Free Software for Education
Here are two lists of high-quality free/libre software applications that can be used in schools and educational institutions of all levels. The first one is a list of free/libre programs along with the popular proprietary applications they replace. The second one contains free/libre programs that do not necessarily replace a proprietary counterpart but can be very useful to students and teachers.
Free Educational Software For Kids
Compare the best free open source Mac Education Software at SourceForge. Free, secure and fast Mac Education Software downloads from the largest Open Source applications and software directory. Safe Exam Browser. Safe Exam Browser is a webbrowser-environment to carry out online-exams. Microsoft Office Home and Student 2019 (1 Mac) - Previous Gallery Image; Microsoft Office Home and Student 2019 (1 Mac) - Next Gallery Image.
All these programs are released under a license that is granted for zero price and does not expire. While we are glad that schools can also save money with these programs, avoiding miseducation (teaching dependence on nonfree software) is a more important imperative: when we say these programs are free software, we are talking about freedom, not price. It means that you are free to use them constructively, either alone or in a community, while respecting the freedom of others.
Everyone should use free software, because only free software givesusers the freedom to control their own computers. However, there arespecific ethical reasons that apply to education.
In addition to the wrong of nonfree software, the use of third-partynetwork services in schools poses yet another problem: the collection of students (and teachers) personal data by companies.
But even if the school never used those services, it could not be surethat the machines are not sending data. In fact, the source code ofproprietary programs (with a few exceptions) is secret, so users don't know what the software is really doing.
| Category | Free/libre program | Features | Replacement for (Google) | Replacement for (Microsoft) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating systems | Trisquel GNU/Linux | Composed exclusively of software that respects your freedom. | ChromeOS, ChromiumOS | Windows (any version) |
| Web browsers | Web, GNU IceCat | These browsers do not track users. | Chrome, Chromium | Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge |
| Office | LibreOffice | Powerful office suite. Documents are not uploaded to third-party servers. | ---- | Microsoft Office, Office 365 |
| Etherpad, EtherCalc | Real-time collaborative text editor and spreadsheet that run in your browser. | Google Docs, Sheets | ---- | |
| E-learning platforms | Moodle | Entirely self-hosted. Manage classrooms and courses, give lessons and assignments, create groups, take tests, synchronize data and collaborate in forums, chats and wikis. | Google Classroom | ---- |
| File synchronization | ownCloud | Entirely self-hosted. Allows collaborative document editing and bookmark synchronization as well. | Google Drive, Calendar, Contacts | OneDrive, Outlook |
| Media sharing | GNU MediaGoblin | Entirely self-hosted. Can share all kinds of media in safety. | Youtube, Google Photos, Picasa | ---- |
| Kolab | Entirely self-hosted. Complete groupware solution which includes email, calendar, address books, file synching and tasks. Clients are based on Roundcube (web interface) by default but any other email client can be used. This way, only the school can read the students' mail, and nobody else. | Gmail, Google Calendar, Contacts, Google Drive | Outlook, Live | |
| Chat (audio,video, text) | Jitsi, Jitsi Meet (browser-based) | Entirely self-hosted (Prosody is recommended as a XMPP server) and browser-based. Students can chat across many platforms without their faces being scanned by facial recognition algorithms and their voice and text being recorded. | Google Hangouts | Skype |
| Games | Minetest | Build, explore and play in vast cube worlds, alone or with friends. Create mods which aren't limited by proprietary restrictions. | ---- | Minecraft |
Here's some additional free software useful for educational purposes:
| Category | Free/libre program | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Art, graphics and design | Blender | 3D suite which includes a video editor and a game engine that can be used without programming (via logic blocks.) |
| FreeCAD | High-quality parametric 3D CAD modeler. | |
| GIMP | Graphics editor suitable for image retouching, editing and drawing (case study.) | |
| Krita | Fully featured, easy to use digital painting program, suitable for students and professionals alike. | |
| Tux Paint | Graphics editor aimed at young children (case study.) | |
| Games and educational activities | GCompris | Educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10 (case study.) |
| Maths | GNU Octave | High-level interpreted language similar to proprietary MATLAB, primarily intended for numerical computations. |
| Physics | FisicaLab | Solve physics problems creatively. Focus in physics concepts while the program takes care of the mathematical details. |
| Music | GNU Solfege | Ear and music training program. |
| LMMS | Professional-grade (but easy to use) music creation software and digital audio workstation. | |
| MuseScore | Fully featured scorewriter, with support for MIDI playback. | |
| Programming | GDevelop | Codeless game development tool based on drag and drop. Ideal to teach students programming concepts while having fun. |
| Racket | Battery-included programming language and environment suitable for both students and Lisp/Scheme wizards. Despite it being a fully-featured functional programming language, it was designed to be educational. |
The lists above are a selection of free software applications suitablefor the most common educational activities. The Free Software Foundation keeps a comprehensive database of educational software at the Free Software Directory. If you know about a free/libre program suited for schools and is not listed there, please contact us at <education@gnu.org> to let us know.
