News and announcements
SchoolTool at Maker Faire RI
Written for SchoolTool Project by Tom Hoffman on 2010-09-01
SchoolTool project manager Tom Hoffman explains some new ideas for SchoolTool as a hardware appliance with SMS capabilities.
SchoolTool Receives Award from Commonwealth of Virginia
Written for SchoolTool Project by Tom Hoffman on 2010-06-22
The Virginia Department of Education has presented to SchoolTool a statewide award for exceptional and exemplary contributions to Career and Technical Education through business and industry partnership. The full description of the award states:
"SchoolTool, an open-source computer software product, consists of a suite of free administrative software for schools. In 2005, SchoolTool partnered with the Arlington Public Schools CTE to author a competency-tracking application called CanDo. CanDo couples the SchoolTool software with the CTE Resource Center's Verso database of CTE competencies, allowing instructors to report and monitor student competency achievement. SchoolTool is an excellent example of a public-private partnership that has mad a significant impact on education in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, with the added support of the CTE Resource Center, have benefited."
SchoolTool was nominated for the award by the Arlington Public Schools Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education.
Updated .
SchoolTool 1.4 Released
Written for SchoolTool Project by Tom Hoffman on 2010-04-29
The latest and greatest for Ubuntu Lucid (and Karmic)
SchoolTool Announces Development Grant Winners
Written for SchoolTool Project by Tom Hoffman on 2010-04-29
The SchoolTool Project is happy to announce the recipients of in-kind software development grants worth a total of EUR 50,000 to facilitate the deployment of SchoolTool’s free and open source administrative systems in schools in the developing world.
The grants will fund customization of SchoolTool to meet the specific requirements of the countries involved for integration with existing data systems, government report generation, and other local needs. All these improvements, and SchoolTool itself, will be available at no cost to all schools in these countries and around the world. In several cases local vendors, non-governmental organizations and government agencies are collaborating with schools to support future scale-up of these pilot projects.
This grant is funded by Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu Linux, Canonical Ltd., and Thawte, as part of his ongoing sponsorship of SchoolTool.
Grant Recipients:
25,000 EUR: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Royal Government of Cambodia and the Open Institute.
The Ministry and the Open Institute, a local NGO, will pilot a Khmer language version of SchoolTool at 25 high schools in October 2010 with the goal of full deployment to all high schools in October 2011.
7,500 EUR: National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration NIEPA), Ondo, Nigeria.
NIEPA is a national center for training in education management in Nigeria.
7,500 EUR: Mpelembe Secondary School, Kitwe, Zambia.
Mpelembe is the leading technical school in Zambia and an active participant in the Enhancing the Visual and Presentation of Educational Content project of the International Institute for Communication and Development.
5,000 EUR: Sulaimon Shado Schools, Lagos, Nigeria.
5,000 EUR: Centro Escolar Cantón El Calvario, Centro Escolar Cantón La Soledad, and Escuela Santaneca de Enseñanza Especializada, El Salvador.
SchoolTool Announces 50,000 Euro Development Grant Initiative
Written for SchoolTool Project by Tom Hoffman on 2010-02-06
The SchoolTool project is excited to announce an initiative to provide 50,000 Euro in custom development grants to help schools, government, and organizations in the developing world to pilot and deploy SchoolTool for computer based school management. These grants will be funded by by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth.
