories of theories: the acquisitive, constructivist and experiential models of learning. There is no right way to learn but developing an active approach will ensure that you are open to new ideas.

Why sustainable energy matters

Access to safe, clean and sustainable energy supplies is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity during the twenty-first century. This unit will survey the world’s present energy systems and their sustainability problems, together with some of the possible solutions to those problems and how these might emerge in practice.