Best Free Mathematics Software:- Ever wondered that a software can teach you mathematics and so well? Gone are the days when we would seek help from a tuition teacher or from any of the senior classmates to solve our mathematical problems. Come 21st century and we have a host of math software that captured the online space quite efficiently with their unique concept. These applications not only solve your mathematical problems effortlessly but also help you learn the subject deeper and better.
Among the tons of Mathematics Software available online there are many which are open source and free to download on your Windows computer. Even though free of cost, these programs are excellent in solving your math problems. From algebra and geometry to graphs and matrices, these softwares let you learn mathematics in a much easier way.
See also:Best free Architecture software for Architects
That’s not all, as you can learn to draw different types of geometrical shapes and guides with complex math topics like calculus, vectors, statistics, linear programming, probability and more, while these programs also help younger children with basic math problems.
S, go through the list that we have created for the best free math software and get going with your math homeschool today.
Microsoft Mathematics
Microsoft Mathematics is a free software offered by Microsoft that helps math students to be able to solve complex math problems in no time. It especially helps the student with algebra and equips them with a graphic calculator to be able to draw 2D and 3D diagrams. It also helps them to solve a complex equation in a step by step manner. Overall, this software helps students with elementary math and science.
Math Editor
Stuck with those equations? Then, Math Editor can be the right solution for you as this powerful freeware can help you to create mathematical equations with Greek symbols, alpha, beta, square root and other symbols in a matter of minutes and smoothly. It allows you to create, save and edit equations spontaneously, lets you export equations as image files to be used as office documents or the web, and allows you to copy any portion of the equation and the paste it straightaway in the word document or paint as an image. While it helps create mathematical equations on your computer, it is compatible with different formats like JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF and BMP.
Photomath for Android– Solve Equations By Taking Pictures
It is one of the most useful and awesome android app. Solve complex math equations and large calculations by just taking a Picture via this app. It supports quadratic equations and inequalities problems also. You can also check the history of past solved math problems by the app. Add to it, it also gives steps of solving the problem.
Note for Students – Use it for Legal Purpose Only
Free Universal Algebra Equation Solver
For those who are struggling with your algebra, Free Universal Algebra Equation Solver is a boon on earth. Get step by step guidance on those complex algebraic equations that vary from logarithmic, holding absolute value, ration, irrational, with parameters or exponential. This free program covers all you Algebra problems in Algebra 1, Algebra 2 and Algebra 3 classes. You get complete guidance for any complexity level n verbal and written explanations. Well suited for the school and the first year students or for homeschooling Free Universal Algebra Equation Solver
MAXIMA
Another open source software and developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Maxima is an algebra solver for your computer. The program is based on Computer Lisp and works with all POSIX platforms such as Linux, Unix, OS X and BSD. For drawing it uses Gnuplot. Maxima specializes in symbolic operations while it helps you with integers and rational numbers or floating numbers. It helps generate codes in other languages much efficiently.
requires internet connectivity to run.
xFunc
Create mathematical and logical interpretations with xFunc that’s a free math software. It is a simple and easy to navigate program which is based on C#. The application is compact and portable (can be carried in a removable media storage device) that helps compute those critical mathematical expressions automatically. You do not need to install it, and hence can be saved on the hard drive and simply click to run. It features a user-friendly interface where you can add your problems related to trigonometry, constants, arithmetic, bitwise, etc. and get it solved.
SpeQ Mathematics
Learn math and solve complicated mathematical problems easily with SpeQ Mathematics. It is a freeware that comes with embedded support for a wide range of constants, mathematical functions, and variables. While it helps you define custom variables and functions, it also allows you to solve trigonometry problems. It comes accompanied with a simple interface that features sheet of calculations and where you can add, edit and carry out calculations.
GAP
GAP is an open source and free software for computational diagnostic algebra that special focus on computation group theory. This application assists you with a library of tons of functions using algebraic algorithms created in GAP language, a huge database of algebraic objects and a programming language. It is used for research purposes and also for teaching that includes topic like, vectors, combinational structures, representations, algebras, and much more. Being an open source software you can study and even modify the details for any of your work.
Euler Math Toolbox
Not just basic mathematical problems, but Euler Math Toolbox also helps you to solve any complex problems efficiently. This free math software can perform several different mathematical calculations like, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction to calculus functions, algebra, matrices and more. The chief idea behind this free software is provide everybody with a versatile tool that can help you solve almost all kind of mathematical problems.
Cadabra
Cadabra is an open source and free math software that helps you to deal with complex algebraic problems found in field theory. It offers a wide range of features that help you solve mathematical problems related to tensor polynomial simplification, and tensor computer algebra that includes anti-commuting variables, Fierz transformations, multi-term symmetries, multiple index types, fermions and more. It offers both graphical interface and a command-line.
Math Solver
From adding up numbers, to solve even the complex mathematical problems, Math Solver is a fantastic program for your assistance. This free software also lets you draw a graph based on the solution and delivers detailed information about the graphical representation. Additionally, it features a huge library of constants and functions. The fact that Math Solver stores all your previously added interpretations, they become useful for your future reference.
Gretl
If econometric analysis is what’s on your mind, look for Gretl which is a free, open source and a cross-platform software based on C programming language. It can be modified and/or redistributed under the GPL license. It comes with an inbuilt interface that offers the solution in several different international languages including, Russian, French, German, Greek, English, Japanese and more. the program features an extended range of estimators like, maximum likelihood, system methods, etc., along with time series method like, VARs, ARIMA and more, and also limited independent variables like logit, probit, tobit, etc.
Math Mechanixs
Math Mechanixs is a free software targeted for those who are into advanced mathematics or physics studies. It works more as a Math Editor that lets you type in the mathematical interpretations just as you would jot them down on a piece of paper. The multiple document interface of the application allows you to work on several different solutions at the same time. Track defined functions and variables conveniently with the feature packed scientific calculator that includes an extremely beneficial window with the integrated functions and variables. Additionally, it also lets you generate some really cool 2d and 3D mathematical diagrams. Label data points, translate graph, zoom or rotate the graphs as per your requirement.
CompliCalc
As the name points out, you can solve complicated mathematical problems using CompliCalc. This free software features several different algebraic and functional calculators and allows you to perform a wide range of activities like calculating discount, square root, distance, and factorial. Mention the task you want the program to perform on its interface and let the freeware calculate it n seconds.
Scilab
If you are an engineer, Scilab is just for you which provide you a free and open source platform for numerical computation. It features a top-class programming language that lets you make use of the progressive data structure and 2D & 3D graphical options. It includes a wide variety of functionalities such as optimization, control, signal processing, simulation and more along with hybrid dynamic systems modeler and simulator.
The application comes accompanied with source code, help menu and user guide in English. Scilab is majorly used for strategic applications and facilitates download of external modules or user contributions.
Gnuplot
Gnuplot is a free and open source software that is portable and runs on command-line based graphic tool. This is compatible with mostly all platforms including Mac OS, Linux, Windows, VMS and more. While it was initially targeted to help scientists and students visualize mathematical data and functions collectively, it now even supports many individual uses like web scripting.
download free, software For Mac
Even third-party applications like Octave use it as a plotting engine. It supports various types of plots like, 2D or 3D and can draw with the help of contours, surfaces, lines, vector fields, points and different related texts. It also supports various types of outputs such as mouse and hotkey, direct outputs to modern printers, and to different file formats like, PNG, PDF, JPEG, etc.
Geogebra
Geogebra is a free math software that is useful for both teachers and students alike. While teachers can use this program to teach students, students can use it to learn mathematics. It is a powerful platform that helps students learn math effectively and solve math problems on different topics that include vectors, calculus, linear programming, algebra, complex numbers, statistics and more.
Tibi’s Mathematics Suite
If you are a math teacher and it gets really difficult to teach your students geometry, Tibi’s Mathematics Suite is just what you want. This free software lets you teach geometry to your students easily while it also helps you draw different geometrical shapes like, triangle, cube, cone, circle and more.
Sagemath
Sgemath is an open source and free software that helps students with general, applied, advanced and pure mathematics. This includes topics like calculus, cryptography, algebra, advanced number theory and more. Sagemath uses many software packages and smoothly assimilates their features for a common usage. It features an interface that’s a notebook seated in a web browser that connects to either its own installation or to another Sage server on the network. It is more suited for research, studies, and education.
Axiom
Developed by IBM, Axiom is an open source algebra system for your PC that features a compiler, a computer commentator and a library for your assistance. This software uses the literate programming process during the source code and highlights the “30 Year Horizon”. Among its features are its “type interface” and heuristic algorithm that eliminates the need for certain types of glossaries. It helps you to create 2D or 3D graphics with additional features like lighting and rotation using the “HyperDoc”.
