Site gives students Web access to Open Source calculation Tools-Campus Technology

A small British company has launched a set of free open source calculation utilities for students. The bamboo Toolbox includes access to software that is developed by open source communities that runs in a Web browser hosted by Hughes Bennett education. If a student wants to save calculations, he or she can register at a "personal laptop" for a small monthly fee.

A dozen utilities create the current offerings, including:

R Project for statistical analysis and graphical modelingGNU Octave for numerical computationsMaxima for manipulating symbolic and algebraic expressionsObjective-C for the object-oriented features add to c routines.

"A major obstacle to the adoption of open source software in higher education is the cost of installing, configuring, and maintaining software. The result is that there are many excellent open source software packages for students, but they are not accessible, because students and higher education institutions do not have the money and staff in the difficult economic climate of today, "said Chi Nguyen, editor of the site. "Bamboo Tools removes that barrier by eliminating the cost of installation and maintenance. Now, students and institutions of higher education can be directly used the bamboo Tools software collection with their studies. "

A subscription of £ 2 per month grants the user access to a single laptop for a tool in the Toolbox. The laptop works like a wiki, allowing the Subscriber work done through the software, including previous iterations. Further information can be found here.

About the author

Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business. Send your higher education technology news to her dian@dischaffhauser.com.

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