IT@School GNU/Linux is a single CD customised GNU/Linux distribution
containing the typical software tools required by an high school
student or teacher. Apart from a host of typical desktop applications
it also contains various educational applications like TuxPaint,
Ghemical, Kalzium, DrGeo, Gcompris etc.
The CD was developed by IT@School Project in association with
SPACE (http://www.space-kerala.org).
Free Software is a category of software which can be used,
copied, studied and modified and redistributed by the user. The
meaning of the word `free' in free software is similar to its meaning
in free speech, free people and free country and should not be
confused with its other meaning associated with zero-cost. Therefore,
in Indian languages, it is appropriate to call it Swatantra
Software. In this document, we shall call it simply Free Software.
Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy,
distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it
refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:
- The freedom to run the program, for any purpose
- The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your
needs.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbour
- The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements
to the public, so that the whole community benefits
A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus,
users should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without
modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to
anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other
things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.
This section assumes you have a system with IT@School GNU/Linux already
installed. If not please read section Installing School GNU/Linux.
All programmes mentiond here can be accessed through the
Applications menu. You can also open a program using
Run Application. Alt-F2 is the
keyboard shortcut to Run. You can type the name of
application (use small letters) you want to run and press Enter key to open that
application
- Gedit
- Gedit is a lightweight text editor for the GNOME desktop found in
many distributions of GNU/Linux, BSD and other Unix systems. Designed
for the X Window System, it uses the GTK+ and GNOME libraries. gedit
supports most standard editing features, and has a powerful plugin
system for adding even more.
- Gcompris
- GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous
activities for children. Some of the activities are
game orientated, but nonetheless still educational. Currently
GCompris offers in excess of 80 activities and more are being
developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt
it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it
with children everywhere.
- Tuxpaint
- Tux Paint is a free drawing program designed for young children
(kids ages 3 and up). It has a simple, easy-to-use interface, fun
sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who helps guide
children as they use the program. It
provides a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help your
child be creative.
- Kalzium
- Kalzium is an application which will show you some information
about the periodic system of the elements. Therefore you could use it
as an information database.
- Qalculate
- Qalculate! is a multi-purpose desktop calculator for GNU/Linux. It
is small and simple to use but with much power and versatility
underneath. Features include customizable functions, units, arbitrary
precision, plotting, and a user-friendly interface.
- Wordnet
- WordNet is an online
lexical reference system whose design is inspired by current
psycholinguistic theories of human lexical memory. English nouns,
verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into synonym sets, each
representing one underlying lexical concept. Different relations link
the synonym sets.
- SunClock
- Fancy clock showing time and geographical data sunclock is an X11
application that displays a map of the Earth and indicates the
illuminated portion of the globe by drawing sunlit areas dark on
light, night areas as light on dark. In addition to providing local
time for the default timezone, it also displays GMT time, legal and
solar time of major cities, their latitude and longitude, and the
mutual distances of arbitrary locations on Earth. Sunclock can display
meridians, parallels, tropics and arctic circles. It has builtin
functions that accelerate the speed of time and show the evolution of
seasons.
- DrGeo
- Dr. Geo is a GTK interactive geometry software. It allows one to
create geometric figure plus the interactive manipulation of such
figure in respect with their geometric constraints. It is usable in
teaching situation with students from primary or secondary level.
- Gimp
- GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program.It is a
freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo
retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many
operating systems, in many languages.
- Inkscape
- Inkscape is an SVG-based graphics editor featuring alpha
blending, node editing, SVG to PNG export, and more. Its goal is for
features similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, Visio, etc.
- Blender
- Blender is the in-house software of a high quality animation
studio, Blender has proven to be an extremely fast and versatile design
instrument. The software has a personal touch, offering a unique
approach to the world of Three Dimensions. It is used to make technical
visualizations, business graphics, to do some morphing, or design user
interfaces. One can easy build and manage complex environments. The
renderer is versatile and extremely fast. All basic animation
principles (curves & keys) are well implemented.
- Xsane
- Xscane provides a graphical user-interface to control an image
acquisition device such as a flatbed scanner or a camera. It allows
previewing and scanning invidual images and can be invoked either
directly from the command-line or through The GIMP image manipulation
program.