GNU Octave
GNU Octave is an open source and free software that features a top class programming language aimed to solve numerical computations. It is a graphical user interface that offers a command-line interface for solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically. It also carries out other experiments numerically with the help of a language that works majorly with “MATLAB”, and can also be processed as a batch-oriented language. The GUI is simple and easy to navigate and eliminates the use of GNU Octave version that used the command line.
Prime95 64-bit
If you are fascinated with prime numbers and whether you are a beginner or an expert, Prme95 64-bit can be just the right solution for you. It is specially designed for the Windows OS that serves as a client for its maker GIMPS project. While it’s known to find Mersenne numbers, it can also create a wonderful environment to test system stability. So, test your new computer configurations with Prime95 64-bit and be assured of its performance and steadiness.
TuxMath
TuxMath is a completely different genre that makes mathematical learning fun with its gaming functionality. It is an open source and free math learning software for kids that help them to learn mental arithmetic by playing with the flying moon rocks which are in reality are space multiplication, division, and subtraction. All they have to do is find the answers and destroy them. This math game combo software is developed for kids between 7-13 years of age and offers them a host of missions that need calculations.
As you go higher in the level the problems get tougher and end up with a truly complex mathematical problem, like dividing negative numbers. The advanced mode offers fractions in form of asteroids which need to be destroyed by looking for the common denominator.
Basic Learning and Practice Math software for Kids
Math-A-Maze
Math-A-Maze lets you learn mathematics through a maze game where you have to make your way through the maze that consists of numbers and mathematical functions. You have to start from the left-hand column and go through the right-hand column. However, to track the correct path you have to follow the final sum that is mentioned on the right end of the game field (anywhere from 1 to 8). The way through the maze will pick up the required amount of equations whose totals are evidently the same as the final total shown on the right end. The mazes are randomly produced with unlimited number combinations and the board size vary from 4by4 upto 8by8 for all difficulty levels.
JXCirrus Maths
Let your kids learn mathematics in a fun way with JXCirrus Maths which is a free software. It teaches math to primary school children in way that they are excited to learn. The program highlights basic math skills that include addition, subtraction, timetables and division. Create basic and easy exercises for your kids with this interesting app that will run every day that records the best time and allows you to compete against it. JXCirrus Maths comes with an inbuilt user guide and is compatible with Windows, Linux and MacOS.
MathForChild
MathForChild is not just built for the younger kids, but kids of all ages and all learning levels. This free software is designed for your Windows OS and helps your kids with basic mathematical operations involving addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. It has different difficulty level and hence, is suitable for use even by the adults to hone their arithmetic skills. Choose one of the basic mathematical operations that’s supported by the application from its vivid interface along with the difficulty level.
Calculator for Kids
If you are looking for a basic math calculator for your young kids, Calculator for kids is your perfect find. This software is completely free, and helps children develop a strong hold on basic mathematics and simple math operations that includes addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and more. It is a portable app that can be carried in a media storage device for some learning on the go.
QMentat
Learn and practice mental mathematics effortlessly with QMentat which is a free math software designed assist you with all those mental math problems that can otherwise tire your mind. With the help of QMentat there is no need of calculators, pencils or pens any further. Hone your mental mathematical skills using this program that carries out different types of math functions like, division, multiplication, addition, roots, subtraction, and power. This free program uses arbitrary-length fixed point arithmetic that can manage unlimited numbers and that can only be restricted by your screen size.
Math Practice
As the name goes, MathPractice is designed with the aim to assist you with math practice that includes problems related to, basic algebra, roman numerals and arithmetic. The skills include functions like, algebra, addition, multiplication, roman numerals, division and subtraction. Now these skills are further divided into three skill levels such as, easy, medium and hard. You can simply select the skill of your choice and get going.
When a fresh problem appears on the screen, just type your answer into the box and hit “Enter”. It shows “Correct” if your answer was right, else will show “Incorrect”. To move onto a fresh problem click on the “New Problem” button if your answer was incorrect, however, for a correct answer it gets activated automatically. It will display your overall percentage scored and you can press the “Reset” button to reset the marks.
TalkingMath
Talking Math belongs to the children genre, where it teaches your kids basic mathematics in an easy way so that they learn quickly. This free program supports audio mode, and works in three separate modes like, standard, interactive and timer. It helps your children solve various basic mathematical problems that involve multiplication, division, subtraction and addition. Spread out in 7 continents and 7 countries, Talking Math is also touch screen friendly and is compatible with most of the latest Windows versions.
Saurav is associated with IT industry and computers for more than a decade and is writing on The Geek Page on topics revolving on windows 10 and softwares.
