Laptop Tax Deductions

There seems to be quite a number of families purchasing laptops to take advantage of the education related tax deductions.

When it comes to the software to put on these laptops, there is a range of very very good free software that is available which will help in keeping costs down. We have a range of this free software installed on all of our computers at school which means that the students work will be compatible with our systems. Here is a list with the website where you can get more information and download it from


Open Office
An excellent office package with word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool (powerpoint) and graphics editing. It will read and write Microsoft Office files
http://www.openoffice.org/

GIMP
Photoshop like program – powerful graphics editing
http://www.gimp.org/

Paint.Net
Excellent general purpose graphics editing
http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

Photofiltre
Excellent general purpose graphics editing
http://photofiltre.free.fr/download_en.htm

Irfanview
Great graphics tool for tasks like resizing or converting lots of images at once
http://www.irfanview.com/

Inkscape
A powerful vector graphics tool lilke Adobe Illustrator
http://www.inkscape.org/

Blender
3D Graphics and animation – complex
http://www.blender.org/

Google Sketchup
Powerful and simple to use 3D Graphics
http://sketchup.google.com/

Audacity
Recording and editing sound for music or orals etc
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Kompozer
For making websites like Frontpage
http://kompozer.net/

Mozilla Firefox
Web browser
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

Mozilla Thunderbird
Email client
http://www.mozillamessaging.com/en-US/thunderbird/

Scratch
A fantastic multimedia programming language.
http://scratch.mit.edu



Well, we also have the steak knives because the DECS license for McAfee antivirus allows us to give students this antivirus software from school to install on their laptops and home computers. It is available on our CD’s drive (t:\mcafee\McafeeHomeUse.exe).

This software is allowed to be installed on home computers that students are using and we will be insisting that it is installed on any laptop that is used at school and accessing our network.

Student Laptops can be brought to Clinton or myself for setting up for use on our network so that they can access the internet at school, print and also use drives H: and S:

We hope that this helps and if you need more information please contact me at the school or via email – ruwoldtp@granths.sa.edu.au

New enrolments to Grant get CD

We have, for a number of years now, provided every new student to the school with a CD bundled full of free software that can be installed on home computers and shared with family and friends freely. The software is also installed on all of the computers in the school.

Our vision is for students to be able to freely continue with their learning outside of the school setting.

The software on the CD includes an office package, graphics packages, web development tools, sound editing, as well a various other utilities.

For those who would like to learn about these free software options, the following links may be of use

• The Open Education Disc
• Software Freedom

Inaugural Mount Gambier Software Freedom Day a great success

The inaugural Mount Gambier Software Freedom Day event held at Grant High School was one of 331 team events from more than 90 countries across the globe. This is a significant increase from 2006 with over 200 teams registered in that year. This year there were 27 teams from Australia and New Zealand with five of those teams coming from South Australia.

Software Freedom Day (SFD) is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). The goal in this celebration is to educate the worldwide public about the benefits of using high quality FOSS in education, in government, at home, and in business.

Free open source software is available at no cost and can be modified and customised because the original human readable program code is available for use.

The Mount Gambier team comprised staff and students of Grant High School, Penola High School, local businesses including SECNET and Green Triangle Workplace Training, as well as Linux SA.

Peter Ruwoldt, SFD event coordinator and ICT Coordinator of Grant High School said “I couldn't be happier with the way that the event panned out. It was a great opportunity to show our local community how free open source software can contribute to our students being able to continue with their learning outside of school without financial burden or feeling the need to pirate software.”

Robert Farrar and Mike Lampard in a joint statement said “We are extremely happy with the turnout on the day, it was higher than expected and showed that the people of Mt Gambier & the surrounding areas are committed to learning and implementing Free and Open Source Software in their homes and businesses. We are impressed that our local teachers are so enthusiastic about these free alternatives, which are the equal of any commercial applications.”

The organising group intends to collaborate on future events. SFD is held in September each year.

Photo: Elke Unger of Green Triangle Workplace Training demonstrates free open source software

Inkscape

This is the third of a series or articles featuring Free Open Source Software. This is business class software that is free. Grant High School gives copies of this software to all students when they enrol at the school so that students can continue with their learning at home without cost and without pirating.

Inkscape is the tool to use for diagrams and drawing.

Image Source

Inkscape is an Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Adobe Illustrator, Freehand and CorelDraw.

Inkscape is a powerful and convenient drawing tool. It was used to make the Grant High School improvement plan poster.

More information about Inkscape can be found at

http://www.inkscape.org

Audacity

This is the second of a series or articles featuring Free Open Source Software. This is business class software that is free. Grant High School gives copies of this software to all students when they enrol at the school so that students can continue with their learning at home without cost and without pirating.

Got an oral to do for one of your subjects? Need to create some special sound effects? Audacity is the tool to use.
Image source

Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac, Windows and Linux. You can use Audacity to do things like:

• Record live audio.
• Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
• Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, and WAV sound files.
• Cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together.
• Change the speed or pitch of a recording.

There is good documentation and a strong online user community that can support you with using this software

More information about Audacity and to download it go to
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Open Office for free

This is the first of a series or articles featuring Free Open Source Software. This is business class software that is free. Grant High School gives copies of this software to all students when they enrol at the school so that students can continue with their learning at home without cost and without pirating.

Open Office is a great office package similar to Microsoft Office. It has a word processor, spreadsheet, database, presentation and graphics program built into it. It is able to use the normal Microsoft Office files. This means that it can load and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files.

There is good documentation and a strong online user community that can support you with using this software.

The drawing package is particularly good for making diagrams. When you join two objects with a line you can move the objects around and the line stays connected.

You can find more about Open Office and even download it at the Open Office website http://www.openoffice.org/