I’m starting a new project to collaboratively produce a simple kids dictionary. If anyone has seen anything similar or has experience with any public domain dictionaries or other info that might be useful (or if you’re interested in participating in helping to build this), let me know. Thanks.

Open Simple Dictionary

6 thoughts on “Open Simple Dictionary

  • October 14, 2007 at 3:36 am
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    Hi Karen, Noah Pro (freeware-but not suitable for most schools) is based upon Princton’s database called WordNet which can be found here

    http://wordnet.princeton.edu/

    Here is what Princton says about its licensing.

    “WordNet® is unencumbered, and may be used in commercial applications in accordance with the following license agreement. An attorney representing the commercial interest should review this WordNet license with respect to the intended use.”

    Basically, they don’t want you to use Princton’s name in commercial marketing.

    http://wordnet.princeton.edu/license

    a little bit more from the licence.
    “Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute this software and
    database and its documentation for any purpose and without fee or
    royalty is hereby granted”

  • October 14, 2007 at 6:56 pm
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    Thanks, Dale. We had actually gotten in touch with the Noah people awhile back (before they went out of business) to see if we could edit their dictionary for school use. They declined. I didn’t know it was based on Princeton’s WordNet though. I’ll check it out. We are currently looking at several options.

    I hope you’ll consider being a part of this project. We will probably be looking for some “letter editors” if you’re interested. ;)

  • October 24, 2007 at 8:27 am
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    Hi Karen,

    I wouldn’t mind helping. Would you mind if I tried to develop a kid friendly freeware Dictionary Palm App.

    I’ve been working with teachers developing Palm Apps using TeacherTube as a medium. Basically what we’ve been doing is:

    1. I create a quick screencast of a beta version the app.
    2. I upload it to teachertube and notify the teachers.
    3. They review the video, and send me feedback.
    4. I make the changes, and upload a new video.
    5. Repeat

    Have a good day
    Dale

  • October 24, 2007 at 9:02 am
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    That sounds great. We were planning to do it in Mobipocket because they have good dictionary support and then all our curriculum ebooks could link to the dictionary. It also works on PPC and you can do some programming to embed interactive activities right in the books. However we could certainly use the same database for multiple tools.

    I like this use of TeacherTube. I’ll have to check out your videos.

  • Pingback:Kids simple dictionary…not as simple as I thought - K12 Open Ed

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