INTRODUCING PRESERVICE TEACHERS TO FREE AND OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: FINDINGS FROM A CASE STUDYIlias Karasavvidis
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Research suggests that one of the barriers to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in classrooms is teachers’ lack of ICT skills and competencies. While for quite a long time ICT literacy meant familiarization with proprietary software, the growing importance of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has considerably changed the ICT landscape. The present paper examines undergraduate students' perspectives on FOSS after attending an introductory ICT course in which only such software was used. One hundred and one students from a preschool education department participated in the study. Two questionnaires were used for data collection. Data analysis indicated that (a) the students had no knowledge about FOSS concepts and applications and (b) GNU/Linux was considered more feature-rich and interesting compared to Microsoft Windows while Mozilla Firefox was also perceived as more feature-rich compared to Microsoft Internet Explorer. The paper is concluded with a discussion of the findings and implications for teacher training. |
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