Recommendations in Free Software *for Students* particularly of language?

Recommendations in Free Software *for Students* particularly of language?

by Timothy Takemoto -
Number of replies: 2

My system administrators have asked what free software to install on the university system.  Other than Firefox, OpenOffice.org what free software do moodlers recommend that I provide for my (non techno-friendly) students to use?

Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
is great for teachers but a bit difficult for students. So I think I will recommend
Wavepad http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

Skype: Free Telephony software that just works
http://www.skype.com/

Eyeball Chat: Recommended by Martin, I believe.
http://www.eyeball.com/products/eyeballchat.html

Painting software. I fing the GIMP hard to use, so...
Paint.net http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/paint.net/

I really like MWsnap but I am not sure I want the students to have it (bang goes the effect of the recent javascript). Is there anyway to get Moodle to sense if this is running? Or perhaps I can persuade the developer to make a Moodle sensing version.
http://www.webattack.com/get/mwsnap.shtml

WinSCP is a bit difficult for students but great software (Thanks Paul Evans):
http://winscp.sourceforge.net/eng/index.php
Even SmartFTP is a bit difficult:
http://www.smartftp.com/
So I may end up recommending the Japanese FTP software, which also has an English version:
http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/~sota/ffftp-e.html

VTrain is a great flash card program but we have the lesson module, and I don't think that my students would use it unless they are marked.  
http://www.paul-raedle.de/vtrain/home.htm

Sakura Editor would be useful if I want students to make some quizzes for moodle in Japanese, since it is a Japanese editor that can save in various formats (SJIS, EUC-JP and UTF-8).
http://sakura-editor.sourceforge.net/

The Flickr Uploadr. I am a big fan of flickr. I wish it were possible to edit labels in Moodle like the way one edits photo titles in Flickr. Superb.
http://www.flickr.com/tools/

Moodle (plus EASYPHP perhaps) is a definate possibility, since it is the best software on the planet...

Anything else? For students?

Timothy







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In reply to Timothy Takemoto

Re: Recommendations in Free Software *for Students* particularly of language?

by David Scotson -

Sorry to go off on a tangent but you say:

VTrain is a great flash card program but we have the lesson module

I looked at a range of these flash card trainers a while ago and was impressed with their use of algorithms based on cognitive research to enable efficient rote memorisation.

My main problem with them was there seemed to be limited availability of relevant material (language vocabulary, science facts etc.) and entering it for your own use seemed a ridiculously high investment of time.

Does the Lesson module in Moodle include some clever algorithm for when a flashcard is redisplayed, based on time since last viewing and whether it was correctly identified previously?

And is there any attempt to collaboratively create and distribute the content for these flashcard lessons through Moodle.org?

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In reply to David Scotson

Re: Recommendations in Free Software *for Students* particularly of language?

by Michael Penney -
Does the Lesson module in Moodle include some clever algorithm for when a flashcard is redisplayed, based on time since last viewing and whether it was correctly identified previously?

Nope, but we'll write it in if you can find the fundssmile. In 'flashcard' mode, lesson just shows you a random sampling of questions, then re-displays ones you didn't get right the first time. Of course you can set it so the student can do it multiple times (and with the clustering code, each time can be somewhat different), and grade on a high score or an average to encourage multiple tries.

Lesson imports questions in a variety of formats, so lesson questions can be traded in text files, or you can trade backup/restore zips.
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