Essential Software for Students
July 18, 2006 by warrick
Was in a discussion yesterday as to what software should be on the student notebook computers for 2007; do they all need Adobe Photoshop Elements? Would it be good to put PIcasa on all computers? What about utilities that help them manage their computer, like back up software? Which version of Office? Is MS Publisher still useful? I keep my own list of software for my own purposes, but I thought I’d create a new page here about software that might form the core of a well equipped student notebook computer.
I’d welcome any comments or suggetions as to what’s worked in schools with students, such as ‘has anyone had success with Open Office?’ or other software for mind-mapping you’ve found compelling.
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2 Responses to “Essential Software for Students”
Have you had a look at CMaps (open source and free)? It is similar to Inspiration but without the library of images. I’ve used it a little bit and quite like the way it presents mind mapping information. Another freeware mindmapping download is FreeMind which I don’t know as much about. As far as OpenOffice goes, I’ve used the Writer (Word equivalent) and Presenter (Powerpoint equivalent) and they were just as good as the Microsoft equivalent – 90% of the features in Office is just bloatware that students and teachers barely touch IMHO.
Thanks for the suggestion Graham: I’ll check it out. Sory about the delay in getting that comment online.