Free Computer Software

Read about free software that would be helpful for students and teachers from the 2 Peas and Dog blog.

Do your students ever tell you they cannot type up a good copy of an assignment because they don’t have a word processing assignment?

I used to get it all the time, until I found a free word processing, spreadsheet, drawing, and presentation making program at http://www.openoffice.org/ This program allows the format to be saved as a Microsoft Office format to make it more easily accessible on various computers.

Now the first assignment I give, I also introduce students to Open Office a free open source computer program. Last year our Grade 8 students used Open Office Draw to create their Graduation Yearbook. It looked great, like they used professional software.

Here is a reminder about another GREAT open source program called GIMP. GIMP is short for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is free open source software that can be used for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. I have used GIMP to create blog buttons, re-size photos and edit images.

What computer or web based programs do your students love to use? Let me know in the comments below.