- Mozilla-Firefox/Iceweasel
- Firefox is a light weight browser based on Mozilla.It is a fast,
full-featured browser that makes browsing more efficient than ever
before. The version contained in IT@School GNU/Linux already comes with
malayalam unicode support. To view non-unicode malayalam websites, all
you need to do is to install a firefox plugin called padma from
mozilla's website. Mozilla Firefox has the capability importing
settings/bookmarks/cookies etc. from other browsers.
- Gaim
- Gaim is a GTK2-based instant messenger application. It supports
multiple protocols via modules, including AIM, ICQ, Yahoo!, MSN,
Jabber, IRC, Napster, Gadu-Gadu and Zephyr.
- Evolution
- Evolution is the GNOME mailer, calendar, contact manager, and
communications tool. Evolution represents the next step forward in
GNOME applications. The tools which make up Evolution will be tightly
integrated with one another and act as a seamless personal
information-management tool.
OpenOffice.org version 2 is an open, feature-rich multi-platform office
productivity suite. The user interface and the functionality is very
similar to other products in the market like Microsoft Office or Lotus
SmartSuite, but compared to these commercial products OpenOffice.org is
absolutely free. One can publish your work in Portable Document Format
(.pdf), and release your graphics in Flash (.swf) format - without the
need for any additional software.
- Writer
- The OpenOffice Writer is a powerful tool for creating
professional documents, reports, newsletters, and brochures. One can
easily integrate images and charts in documents, create everything from
business letters to complete books with professional layouts, as well
as create and publish Web content.
- Calc
- The Calc is a feature-packed spreadsheet which can turn boring
numbers into eye-catching information. Calculate, analyse, and visually
communicate your data quickly and easily. Use advanced spreadsheet
functions and decision-making tools to perform sophisticated data
analysis. Use built-in charting tools to generate impressive 2D and 3D
charts.
- Impress
- Impress is the fastest, most powerful way to create effective
multimedia presentations. Presentations will truly stand out with
special effects, animation and high-impact drawing tools.
- Draw
- OpenOffice DRAW gives you the tools to communicate with graphics
and diagrams. It will produce everything from simple diagrams to
dynamic 3D illustrations and special effects.
- Python
- Python is a easy to learn, powerful programming language.It has
efficent high-level data structure and a simple but effective approach
to object-oriented programming.It's elegant syntax and dynamic typing
together with it's interpreted nature, make it as ideal language for
scripting and rapid application development in many areas on most
platforms.
- kthesaurus
- This is an easy to use thesaurus and lexical database.
- Eye Of Gnome
- The Eye Of Gnome is a GNOME image browser, as well as an image
cataloging program, and is part of GNOME Office.It is the default image
viewer for the Gnome Desktop.Eye of Gnome can make use of EXIF
information, stored in digital camera images.
- evince
- evince provides a user interface for the ghostscript PostScript(TM)
interpreter. Derived from the ghostview program, evince can display
PostScript and PDF documents using the X Window System.
Installing IT@School GNU/Linux
A step by step installation guide is distributed in hard-copy along
with this CD-ROM. It is also available in directory
'doc' in the CD.
The IT @ School Project, has remodeled
convectional teaching methodologies in classrooms through use of
Information Technology. The project, in its first stage, is being
implemented in 2,738 High Schools in the State, Mahe in Pondicherry,
Lakshwadeep and the Gulf. Over 40,000 teachers were given 90 hours of
training on IT skills. Computer labs with 10 to 60 computers are
available in all High Schools. DLP projection-enabled classrooms are
present in nearly 400 High Schools, thanks to the support of Local
Self-Governments and Parent Teacher Associations, the major partners
in the project. IT @ School Project is unique in that it is the
schoolteacher than the techie who delivers theory classes in
classrooms and handles practicals in labs. IT @ SCHOOL is a project
under the Directorate of Public Instruction of the Government of
Kerala, which introduces Information Technology in High School
Education for qualitative improvement of the conventional teaching /
learning system. The project is implemented by a three tier system of
administrators.
SPACE is a registered society that has members from academia, the IT industry, professional societies such as IEEE and Computer Society of India, and the IT Administration of the Government of Kerala. The vision of SPACE is to promote the use of Free, Libré and Open Source Software (FLOSS) in academics, governance, corporate and individual use, and to support the use FLOSS for employment generation in Kerala.
The VME model promoted by SPACE envisages a decentralized and distributed mode of IT development where local employment, particularly using FLOSS, is promoted and facilitated. SPACE intends to promote more VMEs that can take up different services in Kerala, especially in smaller towns and rural areas.
The primary thrust are of the intervention are: