Our teachers are now encouraging students who have home access to an Internet-connected computer to use Web-based applications. This has alleviated many issues with software availability and compatibility. However, we do have some students who can get to a computer, but either don't have an Internet connection at all or just dial-up. What are our options for making sure these students have legal access to basic software applications?
You want to check into something called Portable Apps. These are programs that can be saved on any portable device (e.g., USB drive, MP3 player, or external hard drive) and then used on any Windows machine when the portable device is plugged into that machine. When the portable device is unplugged, nothing is left behind on the PC that was used.
Portable Apps are free Open Source programs. This means it's perfectly legal for you to make the software available to any or all of your students. And, now that the majority of students have an MP3 player, it's highly likely that the school won't need to provide a storage device.
Read more about Portable Apps.
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