Open Source Applications:Meagan Petron, Kristopher Hoffman, Dustin Drager, and Matthew Leisen

Research Methods:Since we were looking at a certain age demographic, the only variable here to poll was whether the person taking the survey was male or female. We set out to find the answers to various questions concerning the free downloadable or freely accessible software/programs available for our use by placing them on Surveymonkey.com. We wanted to have the questions be encompassing with room for the individual’s experience. This was done by allowing room, on applicable questions, to freely type. The following were the questions prompted in our survey: 1.) Are you… (Male/ Female) 2.) What free, downloadable programs do you use? (Facebook, Myspace, MSN Messenger, Trillion, AOL Messenger, Skype, iTunes, Other (please specify))  3.) Would you use these programs is there was a fee? (Yes, No, Depends on frequency of Fee)  4.) How often do you use these programs? (More, than 5 times a day, 1-4 times per day, weekly, monthly, yearly, other (please specify)) 5.) What programs do you use for your leisure? (Open-ended)  6.) What programs do you use strictly for academic purposes? (Open-ended)   7.) In my opinion, open source materials are valuable in a classroom setting. **Open Sources- Any programs that are available to anyone to view or use for free. **(True/False)  8.) Open Source Applications (downloadable programs) have opportunities to save schools money. (True/False) 9.) Would you benefit from a continued free market (no cost) when dealing with Open Source Applications? (Yes, No, Not sure)  10.) By using Open Source Applications, in my opinion, the money saved should go to: (Buying better computers, staff training, increase in staff/faculty salary, building/ground maintenance, other (please specify))

Findings:

Conclusions:Introduction

We learned a great deal from our internet research about open sources being used in an educational setting. There were many positive opinions voiced in the articles that we found. However, as we continued to research, there were numerous negative opinions as well. Our knowledge was expanded, as we learned that open source software could be used throughout or school systems to make them a better place for our children to learn. With advancing our knowledge from our research, we concluded that the best way to explain open source software is with the idea of free downloadable software.

We gathered many positive opinions about open source software in educational settings. A common trend we saw in our research was about open source software and how it can save the school districts a lot of money; and in these tough finical times, finding ways to cut spending will appeal more and more to schools causing them to lean towards the use of open source software. Name brand software can be extremely expensive for school districts to install on all of their computers whereas if they had open source software; they could take that money and put it towards other needs the school may have. Open source software is becoming more and more popular in schools because of the zero-cost which gives the school districts options to use their funds elsewhere.   Also, while doing our research, we gathered many negative opinions about using open software in our school systems. The main negative trend we found was about open sourcing is that good things don’t come free, even though it may not cost anything, there are many glitches that come along with it. Most of the software that schools use from open sourcing is based right off the internet and anyone can access it and change whatever they want to, such as a site like Wikipedia, where user-generated content is most of the site.

Our group feels that open source software is a great way for schools to save money but in order from them to become the basis or our software they need to become more stable and reliable.

Introduction We learned a great deal from our internet research about open sources being used in an educational setting. There were many positive opinions voiced in the articles that we found. However, as we continued to research, there were numerous negative opinions as well. Our knowledge was expanded, as we learned that open source software could be used throughout or school systems to make them a better place for our children to learn. With advancing our knowledge from our research, we concluded that the best way to explain open source software is with the idea of free downloadable software.

We gathered many positive opinions about open source software in educational settings. A common trend we saw in our research was about open source software and how it can save the school districts a lot of money; and in these tough finical times, finding ways to cut spending will appeal more and more to schools causing them to lean towards the use of open source software. Name brand software can be extremely expensive for school districts to install on all of their computers whereas if they had open source software; they could take that money and put it towards other needs the school may have. Open source software is becoming more and more popular in schools because of the zero-cost which gives the school districts options to use their funds elsewhere.   Also, while doing our research, we gathered many negative opinions about using open software in our school systems. The main negative trend we found was about open sourcing is that good things don’t come free, even though it may not cost anything, there are many glitches that come along with it. Most of the software that schools use from open sourcing is based right off the internet and anyone can access it and change whatever they want to, such as a site like Wikipedia, where user-generated content is most of the site.

Our group feels that open source software is a great way for schools to save money but in order from them to become the basis or our software they need to become more stable and reliable.

What free, downloadable programs do you use?

-Haddad, I. & Benard, F. Good and bad reasons to open source your software. (2007.) Retrieved on May 14, 2009 from SYS-CON Media, INC. Found at the website: http://opensource.sys-con.com/node/431545  -Hart, T. Open source in education. (2003.) Retrieved on May 14, 2009 from the website: http://portfolio.umaine.edu/~hartt/OS%20in%20Education.pdf.  -How the open source 0ovement has changed education: 10 Success Stories. (2007.) Retrieved on May 12, 2009 from the “Online Education Database” at http://oedb.org/library/features/how-the-open-source-movement-has-changed-education-10-success-stories.  -Vessles, T. (2001-2007.) Why open source software should be used in schools. Verbatim copying of this article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. Retrieved on May 14, 2009 from: http://edge-op.org/grouch/schools.html -Wheeler, S., Yeomans, P., Wheeler, D. (2008.) The good, the bad, and the wiki: evaluating student-generated content for collaborative learning. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier originally from “British Journal of Educational Technology.”

We found that most of the people that we surveyed use open source

resources between 1 and 4 times a day.

The graph represents examples of popular downloadable programs that are used by the college

students that we surveyed. The graph shows the extreme variety between programs.

Our group originally hypothesized that more people would answer staff training to this question. Our results indicated in this graph that the people surveyed would

prefer that better computers be purchased with the money saved from the use of open-source applications.

By using open source applications, in my opinion, the money saved should go to:

This was a very exciting project for our group, because all of the group members used at least one open-source application on a daily basis. And, really, we were all a little excited at the possibility of being able to apply our knowledge of these existing programs to potentially use them in an educational setting. Our results from our survey indicated that our peers that we surveyed showed that they felt the same way we did. A majority (more than 2/3 of those surveyed) believe that open-source programs also have applications in a classroom. Knowing that our beliefs were validated by those our peers, we feel stronger than before that open-source applications can have a huge impact in an educational setting. The use of these programs would allow us, as future teachers, to do activities with children on the other side of the world. As a group, we feel that advantages like these can not be ignored. If we have programs and applications such as the ones discussed in this project, and we do not take advantage of them, we would not be doing our best to improve the education of our students. Not to mention that these applications are free, which could save districts money in the long and short term.

****Throughout the course of this project we found that there is generally no difference between the men and women that we surveyed in terms of their opinions towards the use of open source materials in the classroom. However, a majority of people feel that there are good ways to use these applications to enhance student learning and also to decrease cost of educational resources in a district. There were even a few people who suggested that the money saved from the use of open source materials could even be put towards athletics and better maintenance of athletic facilities. Overall, the response to our survey was pretty over-whelming ,with 46 participants in such a short time; and we feel as though we got some very good and usable data that backed up our original conclusion that there are virtually limitless applications of open source materials to enhance classroom learning.****

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