software



=Instructional Software=

General Information K-12 Software Sources

Also see Freeware/Shareware/Open Source, Web 2.0,

GENERAL INFORMATION
Categories of Free and Non-Free Software http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/categories.html

Creative Ways to Use Software http://www.rcps.org/creativeways/right.htm

Snap Files [|http://www.snapfiles.com] This is “a download site that provides access to thousands of Windows software titles, that are either free to keep (freeware) or can be downloaded as a free trial (shareware). Each product is submitted by a software company or developer - a link to the developer's web site is included with every description. What this site does is review and rate the software, categorize it and make it available to users.”

Freeware http://freeware.intrastar.net/education.htm This site is copyrighted by Alan Sawicki. It lists a variety of software download links to a number of companies. Topics range from dictionaries to subjects such as math and geography.

Small Business Essentials http://www.smallbusinesscomputing.com/essentials/index.php/15471 “Special Report on Top Selling Software From Internet security and virus scanning to accounting and office productivity, learn which software titles are winning small-business users.”

SOLO (commercial) http://www.donjohnston.com/products/solo/ This is a "literacy suite of the most popular assistive technology accommodations, including a text reader, graphic organizer, talking word processor, and word prediction." (Co-Writer, Read Outloud, Write Outloud, Draft Builder)

Software Piracy http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/wp/crime-2002/piracy.htm This is part of the Educator's Guide to Computer Crime and Technology Misuse.

The Magic of Live CDs http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/live_cds “A “Live CD” is a bootable CD, which contains pre-configured software, this allows the user to be productive without accessing any other hard drives (unless the user wants to store information).”

K-12 SOFTWARE SOURCES
//Some of these sites offer online classroom activities, too.//

New Breed Software [|www.newbreedsoftware.com] “Parents and teachers can download open source games and activities including arcade and educational games for use in the classroom or at home."

Encarta http://encarta.msn.com/artcenter_/browse.html Access to some articles require a subscription.

Edmark [|www.riverdeep.net/edmark] “”At this popular site, visitors can download demos of popular software in the areas of math, science, critical thinking, language arts, and social studies for all age groups, plus links to free online activities.

Beacon Ridge [|www.beacon-ridge.com] “K-12 teachers will find free monthly class projects and curriculum aids on this website. It’s a good resource for teachers looking for themed projects."

Arts & Letters [|www.arts-letters.com] “Visitors can get a free download of Arts & Letters EXPRESS, which offers freehand drawing tools, clip art, templates and fonts for creating fundamental art. The program also includes advanced desktop publishing tools for creating increasingly sophisticated artwork."

Read Write and Think http://www.readwritethink.org/

ReadWriteThink Printing press http://interactives.mped.org/view_interactive.aspx?id=110&title

The Teacher’s Guide by Teacher Created Materials http://www.theteachersguide.com/ K 12 Open Source - Free and Open Source Software in K-12 Education http://blog.k12opensource.com/

SchoolForge – Education Software http://www.schoolforge.net/ “SchoolForge's mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for education. We advocate the use of open texts and lessons, open curricula, free software and open source in education.” The tools are available for Windows and Linux

Smart Kids Software http://www.smartkidssoftware.com/ Search for zillions of titles!