<p> Use of free and open source software (FOSS) by teachers in public schools is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there were statistically significant differences among teachers who use FOSS in the classroom, teachers who use proprietary software in the classroom, and teachers who do not use software in the classroom at all, with the goal to propose ways to mitigate barriers to implementation of FOSS by teachers in public schools. The research design was quasi-experimental. Independent t tests were used to measure differences among the three groups on the following independent variables: age of respondent in years, years of teaching experience, primary subject area taught, level of education, number of years of experience in using technology, number of district training sessions or technology initiatives attended in the previous 12 months, impact of school site leadership on implementation of technology in the classroom, and impact of district technology initiatives on implementation of technology in the classroom. The results revealed statistically significant differences only concerning the impact of school site leadership as reported by teachers who used FOSS and teachers who used proprietary software. Recommendations to encourage teachers’ use of FOSS included establishing collaborative processes by instructional staff, administration and information technology personnel to identify and assess appropriate FOSS solutions, training opportunities in the use of FOSS in the classroom, and guidelines to monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the selected software solutions (proprietary and FOSS).</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3701746 |
| Date | 16 May 2015 |
| Creators | Coleman, Samuel |
| Publisher | Alliant International University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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