Sunday, February 28, 2016

Meeting students/teachers online


Notwithstanding all the notes, presentations, written tutorials etc. students or teachers might prefer an online personal meeting in order to understand each other better. It seems that students would prefer some quality time with their teacher. Technology helps to bring the student and teacher closer to each other. They need something simple to use, no need to configure something or spend hours in order to get it working.

Today we are focusing on an open source and free browser – Firefox, which obviously works in all operating systems. It is hello which can be used for online communications. One can share the desktop (or what the student has on his/her screen), with his/her teacher in order to make it easier for the teacher to understand what problem or challenge the student is facing! It saves both the student and the teacher a lot of time. It could be used between students when discussing a project etc...

 





Sunday, February 14, 2016

Mnemosyne - Flash card tool for studying


Exams time calls for a good memory. Students need to revise quite a lot of material. Is there any program which could serve as a companion in order to help them remember what they’ve learned? 
 
Yes there is and it’s available for Android, Windows, Mac or Linux users! It’s free and open source so there aren’t any financial constraints in order to achieve a copy of the program. The name comes from the Greek’s goddess for memory – mnemosyne.

It’s a free flash-card tool which optimizes your learning process. So you put your information (which you need to remember for your exam) on a sort of a card (digital one). Now you can practise by reading the question and trying to answer it.

What makes this program a great studying too is that difficult cards that you tend to forget quickly will be scheduled more often, while Mnemosyne won’t waste your time on things you remember well. So actually the coming up of cards can vary from student to student (according to a memory exercise).

One can make use of a picture or other languages (example Arabic) so as to make studying easier. To download the program one can go here. On the same page, one can find any kind of help and/or documentation.



Monday, February 8, 2016

Students learn how to manage money






Students learn not only through 'normal' lessons but especially through daily experience. One of them is how to keep track of the money saved, spent, invested etc...Most students struggle in order to appreciate the value of money, or to learn how to spend money wisely.

GnuCash is personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL and available for GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.

This open source program could be an invaluable tool, together with other measures, to give students an impressive lesson on how to manage money.

Designed to be easy to use, yet powerful and flexible, GnuCash allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.

If you wish to download the program, go here. Looking for someone to contact about GnuCash? Try the Mailing Lists, which are public, email-based discussion groups where you can ask and answer GnuCash questions to other users.