As a digital educator, software is your best friend. I’ve amassed a list of software suites that I use regularly and those I’m aspiring to use. Most are either open source or free under the GNU GPL/GFDL/CC licenses. For those that are not, I have marked them with a dollar sign ($). Tools that I could not teach without will be indicated with a star (★).
Chemistry
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| DRAWING MOLECULES | |||||||
| Avogadro - Avogadro is an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas. It offers flexible high quality rendering and a powerful plugin architecture. | X | X | X | ||||
| $ | ChemDoodle – Proprietary cross-platform application that has free versions of mobile. Intended as a companion to the paid computer version; allows limited number of free NMR and spectral calculations. | X | X | X | X | X | |
| PERIODIC TABLE | |||||||
| Periodic Table – Socratica’s Periodic Table is a simple reference tool that also offers a quiz feature. | X | ||||||
| ★ | Ptable.com - Interactive web-based periodic table. Displays physical properties, electron configurations, orbitals, as well as isotopes and their decays. Each element links to its respective Wikipedia page. | X | |||||
Computer Science
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| SYNTAX BUILDERS | |||||||
| Alice – Freeware object-oriented educational programming language with an integrated development environment (IDE). Later versions are implemented in Java. Alice uses a drag and drop environment to create computer animations using 3D models. | X | X | X | ||||
| Scratch – Educational programming language that allows people of any experience, background and age to experiment with the concepts of fully versatile computer programming by snapping together visual programming blocks to control images, music and sound. It is developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab. | X | X | X | ||||
General
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| CLASSROOM TOOLS | |||||||
| Air Sketch - Turn your iPad into a wireless whiteboard. This app allows you to annotate PDF documents and images live on a host machine. | X | ||||||
| JetPack – HTML5 software developed by Purdue University that will let iOS and Android users download textbook/ebook crossovers called JetPacks. Web-based authoring kit project for public release in 2012. | X | X | X | ||||
| E-BOOK AUTHORING/MANAGEMENT | |||||||
| ★ | Calibre - Organizes, saves and manages e-books, supporting a variety of formats. It also supports e-book syncing and conversion between a variety of popular e-book readers. Great news syndicator. Comes with web server. | X | X | X | X | ||
| iBooks Author - Application that allows anyone to create Multi-Touch textbooks — and just about any other kind of book — for iPad. With galleries, video, interactive diagrams, 3D objects, and more. | X | X | |||||
| Sigil - A cross-platform application distributed under the GNU GPL license. Sigil supports both WYSIWYG and code-based editing of EPUB files, as well as the import of HTML and plain text files. | X | X | X | ||||
| DICTATION AND TEXT TO SPEECH (TTS) | |||||||
| $ | Acapela TTS – Top-notch TTS voices. Acapela group works primarily with corporate sales. Voice sales are done by third parties given your desired platform. | X | X | ||||
| $ | Dragon Dictate - Proprietary speech recognition software. Formerly Mac Speech Dictate on OS X. | X | X | ||||
| Google Translate - You are currently limited to 100 characters, but Google’s TTS engine is very good; it is available in a variety of languages as well. Great way to augment foreign language education. | X | X | X | ||||
| $ | IVONA TTS – Top-notch TTS voices. It is currently platform restricted, but the quality is very high. Incorporates BrightVoice technology. | X | X | ||||
| DISTANCE EDUCATION | |||||||
| Flockdraw – Whiteboard collaboration service; integrated into TinyChat chat rooms. | X | ||||||
| Skype – Allows users to make voice, video calls, and chats over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free. | X | X | X | X | X | ||
| FILE SHARING | |||||||
| ★ | Dropbox - Free 2GB account. Web-based file hosting service that uses cloud storage to enable users to store and share files and folders with others across the Internet using file synchronization. | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| PROJECT AND CONTENT MANAGEMENT | |||||||
| $ | Basecamp - Web-based project-management tool developed by 37signals and runs on Ruby on Rails framework. | X | X | X | |||
| $* | Evernote - Suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving. A “note” can be a piece of formatted text, a full webpage or webpage excerpt, a photograph, a voice memo, or a handwritten “ink” note. Notes can also have file attachments. Notes can be sorted into folders, then tagged, annotated, edited, given comments, searched and exported as part of a notebook. *Paid version offers more storage/doc types. | X | X | X | X | X | X |
| Google Docs – Free, Web-based office suite, and data storage service offered by Google. It allows users to create and edit documents online while collaborating in real-time with other users. | X | X | X | ||||
| Moodle – Free source e-learning software platform, that functions as an extendible Course Management System (CMS). Can be deployed on both large/small scale. Requires server for hosting. | X | ||||||
| STUDY TOOLS | |||||||
| NOOKStudy – Software authored by Barnes & Noble Booksellers designed to help organize digital study materials as well as annotate and view purchased e-textbooks. Requires B&N Login. | X | X | |||||
