Teen Edutainment?

February 11, 2012 11:53 AM

We are sending a nifty notebook computer to a 13 year-old girl in the Philippines, and wish to load it with interesting software to entertain and educate her. What programs do you recommend? You may also suggest bookmarks to awesome websites.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium to Computers & Internet (14 answers total)

Does the notebook run Windows? Or Linux?
posted by dfriedman at 11:59 AM on February 11, 2012

I just downloaded the free book making software at Blurb.com. She could learn to make paper books and also ebooks.

Oops, does she read English?
posted by cda at 12:12 PM on February 11, 2012

I suggest installing GIMP on it - it's fun to learn how to use photo editing programs, and it might be a marketable skill someday too.
posted by insectosaurus at 12:20 PM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Project Gutenberg.
posted by axiom at 12:44 PM on February 11, 2012

Peppermint Linux. And tell her to man apt-get
posted by clarknova at 1:19 PM on February 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: More info: It's an HP Mini 210-2100 running Windows 7 Starter, with MS Word Starter 2010.
Recommendations for security/virus protection would also be appreciated.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:40 PM on February 11, 2012

Google Earth!
posted by carsonb at 1:42 PM on February 11, 2012

Response by poster: She speaks English, Cebuano, and Tagalog
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 2:12 PM on February 11, 2012

GIF Movie Gear is also an easy to use program. (about $30) If she has GIMP she could make animations pretty easily. I don't know if GIMP lets you make animations. All I know is GIF Movie Gear is easy to use.
posted by cda at 3:32 PM on February 11, 2012

Virus protection: avast! has a free antivirus tool that doesn't suck. Mefi's own deezil agrees.
posted by axiom at 4:08 PM on February 11, 2012

Best answer: Languages

Kanagram
KHangMan
KLettres
KWordQuiz
Parley

Mathematics

Calculator
Cantor
GeoGebra
KAlgebra (Graph Calculator)
KBruch (Exercise Fractions)
Kig (Interactive Geometry)
KmPlot (Mathematical Function Plotter)
Microsoft Mathematics (64-bit)
Tux of Math Command

Science

Kalzium (Periodic Table of Elements)
KStars (Desktop Planetarium)
Rocs (Rocs Graph Theory)
Stellarium

Reference

Wikipedia for Schools
WordWeb
Wikitaxi

Multimedia

Inkscape
Photoscape
Paint
Paint.NET
Tux Paint
VLC media player
Windows Media Player

Office

LibreOffice 3.3
KompoZer
Scribus
Dia

Miscellaneous
Blinken (Memory Enhancement Game)
Gbrainy
KGeography (Geography Trainer)
KTouch (Touch Typing Tutor)
KTurtle (Educational Programming Environment)
Tux Type
Adobe Flash (Updated turned Off)
Adobe Shockwave
Quicktime Lite
Adobe Reader (Updater turned Off)
Java (Updater turned Off)
Image Resizer

no internet required for above.

for virus protection, i'd use microsoft security essentials.
posted by calm down at 5:15 PM on February 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

these aren't educational but are totally of use...

nitro pdf
freemake video converter
freemake audio converter
audacity
7zip
google chrome with adblock extension

remember to turn windows update on
posted by calm down at 5:25 PM on February 11, 2012

Best answer: Peppermint Linux. And tell her to man apt-get

I know linux people come in here and are all like "put linux on it" and most people think we're some sort of fanboys or whackjobs.

But, seriously.

Put an open-source operating system on it (Mint, Ubuntu, BSD, whatever), and she can get access to anything she wants for free with just a download. And when it turns out there's something she needs but can't find, the facilities are readily and freely available for her to build it.

You don't need to reformat Windows out of existence. But, Windows Starter is pretty bad. So, it would be a nice thing to partition the disk out into a dual-boot setup.
posted by Netzapper at 5:37 AM on February 12, 2012

Endlessly exciting: howstuffworks.com
posted by Bunsen Betty at 11:55 AM on February 12, 2012