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<title>TUX&GNU@school - 1st edition</title>
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<h1>TUX&GNU@school - 1st edition</h1>
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<p><i>This is the first of approximately 3 editions of the
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column "TUX&GNU@school". I will report every month about
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a piece of free education software, a website on the topic
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and an idea for an useful program for school purposes. This
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month I talk about <a href="http://edu.kde.org/ktouch">KTouch
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[1]</a>, a KDE program for learning touch writing, <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org">edu.kde.org [2]</a>, the homepage
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of the KDE edutainment project and the idea
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"multiplication-table worksheets generated easily".</i></p>
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<p>After servers, GNU/Linux and Free Software in general
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conquer more and more desktops too. Till recently, they
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lacked of two important software scopes to exist on the
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desktop: On the one hand these are first class computer games
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and on the other hand this is education software.
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Approximately half a year ago two colleaques and me founded
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the <a href="http://www.edux.ch">ALIS - Arbeitsgruppe Linux
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an Schulen (Swiss work group for linux at school) [3]</a>
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whose goal it is helping schools using GNU/Linux and Free
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Software and help them with words and deeds. In this context
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I became concious that almost nobody reported about free
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education software and so, as a big fan of the <a
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href="http://www.brave-gnu-world.org">Brave GNU World
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[4]</a>, from now on I want to report about free software and
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GNU/Linux at and for schools monthly (at the moment for the
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next three month til July). Depending on what's the feedback
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and appeal I will pursue after July. With this in mind every
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kind of feedback, criticism, questions and more are gladly <a
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href="mailto:foxman@lugo.ch">read [5]</a>.</p>
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<p>But now let's continue with the first piece of free
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education software.</p>
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<h3>KTouch - Touch typing learned easily</h3>
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<p>KTouch is a program for KDE which helps learning touch
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writing. It's already available in version 1.0 and was lately
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continued with KDEedu incorporated in <a
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href="http://www.kde.org">KDE 3.0 [6]</a>. I tested it under
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Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 (testing) with KDE 2.2 and XFree86
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4.1.0.</p>
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<p>Essentially the interface of KTouch is divided into four
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sections (see screenshot 1). Upmost there is the menu bar
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located listing the following items: <i>File</i>,
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<i>Option</i> <i>Settings</i> and <i>Help</i>. Right under it
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there is the status bar showing from left to right, on which
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level you practise, how many strokes a minute you make, how
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much percent of the already entered words or letters were
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correct, which new letters are introduced in the current
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level and quite right there is an break button disconnecting
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the lesson. Beneath it goes on with the doublespaced bar
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showing the to typing text in the first and the typed text in
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the second row. When you make a mistake the second row
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changes color into red and you see instantly that you have to
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erase some characters. In the last and largest sections the
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keyboard is drawn. This is fairly colored, large and clear.
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Scaling the program window up the layout is adapting itself
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optimally to the size of the window.</p>
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<p><img src="./img/ktouch.en.png"
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alt="Screenshot 1: KTouch in action" width="800" height="600"
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border="0" /><br />
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</p>
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<h5>Screenshot 1: KTouch in action</h5>
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<br />
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<br />
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Under <i>File->Open</i> it is easily possible to start
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lessons for other languages and keyboards. Already available
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are lessons for the languages: German, English, French and
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Norwegian plus a lesson for the numbers block (see screenshot
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2). By the way it is very easy to write new lessons, these
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are saved in simple text files of course. For this purpose
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there is an own chapter in the documentation explaining how
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to do it. Furthermore you can set different keyboard layouts
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under <i>Option->Keyboard</i> of course. These are saved
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only in text files as well and it is relatively easy possible
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to add new one. General settings as the font style, color or
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sound are adjustable under <i>Option->General</i>. Some
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further settings for the exercise course respectively the
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level are manageable under <i>Option->Training</i>. <br />
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<br />
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<p><img src="./img/ktouch-numbers.en.png"
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alt="Screenshot 2: The number block" width="800" height="600"
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border="0" /><br />
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</p>
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<h5>Screenshot 2: The number block</h5>
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<br />
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<br />
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<p>It's very simple to learn typewriting with this program
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first of all because the keys for each finger are marked with
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the same color. All that keys you have to push right now are
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also marked. But what I still missing is a description for
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each lesson guiding one and give one a short introduction for
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each new key and finger. In the interview, published perhaps
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one week ago, the author of KTouch says that this should be
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one of the next items he want to implement. Incidentally the
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interview arose in context with the choice to the <a
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href="http://www.kde.de/appmonth/2002/ktouch/index-script.php">
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"Anwendung des Monat" (Application of the month)</a> on <a
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href="http://www.kde.de">KDE.de [8]</a>, the German portal of
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KDE. Beyond stays to say that the next version, released with
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KDE 3.0, has already a statistic function making it possible
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to regard more on the own results with the lessons.</p>
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<p>But now continues to the home of KTouch.</p>
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<h3>edu.kde.org - The KDE Edutainment project</h3>
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<p>The KDE Edutainment project is the gate to the world of
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the KDE education software. Since version 3.0 of the K
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Desktop Environment KDEedu is one of its standard packages.
