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Textbooks are too expensive, so Italian high school tries to produce them in house
Every year italian families must spend hundreds of Euros in textbooks for every child, while the cost limits set by the government are regularly violated in spite of denounces and warnings from consumer associations.
A little known but very powerful tool for homeschooling: Free Software
Free Software is widely used in education due to its lower cost and huge flexibility. Homeschooling is relatively popular in the USA and other countries. One would expect Free Software to be very popular among homeschoolers, due to their own philosophy: how could an homeschooling advocate not love software that is all about being “free as in freedom” and doing things by yourself? Reality, however is quite different: compared to Windows and Mac, Free Software is still almost unknown in the homeschooling community.
OOo4Kids, the office suite for all children... and their parents
OOo4Kids is a special version of OpenOffice.org (the popular, free and easy to use alternative to Microsoft Office) which is very interesting and useful not only for schools, but also for many adult users. Besides, interaction with developers seems much simpler and friendlier than in many other Free Software projects. Keep reading to know, straight from OOo4Kids developer Eric Bachard, what is that makes OOo4kids unique.
INGOTs: a software certification that rewards children helping other people
The International Grades in Office Technology (INGOTs) is a system for certifying IT capability. This article explains what is unique in the INGOTs, their current status and how to join the program, through an interview with INGOTs founder Ian Lynch.
Computers in the classroom: how JumPC helped teachers and pupils without turning the system upside down
Last year every child of the fifth class, A section of Don Milani School in Rivoli, Piedmont got an individual laptop computer, equipped with educational software for primary school and a custom, simplified user interface (fifth class in Italy hosts 10 years old children). The computers, called JumPC, were assigned to be used for normal schoolwork and homework, in class and at home, throughout the whole year. The same experiment was carried on for shorter periods also in the third classes (section A and B) of Borgofranco di Ivrea and in class forth, section C in Novi Ligure.