Newsletter 2

The KDE-Edu project started in July and was officially launched on September 21, 2001.
See http://edu.kde.org/announcements/index.phtml
The project's ultimate aim is to create educational software based around KDE, the K Desktop Environment and all our projects are under an Open Source licence (mainly GPL or Artistic Licence).
This newsletter keeps you informed of the state of this project and will be sent to you monthly.

Website

http://edu.kde.org
The website has been more organized and will soon be translation-ready. We already have teams of translators for several languages. If you would like to help in the translation effort, please contact us!

Projects

We now have 7 projects plus one in planning. KTouch and KEduca were existing projects that joined in.

Most of the other projects are in an early development stage and need feedback, especially for the design. The questions to answer would be:

• Is the application easy to use for the pupil?
• Does it fullfill its objective?
• What is the teacher point of view?
• Do we need to assess the work of the pupil? How?

For the moment, we start with small applications but later on, some could be put together to build a larger program.

Pictures and sounds

We aim to build a database with graphics and sounds that could be then used by developers. All this material must be under an Open Source licence. We already have some graphics and sounds.
See http://edu.kde.org/contrib/

Translations

We will try to translate (and sometimes adapt) as many applications as possible. We will use the kde-i18n teams around the world for normal translations and teachers knowledge for adapting the application.

Documentation

There is a big need for people willing to write the doc for the applications. A good user guide in the KDE xml-based docbook format is essential to allow an application to be distributed. We aim to fullfill that as soon as possible. We will need technical writers (for the application handbook) and also writers with an ability to "communicate" with children and young people for help with some exercises for example.

Next month, we'll focuse more on the status of applications being developed within the project.