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The homepage enqueues itself seamlessly in the bank of
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<KDE-theme>.kde.org sites. It is build very clear with
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a navigation bar at the left side dividing the whole, namely
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<i>Learn</i>, <i>Software</i>, <i>Contributed Resources</i>,
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<i>Develop</i> and <i>Contact</i> in 5 sections The page is
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at the moment available in English only. You will be
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explained right on the front page KDEedu want to develop free
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education software for kids and teenagers between 3 and 18
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(and older) which is integrated in KDE optimally. Underneath
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there are listed the news, mostly a link to the monthly
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released newsletter which reports about how the project and
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the single programs are evolving.</p>
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<p>In the second part, <i>Learn</i>, you principally find
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information about KDE education software and how you generate
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it most suitable and in the best way. In a second item
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suggestions are published giving programmers a first idea for
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a new piece of education software. Following hereon the
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already existing KDE education programs are introduced with a
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short description and a small screenshot. Then they list
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links to known and related sites on the topic and a todo
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section which informs what's not yet done. But this section
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is no longer up to date because they implemented already some
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of the items. The last item contains links to the newsletters
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you can subscribe to right there.</p>
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<p>The second item divides the software into categories. And
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these are <i>Astronomy</i>, <i>Chemistry</i>,
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<i>Languages</i>, <i>Mathematics</i>, <i>Miscellaneous</i>
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and <i>Plannig</i>. <i>Astronomy</i> contains the very
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extensive program <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kstars">KStars</a> which shows the
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nightly starry sky with some 10'000 objects and gives
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additional information too. The application <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kalzium">Kalzium</a> belongs to
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<i>Chemistry</i> offering an informative and clear
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presentation of the Periodic Table of the Elements. <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/khangman">KHangMan</a> and <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kmessedwords">KMessedWords</a> are
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two games which let children learn new words playfully. At
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the moment in the section <i>Languages</i> are still a lot of
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programs occupying with a specific language or helping you to
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learn expressions from another language. Here the tendency
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goes partly in the direction of integration of the single
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applications what seems to make sense. In the second last
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part of the already implemented programs they talk about
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mathematical applications as e.g. <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kgeo">KGeo</a>, a program for the
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simplified presentation and construction of geometric
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drawings. Further are available: <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kbruch">KBruch</a>, <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kmplot">KmPlot</a>, <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kmathtool">KMathTool</a>, <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/kpercentage">KPercentage</a> and <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/ktimes">KTimes</a>. Under
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<i>Miscellaneous</i> you then can find too <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/keduca">KEduca</a>, a programm for
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the generation of small tests and <a
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href="http://edu.kde.org/ktouch">KTouch</a>, a hopefully
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already known piece of software ;-).</p>
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<p><img src="./img/kdeedu.en.png"
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alt="Screenshot 3: KDE Edutainment" width="800" height="600"
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border="0" /><br />
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</p>
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<h5>Screenshot 3: KDE Edutainment</h5>
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<br />
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<br />
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<p>Under <i>Contributed Resources</i> the interested <a
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href="http://www.haecksen.org">Haeckse</a> finds first
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graphics and images of funny animals and materials. Actually
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an KDEedu contributor offers the generation of 3D images at
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programmers option. But there are sounds and noises to
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utilise for someone, too. But I think the people of KDEedu
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would surely be happy if someone adds anymore creative stuff
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to the already existing one. So you don't have to implicitly
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be a programmer contributing to Free Software. In the last
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item of this section there is still an download facility for
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vocabulary lists applicable in the actuel KDEedu
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application.</p>
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<p>In the fourth and last larger section they show an
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specific interest in the development and programming of free
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education software. They explain topics such as the access to
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CVS and how education programs should be built. For artists
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too there are more fillips here. A link to the <a
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href="http://develop.kde.org">developer homepage of KDE</a>
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[9] guides the interested programmer directly to the center
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of the KDE development.</p>
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<p>In the last item you find a still more detailed list of
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the developers and contributors of the project with more
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information and the email adresses of them. The last links
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guides then to the two available mailing lists.</p>
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<p>If you can see a very informative website. But what I
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still miss are the translations in numberous languages, not
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only for the homepage, but for the education programs as
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well. Though this shouldn't be a negative criticism for the
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KDEedu project but more a hint that it isn't nowhere more
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important and perhaps more difficult to translate the content
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into the different world languages. Nevertheless a large
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"thank you" and a lot of success in the future to the
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developers and contributors of the KDE Edutainment
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project.</p>
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<p>But now continues to the last item of this edition.</p>
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<h3>"Multiplication-table worksheets generated easily"</h3>
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<p>At this place I'll always present an own or the idea of a
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reader. Mostly this will be a tool relatively easy to
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implement and ease the everyday life for teachers and pupils.