| Quizlet.com – Flashcard creation and quizzing study aid. Either create your own or search through user-submitted flashcard sets. You can even learn flashcards as a game. *Unofficial mobile apps that use Quizlet’s API. | X | X* | X* | ||||
Mathematics
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| CALCULUS | |||||||
| ★ | Wolfram Online Integration - Powerful online integration software. Based on Wofram’s Mathematica engine. | X | |||||
| COMPOSITION | |||||||
| ★ | LyX - Cross-platform graphical  editor with EPS, PDF,  , and other output formats. Supports many document classes/layouts out of the box. |
X | X | X | |||
| COMPUTATION | |||||||
| $ | Mathematica - Computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing. | X | X | X | |||
| Sage – Mathematical software with features covering many aspects of mathematics, including algebra, combinatorics, numerical mathematics, number theory, and calculus. | X | X | X | X | |||
| GEOMETRY | |||||||
| GeoGebra – Cross-platform Geometry sketching and computational software. Requires Java. | X | X | X | X | |||
| ★ | Google SketchUp - Excellent 2D/3D drawing application. There is also a Pro version, which adds even more functionality. Great for architectural projects. | X | X |  |
|||
| GRAPHING | |||||||
| Andie Graph – Texas Instruments TI 82, 83, 83+, 85, & 86 graphing calculator emulator. You must provide the ROM from the actual calculator, but it allows you to turn your phone into a graphing calculator. | X | ||||||
| ★ | Graph - Simple 2D graphing application. Can also evaluate functions at points, take derivatives and integrals, and produce various best fit lines. | X | |
||||
| ★ | Grapher - Excellent native OS X application for 2D and 3D graphing. Comes preloaded with various Mathematical standard functions and can graph in rectilinear, spherical, and cylindrical coordinates. | X | |||||
| ★ | Wolfram Alpha - General knowledge engine with access to Mathematica’s plot & graph backend. This is an exceptionally powerful tool, take the time to check out examples of what it can do. Paid mobile versions. | X | X | X | |||
| STATISTICS | |||||||
| R – Programming language and software environment for statistical computing and graphics. A standard among statisticians for developing statistical software, R is widely used for statistical software development and data analysis. | X | X | X | ||||
Open Education
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| COURSES | |||||||
| Academic Earth - Website launched which aggregates free online video lectures from universities in a large variety of disciplines. | X | ||||||
| Khan Academy – Not-for-profit educational organization with the mission of “providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.” Website supplies a free online collection of more than 2,700 micro lectures via video tutorials covering Mathematics, History, Healthcare & Medicine, Finance, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Astronomy, Economics, Cosmology and Computer Science. | X | ||||||
| MIT OpenCourseWare – An initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate- and graduate-level courses online, partly free and openly available to anyone | X | ||||||
| Patrick Just Math Tutorials – Website and YouTube channel run by Patrick Jones, a private math tutor. | X | ||||||
| Yale Open Courses - Open Yale Courses provides lectures and other materials from selected Yale College courses to the public free of charge via the internet. The courses span the full range of liberal arts disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences. | X | ||||||
| TEXTBOOKS | |||||||
| Abstract Algebra – A college level Abstract Algebra text. Provided as US Letter PDF. Access to source provided. | X | ||||||
| Linear Algebra – A college level Linear Algebra text. Comes in various outputs including and e-reader ready PDF. |
X | ||||||
| ★ | Wikibooks - A Wiki hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation for the creation of free content textbooks and annotated texts that anyone can edit. | X | |||||
Physics
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| COMPUTER MODELING | |||||||
| Easy Java Simulations - An open-source software tool, part of the Open Source Physics project, designed for the creation of discrete computer simulations. Requires Java. | X | X | X | ||||
| VPython - Python + 3D graphics module called Visual. VPython allows users to create objects such as spheres and cones in 3D space and displays these objects in a window. The simplicity of VPython has made it a tool for the illustration of simple physics, especially in the educational environment. | X | X | X | ||||
| GAME-BASED LEARNING | |||||||
| $ | Portal - Single-player first-person puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve Corporation, available through Steam. The source™ SDK including Hammer allows students to build their own Portal levels. Has a powerful physics engine that will provide large learning potential. | X | X | |
|||
| $ | Portal 2 – Single- & Two-player puzzle-platform video game developed by Valve Corporation, available through Steam. Sequel to the critically acclaimed Portal. | X | X | |
|||
Disclaimer: Not all of these softwares have been evaluated by me. I cannot vouch for the practicality/extendability of each application. You also take full responsibility for reading any EULA and knowing any breaches thereof by running Windows applications under WINE in non-Windows environments. Please check the manufacturer’s website for installation, usage, and any applicable purchasing instructions. I also do not support these applications; inquires should be directed to each application’s support team or discussion forum.