File Update

LibreOffice is an all-in-one professional office productivity and management package for your PC.

In the same vein as other open source productivity suites like OpenOffice.org, LibreOffice boasts a comprehensive set of office management tools arguably on par with Microsoft Office itself. LibreOffice offers six different office management tools to meet your project management needs: Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing, Database, and Formula.

Text Document is relatively synonymous with Microsoft Word, where Spreadsheet is like Excel. Presentation mirrors Microsofts PowerPoint, and Database is similar to Access. Then you also have two additional programs in Drawing and Formula, which are an added bonus to the entire package. LibreOffice is compatible with Microsoft Offices document formats and also supports PDFs natively. It also has its own document format called Open Document.

Unfortunately, if youre unfamiliar with Microsoft Office products, this program might take a little additional time to get used to, particularly if you want to master some of its more advanced features. Regular Microsoft Office users will find LibreOffices interface quite similar, however, and should pick up on how to use its various programs without too much difficulty.

A great alternative to Microsoft Office, LibreOffice is a must-try for managing your various office projects.

Download LibreOffice 3.4.2 Final in Softonic

• Remember - we shouldn’t teach software (ie Word, Excel) we should teach skills, like writing, using spreadsheets and graphs, etc.
• research projects
• Google Docs has built in search - do research as you work: In Google Docs, there is a research pane where you can do a Google search directly from Google Docs
• collaboration - Google Apps is all about collaboration.
• more collaboration tools
• create projects - reports (Docs), websites (sites), graphics (Draw), blogs (Blogger), videos and more (see below)
• online portfolios
• 3D CAD https://www.tinkercad.com/
• coding - especially for 3D printers - https://codebender.cc/
• e-textbooks
• mind mapping
• voice recording
• graphics and photo editing (Adobe Cloud too)
• animations
• video creating and editing
• student choice for projects and assignments
• extra help (go to the web or apps)
• make music all online (SoundTrap)
• Write Music in Google Documents
• database (ie. MS Access) app
• virtual labs and science
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)
• online scientific and graphing calculators
• virtual field trips and tours (Google Maps street view is great for this too)
• online assessments
• programming/computer science
• Robotics - Scratch, Hummingbird Robotics, The Finch Robot
• organization skills
• note taking and class planning apps
• guest speakers via Hangouts
• recommended apps for reading and writing across the curriculum (see above also)
• Writing apps and Resources
• Third Party Apps for Reading and Writing
• How to Use Web 2.0 to Teach Literacy Strategies to Struggling Readers
• Students can write, create blogs, collaborate on writing projects and more.
• There are apps to help students with reading.
• When reading on a Chromebook, the student can easily search for the definition for an unknown word instead of struggling.

• Google Apps and Chromebooks Web App Recommendations - a whole lot!
• Available link for download