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Low Cost Technology for Your Classroom
Refurbished Computers and Freeware Operating Systems
by Mary Zimmerle

In addition to having too few computers, many schools and classrooms find it difficult to keep up with software upgrades due to the expense of programs such as Microsoft Windows and its various additions such as Office. The magnitude of both of these problems can be alleviated through computer refurbishing/recycling programs in which older computers are refurbished, and through the usage of freeware operating systems.

There are a variety of computer recycling programs that refurbish computers from businesses and homes and donate them or sell them at a reduced price to schools. See Faith Goldstein’s article in Wired for Service Volume 2, Issue 6 and Jon Zemanek’s article in Wired for Service Volume 2, Issue 7 for details on two such programs in Philadelphia. Setting these computers up with up-to-date versions of Microsoft software can often be expensive, and pirated copies are illegal and problematic. With this in mind, it may be beneficial to your school and your students to adopt a freeware operating system such as Linux.

Freeware is software with open-source code, meaning that the software is free and the code can be accessed and changed by anyone who would like to improve upon it. As daunting as this might sound, Linux is actually a fairly simple operating system to use and has most if not all of the capabilities of Microsoft systems. You may want to contact a university or college near your school to find a computer science student to help you out with the implementation of the system. Learning how to use Linux is also fairly easy. Linux offers an online guide and class that teaches the beginner how to use the system. Check out http://www.linux.org/lessons/ for these free Linux lessons. Please also read Greg Dean's article "The State of Linux: Thought on its Use" in this issue for a more detailed discussion about Linux systems.

There are also plenty of other freeware and shareware programs available for classroom teaching, such as math and English games, foreign language aids and typing tutors. Try these links to download educational programs for free:

Educational Freeware
http://www.theteacherspot.com/educational_freeware.html

Family Games
http://familygames.com/free/educate.html

It’s Free 4 U
http://www.itsfree4u.com/ed.shtml