Pedagogical Bundle Lets You Pay What You Want For Educational Software

First time accepted submitter rycks writes "Following on the success of the various Humble Bundles for DRM-free video games and eBooks, there is now a pedagogical offer. It includes Mulot for mouse training, Fubuki the brain breaker with mathematical problems, Mental Calculation to learn and train with mathematical tables, Raconte-moi to share voice over pictures stories, and a package with drawings to paint on. The software is GPL'd, without DRM :) As with the Humble Bundles, you can choose how much you'd like to pay, and how the proceeds are split between any of the authors and others."

not the first, but the only post that matters

[Anonymous Coward]

slashvertise much?

Re:not the first, but the only post that matters

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

slashvertise much?

Yes, that's the first thing I thought, especially when the OP used a smiley in a sentence that's neither funny not ironic (The software is GPL'd, without DRM :)) Random smileys like that are a sure sign of the author trying to plug something and being slightly ashamed of doing it.

Sigh

[ledow]

And like all "educational" bundles, the actual educational value is near zero.

Colouring books, "mouse training" (because my 4-year-old has such trouble using a mouse, and it's not like she picked it up in seconds after being told to keep it on the desk), and then jump to mental arithmetic and sudoku-like games.

There are a million colouring book apps. There aren't a million mouse training apps because they will pick it up faster than you'll ever know and be more accurate and fast that you ever will (hell, even grannies get the hang of the mouse in the first ten minutes). There are a million sudoku-like games and, ignoring the jump in mental age required, their value in mathematically or even logical skills is virtually zero (either that, or they become impossible for younger kids to solve).

The only thing of use is the "make a presentation" thing but that's hardly educational or pedagogical.

I hate to advertise their products but have you SEEN proper educational software? 2Simple, RM Maths (Yeurch for the company, yay for THAT ONE PIECE of software), Sherston, etc. It's miles ahead of anything that you'll find even in GCompris or the Tux bundles of software.

Literally, the best open-source piece of educational software is TuxPaint, and that's a dire warning for the state of open-source or even free educational software. I, and the schools I work in, would give their right arms for a decent, rounded, consistent, graded piece of educational software with a decent learning curve, data recording, coverage of multiple subjects (not just basic arithmetic and colouring in).

Not being funny, but I've *written* better pieces of software for schools (within the past year even) - it's only the fact that they own the code, and that they are all similar things (e.g. times tables, etc.) that stops me sharing them. Their educational value is minimal. But we still pay thousands for site licenses for software made by BBC educational subsidiaries nearly 25 years ago.

Re:Sigh

[Moochman]

By supporting this bundle you are supporting open-source educational software and the project (AbulEdu) that is making the development of this software possible. If you don't feel like these particular programs are worth your money fine, but at least the idea is a noble one. Instead of complaining about the state of things and bragging about how you could do things better, why not try to get involved in one of these projects and actually make a difference that has the potential to benefit students around the world?

Disclaimer: I don't work for the company or have anything to do with this project; I just found out about it via this news item. Just my 2c.

Re:Sigh

[ledow]

By supporting this bundle, I'm supporting people who apparently don't work in education to replicate well-catered-for sections of "educational software" (stretched to the largest definition), and encouraging them to produce more of the same.

Or I can just not, and do what I'm already doing, which is working for schools and writing not only similar educational software, but better stuff too (and hearing left, right and centre that the "educational software" on the mass market - e.g. app stores, etc. is a complete waste of time and money and the staff would rather keep their 20+ year old software running because it does the job better than any of the modern rubbish).

The problem is not the idea - it's the execution, and falls into the same trap that EVERYONE falls into: Education is simple and we can just knock something up that looks good and schools / parents will use it and do something positive for their kids with it.

I deal with it every day for everything from business computer equipment suppliers (who don't understand that we need things locked down and durable, not bog-standard office supplies) to pushy parents ("Why can't we just use iTunes on all the PC's?") to software companies trying to "break into" the market (e.g. "We've made a wonderful piece of whiteboard software that does X, Y and Z, none of which you'd ever use in a classroom environment but we think they look cool when giving an exhibition at BETT so they must be helping the kids get better" - the fact you can't network it, can't run without admin permissions, can't save to network shares, can't stop it trying to go on the Internet (sometimes using Internet Explorer no matter what settings you have), we don't have a site licence, and you have to upgrade Flash twice a day or it just bums out, etc. are overlooked and are apparently "coming soon").