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I will always describe the tool as extensive and detailed as
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possible and then hope that one or more reader will implement
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it and I always can report about the tool in one of the next
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editions. In this edition I want to talk about the idea
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"Multiplication-table worksheets generated easily":</p>
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<p>At primary school the multiplication-table belongs to the
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most important things in mathematics and teachers use for
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this task mostly worksheets at least at my school time. The
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simple multiplication has to be automated and as this it's
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very important to solve as much calcules as possible. Mostly
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the used sheets contain columns with exercises of the simple
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multiplication (til 12 multiplied by 12).</p>
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<p>With a little program or scripts and (La)TeX it wouldn't
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be as diffcult to automatically generated such worksheets: A
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random number generator creates numbers between 1 and 12
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which are summarised pairwise to multiplication exercises and
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they are braced up to a block with LaTex and the
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multiplication sign (middle point) which can be printed. The
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teacher only have to invoke the program in the console and
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the printer would print a complete exercise sheet
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immediatley.</p>
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<p>Further features which could be added are for instance:
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Printing of a given number of sheets, inserting of a funny
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picture, the generation of exercises out of a specific number
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range, additional printout of the solution sheet or other
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operations than multiplication. All this could be added as an
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option invoking the command.</p>
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<p>Well that's it with the first edition of
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TUX&GNU@school and I hope the lecture of the column was
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interesting. By the way the current and all older editions
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are available under [10]. So long and write a lot of
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criticism ...</p>
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<h3>Links:</h3>
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<p>[1] <a href="http://edu.kde.org/ktouch">Homepage of
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KTouch: http://edu.kde.org/ktouch</a><br />
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[2] <a href="http://edu.kde.org">Homepage of KDEedu:
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http://edu.kde.org</a><br />
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[3] <a href="http://www.edux.ch">Homepage of the ALIS:
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http://www.edux.ch</a><br />
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[4] <a href="http://www.brave-gnu-world.org">Homepage of
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Brave-GNU-World: http://www.brave-gnu-world.org</a><br />
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[5] <a href="mailto:foxman@lugo.ch">Criticism, questions,
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comments and ideas please to: foxman@lugo.ch</a><br />
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[6] <a href="http://www.kde.org">Homepage of KDE:
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http://www.kde.org</a><br />
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[7] <a href="http://www.debian.org">Homepage of Debian:
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http://www.debian.org</a><br />
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[8] <a href="http://www.kde.de">German portal of KDE:
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http://www.kde.de</a><br />
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[9] <a href="http://develop.kde.org">Developer page of KDE:
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http://develop.kde.org</a><br />
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[10] <a
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href="/activities/tgs/tgs.html">Homepage
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of TUX&GNU@school:
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https://fsfe.org/activities/tgs/tgs.en.html</a><br />
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</p>
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<h4>About the author:</h4>
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<p>Mario Fux finished 1999 the PrimarlehrerInnenseminar in
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Brig after he made up mathematical and natural scientifical
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matura. In a body with two colleagues he founded the <a
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href="http://www.edux.ch">"ALIS - Arbeitsgruppe Linux an
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Schulen"</a> (Swiss work group for linux at school).
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Meanwhile he studies at the <a
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href="http://www.ethz.ch">Swiss Federal Institut of
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Technology Zurich</a> <a
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href="http://www.ee.ethz.ch">informations technology and
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electrical engineering</a>. And if he once doesn't spend his
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time in front of the PC, he sits at his nature pond in the <a
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href="http://www.randa.ch">mountains</a>.</p>
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<p align="center"><i>Copyright (c) 2002 Mario Fux. Permission
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is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version
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1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software
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Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts,
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and no Back-Cover Texts.<br />
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A copy of the license can be found at <a
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href="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html">http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html</a>.</i></p>
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