OpenOffice3

                    I’ve just started to use Open Office, the open source desktop publishing suite in a
                    primary / elementary school.
                    http://www.openoffice.org/

The curriculum platform of the school I work is Macintosh and while Microsoft Office is available for teacher and student use under a government school statewide licencing scheme, I still wanted to investigate alternative desktop publishing software that I could explicitly teach to students.

This was for two reasons,

Firstly I wanted an alternative so that any students that did not have access

to MS Office at home could use this alternative for free.

Secondly, I was looking for software that was easy to use for junior school students. Previously, I have used AppleWorks with these students, however, with Apple discontinuing the development of this software a few years ago I went searching. Apple’s Pages from the iWork Suite, while a very good alternative for MS Publisher, didn’t meet my requirements. However, my initial experiences with OpenOffice 3. [OSX Intel version] has been more than satisfactory. Its simple, clean looks and free!

So far I’ve used it to teach basic word processing skills to 7-8 year olds.
Here are some simple tutorials I have started to develop. http://ictedservices.typepad.com/icted_services/2009/04/teaching-openoffice-3-in-primary-elementary-school-classroom.html

What is computer software [A CommonCraft video] http://www.commoncraft.com/computer-software

Open Office Resources

Tutorials for Open Office 2 http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/

Installation http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/setup.html

Writer [ Word Processing] http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/wordprocessing.html

11 Chapters of Tutorials - 46 Lessons [ Introductory, Other Word Processing Programs, Styles, Graphics, Indexes, Address book, Labels, Envelopes and Form letters, Special Functions, Template, Master Document, Writing and Using Tutorials and Miscellaneous.]

Calc [Spreadsheets] http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/spreadsheet.html

2 Chapters of Tutorials, 11 lessons

Impress [Presentations] http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/presentation.html

6 Chapters, 16 lessons

Draw [Drawing] http://www.tutorialsforopenoffice.org/category_index/drawing.html

Atomic Learning Open Office 2 [A few free tutorials, most have to be purchased]

OpenOffice.org 2 - Newsletter Workshop http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/oo2_nwsltr

OpenOffice.org 2 Base - Intro http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/oo2base_intro

OpenOffice.org 2 Calc - Advanced http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/opoff2_calc_adv

OpenOffice.org 2 Calc - Intermediate http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/opoff2_calc_interm

OpenOffice.org 2 Calc - Intro http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/openoffice2_calc_intro

OpenOffice.org 2 Draw http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/opoff2_draw

OpenOffice.org 2 Impress - Advanced http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/opoff2_impress_adv

OpenOffice.org 2 Impress - Intro http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/opoff2_impress_intro

OpenOffice.org 2 Writer - Advanced http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/opoff2_writer_adv

OpenOffice.org 2 Writer - Intermediate http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/openoffice2_writer_interm

OpenOffice.org 2 Writer - Intro http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/openoffice2_writer