Early adoption of Free and Open Source Software in a Higher School of Education: students' views in the academic and future professional contexts Nelson A. F. Gonçalves Maria P. Figueiredo ESEV + CEETS/IPV

Overview of presentation portuguese context our school context the study results – participants: software usage – arguments for choosing software final thoughts

Portugal - Viseu minimum wage = 400€ Windows Vista Home Basic = 219€ Windows Office 2007 Basic (student) = 160€

Polytechnic Institute of Viseu: Higher School of Education oldest higher school of education one of the biggest polytechnic undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Teacher Ed., Plastic Arts and Multimedia, Media Studies, Cultural Animation, Social Education, Sports and Physical Activity and Environmental Ed students and 75 teachers every program: at least one ICT course six computer labs = classrooms + one student lab

Higher School of Education of Viseu (HSEV) FOSS landmarks – Moodle server for HSEV 2006 – Polytechnic buys WebCT 2008 – HSEV refuses shifting to WebCT ✔ Moodle as official e-learning platform for HSEV ✔ ICT courses that mainly use FOSS: Blender, Open Office, Kompozer, Gimp, Cinelerra, Audacity, Gcompris,... ✔ FOSS, CC and Open Access as learning topics in some courses (residual) ✔ Final projects using FOSS (Arts and Teach. Ed.)

Higher School of Education of Viseu (HSEV) FOSS landmarks Teachers and students involved in the debate about usage of FOSS in HSEV: spread ideas behind the potential of FOSS bring students and teachers to a dimension of debate where software choices aren't based only in: – economic cost – software features – marketing strategies – brand awareness –... raise important ethical issues: software choice as a statement about the world we live in and how we choose to live in it

Higher School of Education of Viseu (HSEV) FOSS landmarks Stated goals: raise awareness about the range of choices and criteria for choosing software (promote freedom of choice) foster the debate about a possible transition to FOSS adoption by the school (official policy and/or school identity) engage members of the school in the development of FOSS tools and Open Content “spread the word” and provide support for the local system of education's adoption of FOSS (CD from the M. Ed. + PC w/ Open Office)

Purpose of research document the ongoing process, it's development and results – provide useful information to devise strategies of intervention – produce knowledge about change in higher education institutions – enable sharing of experience

Methodology field notes and informal interviews: – decisions, arguments, views, debates, critical incidents, official policies,... questionnaires: – patterns of software usage – arguments for choosing software – opinion about the importance of FOSS in the academic context – opinion about the importance of FOSS in future professional contexts

Methodology: questionnaires 2 questionnaires same dimensions, different future scenarios: – Teacher Education version – Multimedia and Plastic Arts version specifically designed + hosted online tested with 6 students invitation via Moodle + teachers

Data analysis descriptive statistic + content analysis: is FOSS used? how is FOSS interpreted by students? – in their current academic context – in their future professional practice is the ethical dimension relevant for software decisions? differences between the 2 programs?

snapshot of the programs... Arts – 3 yrs. – 40% ICT related – ICT as a learning + creation tool Teach. Ed. – 4 yrs. (new 3+1) – 2 or 3 ICT courses – ICT as a learning + teaching tool

snapshot of the programs... Arts – usage of FOSS tools in 3 courses – final projects w/ Blender, Cinalerra, Processing, Gimp Teach. Ed. – usage of FOSS tools in 2/3 ICT courses – final projects w/ Audacity, Evolvotron, Squeak, TuxPaint (w/ children)

Results: participants + OS

Results: top 10 used apps Arts – Adobe Photoshop (90%) – Macromedia Flash (60%) – Internet Explorer (50%) – Microsoft Word (50%) – Corel Draw (40%) – Mozilla Firefox (40%) – Adobe InDesign (35%) – Adobe Illustrator (30%) – Adobe Audition (30%) – AutoDesk Maya (25%) Teach. Ed. – Microsoft Word (85%) – Microsoft Powerpoint (68%) – Internet Explorer (66%) – Microsoft Paint (62%) – Microsoft Excel (38%) – Kompozer (32%) – Adobe Photoshop (25%) – Microsoft MovieMaker (20%) – Open Office Writer (11%) – Mozilla Firefox (11%)

Results: nature of copies (arts)

Results: nature of copies (t. ed.)

Results: reported use of FOSS Do you usually use FOSS?

Results: reported use of FOSS installed applications Arts – Blender (70%) – Mozilla Firefox (40%) – Nvu (50%) – 2 students have none – all 17 listed are installed at least one time Teach. Ed. – Kompozer (46%) – Nvu (34%) – Firefox and Writer (22%) – 26% students don't have or don't know if they have any FOSS installed – 15/17 listed FOSS are installed at least one time

Results: criteria for choosing software (present) Arts – Efficiency (31%) – School work (23%) – Usability (15%) – Appropriate to task (12%) – Other: Price FOSS Fashion Whatever Teach. Ed. – Appropriate to task (29%) – Usability (20%) – Efficiency (11%) – Whatever comes w/PC (11%) – Someone else chooses (5%) – Don't know (5%) – Other: Price FOSS Fashion Windows

Results: criteria for choosing software - future professional scenarios no restrictions faced w/illegal situation lack of financial resources what would you do? why?

Results: criteria for choosing software - future professional scenarios no restrictions “the best” proprietary FOSS ARTS TEACH. ED. 65% 15% 10% 26% 38% 18% (prop)(???) ✔ efficiency ✔ habit ✔ “standard” ✔ usability (for children)

Results: criteria for choosing software - future professional scenarios faced w/illegal situation buy proprietary FOSS ARTS TEACH. ED. 50% 25% 18% 42% ✔ 50% afraid ✔ 50% ethical (FOSS when ethical) ✔ 34% ethical ✔ 22% afraid “no problem”10% 28%

Results: criteria for choosing software - future professional scenarios lack of financial resources buy proprietary FOSS ARTS TEACH. ED. 30% 50% 18% 42% ✔ money ✔ ethical ✔ 57% money ✔ 17% free ✔ 11% ethical available prop copy20% 28% ✔ habit ✔ efficiency

Results: criteria for choosing software - future professional scenarios strongest arguments afraid habit ARTS TEACH. ED. efficiency26% ethical efficiency 23% 17% financial31% 17% 15% financial efficiency 25% 20% COMBINED legal 35%

Results: in 12 months, will you use FOSS? FOSS OS FOSS

Results: strongest ideas Teach. ed. - very little awareness of software choices - basic software usage - sensible to ethical issues and financial arguments - concerns about future usage of children (usability, “standard”, best educational software) - “doorway” to school system

Results: strongest ideas Arts - very little awareness of software alternatives - complex software usage but emphasis on tools not on artistic processes - sensible to efficiency demonstrations and financial arguments - concerns about industry

Our future settings... Multimedia Lab > art students ICT courses – only foss >all programs Create content > teach. ed. students and teachers Projects w/ children > teach. ed. students continue to include foss topics in courses invite other teachers to join foster school identity – foss establish partnerships, social networks (other projects, groups) FOSS Day > school community free Open Office + FOSS workshops >local community and teachers

Early adoption of Free and Open Source Software in a Higher School of Education: students' views in the academic and future professional contexts Nelson Gonçalves - Maria P. Figueiredo - ESEV + CEETS/IPV