ESL etc. » open source http://www.esletc.com Global Issues and Activism in English Language Teaching Thu, 02 Feb 2012 14:44:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Inkscape http://www.esletc.com/2008/11/06/inkscape/ http://www.esletc.com/2008/11/06/inkscape/#comments Wed, 05 Nov 2008 21:41:02 +0000 Dave http://www.esletc.com/archives/191 In my (relatively) new position as technology coordinator, I am often called upon to do new things. Yesterday, I was asked to create a vector-based version of our logo for a company that will be producing USB drives for us. I had no idea what a vector graphic was, let alone how to make one.

Fortunately, I quickly found Inkscape, an open source vector graphics editor. The nice thing about vector graphics is that they can be scaled without getting pixelated.

Anyhow, if you are ever called upon to produce a vector-based logo, check Inkscape out.

Incidentally, if you’re looking for another type of teacher-y open source software, I’ve got a list.

]]> http://www.esletc.com/2008/11/06/inkscape/feed/ 0 Engrade – Free Online Gradebook http://www.esletc.com/2008/10/17/engrade/ http://www.esletc.com/2008/10/17/engrade/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:01:12 +0000 Dave http://www.esletc.com/archives/187 Recently, I was asked to find some sort of gradebook software for our teachers to use. I quickly found Engrade, a free online gradebook that allows for weighting grades in categories. It’s very simple to use, and has all of the features that we need in a gradebook. Plus, it allows students to log in to view their own grades, check on missing assignments, etc. It also has attendance and calendar features. I’m going to give a workshop on it next week at our faculty development day. I’ll post my introductory handout here once I’ve finished it.

All-in-all, it looks good. I’m a little concerned that the servers will be overloaded, but they seem to be taking steps to remedy that problem.

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