OPENSOURCESOFTWAREin Italianschools anationalsurvey GiovannaSissa OsservatorioTecnologico MinistryofEducationUniversityandResearch Italy IIOpenSourceWorldConference MALAGA 15thFebruary2006
OsservatorioTecnologico Since1999providesservicesforOSSatschool ReportsabouttheLinuxdistributionandotherFLOSS Suggestionsforthemigrationprocess Reviewofpapers,slidesandarticlesaboutthetopicofFLOSS DatarepositoriesaboutFLOSSinItalianschools
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TheSURVEY UseandDevelopmentofFreeLibreOpenSource Software(FLOSS)inItalianschools LaunchedonMay2005 Firstresults:June2005 BasedonadetailedanalysisofFLOSSexperiencesofmorethanone hundreditalianschools
THESURVEYMETHODOLOGY Theschoolshavetoprovide: adetaileddescriptionoftheexperienceonuseor developmentoffloss and SomedataaboutFLOSS
THEDESCRIPTIONSTOSUPPLY Schoolsfilledaformgivingresponsestoquestionssuchas: whowasinvolvedintheopensourceadoptionprocess whatkindofskillswerenecessary whythechoicetouseit howtheyuseditinclassroomactivity feedbackfromthestudents Descriptiveknowledge
Theformtofill
ThedataaboutOSSinschool ThedataonFLOSSwereputinthedatabaseof hardwareandsoftwareenvironmentofitalianschools ThedatabasebelongstotheItalianMinistryofEducation Data
Therequireddata
Therequireddata
Therequireddata
Onehundredschoolsfilledthespecificform and providedtherequesteddatatotheministryofeducation database
Thesetofthefilledformsanddataaretheknowledge baseofthesurvey Foreachschooldescriptionanddataarepublishedon theosservatoriotecnologicowebsite Theschoolsaregroupedbyregion
Thesurveyontheweb www.osservatoriotecnologico.it/en/software/exp/index.htm
USEofOSS maincategories TechnicalinfrastructureandNetworkmanagement UseofOSSinthecurriculum InternetservicesforCommunicationactivities SchoolAdministrationandmanagementSystem DevelopmentofSoftwareApplicationsforclassroom
Overallobservations Theschoolsinvolvedaredistributedthroughoutnationalterritory Someareasofexcellenceandsomeclusters Manyexperiencesarecomputersciencetrainingorientedand consistofcoursesorlecturesonopensourcesoftwareforstudents Oftentheexperiencesincludetheimplementationofnetworkand ICTinfrastructures(laboratories,testcentres,etc)intotheschool, implementedwithfloss
Theresults Refreshercoursesforteachersareheldonthebasicissuesof FLOSS,oftenrelatedtopreviousteachertrainingprocesses OpensourceplatformsforE learningandcontentmanagement System SeveralkindsofFLOSSareused(notonlyLinux) Significantpartnershipwithlocalcorporationsandpublic administrations OnlyfewveryinterestingprojectsarefocusedonFLOSS development
REGIONALCLUSTERING TwoInstitutionsin specialstatuteregions havedefinitely chosenfloss: RegioneAutonomaValled Aosta IntendenzaScolasticaItalianadiBolzano OthertwoRegionshaveinterestingexperiences ThePiemonteregion:thereisthehighernumberofgood practicesonfloss TheLombardiaregion
STRENGHTS... Widediversityofexperiences profusionofideas operativesolutions ThevarietyofadoptedopensourcesolutionswithintheItalianschools canhelpsolvemanyfundamentalschoolproblems,as,forexample: internalorganization, externalcommunication educationissues.
...andweaknesses Lackofmaturityindesign Lackofprofessionalhumanresourcesinschoolsbothintermsofopensource skillsandofthenumberofittrainedteachersavailable Needofintegrationofvariousopensourceandproprietaryplatforms
Thissurveyisacasestudy OpenSourceObservatoryoftheEuropeanCommission http://europa.eu.int/idabc/en/document/4687/470
UPCOMINGPROJECTS AND RESEARCHACTIVITIES of OsservatorioTecnologico aboutfloss
RASIS(ReteAperteeSoluzioniIntegrate perlescuole) TheprojectRASISaimstosupportschoolstoidentify theirneedsabouttheuseofinformationtechnology Theinitiativeintendstoprovidestandardizedguidelines foropensourcesoftwareatschoolsusingamodelling languageasuml Thisapproachisfundamentaltoenabletheaggregationof schoolandtheflosscanhelptomatchschooldemand withictenterprisesupply
E lezioniwithlinux 150schoolsoftheLiguriaRegionreceived2.500computersfromtheCentral Governmentwithnosoftwarepre installed WeproposeLinuxasalternativetoproprietaryOperatingSystem,thusachieving significantcost savingsthroughtheuseoflinux InordertohavesomefeedbackaboutLinuxuse,weplannedtomonitorifandhow teachersandstudentsuselinux,whicharetheapplicationprogramsmostused,for howlong,andifsometrendsareemerging Monitoringwillbecarriedonautomatically,withthewrittenpermissionofthe schoolsdirectors.wewillcaptureonlyinformationaboutuser'sprocesses, respectingtheuser'sprivacy
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