Information and Knowledge Management using ArcGIS ModelBuilder

How Open Source Software Products: Can Support
Teaching in Italian Schools
Chiara Friso, Valentina Lenarduzzi, Davide Taibi and Davide Tosi
University of Insubria, Como, Italy
chiarafriso@unicatt.it
valentina.lenarduzzi
davide.tabi
davide.tosi]@uninsubria.it
Abstract: In Italy, the adoption of modern software technologies is strongly limited by the current critical
economic situation. The adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) solutions can mitigate this problem because of
the nature of OSS products that helps to cut down on costs by providing modern and flexible products. However,
very often school managers and teachers are unaware about the availability of powerful OSS tools that can
support teachers and school managers in their daily work. In this paper we provide a literature survey about the
available experiences and projects on the adoption of OSS solutions started in Italian schools and we list a set of
available OSS digital class rolls already experimented in Italian schools. The two surveys aim at suggesting how
to start new projects avoiding common risks and how to exploit the potentialities of OSS solutions for didactical
purposes. In this paper, we also qualitatively assess the listed OSS class rolls with our OP2A methodology in
order to suggest which tool is the best choice for the adoption.
Keywords: open source software, primary schools, high level schools, systematic survey, OP2A, OSS quality,
OSS trustworthiness, digital class rolls
1. Introduction
The current critical economic situation in Italy is impacting on how primary and high-level schools can
exploit the usage of software and modern technologies to support both teaching and internal
administration and management. This can stimulate schools to evaluate the potentialities provided by
Open Source Software (OSS) solutions because of the nature of OSS products that helps to cut down
on costs by providing modern and flexible products. However, the vast majority of school managers
and teachers can face with three types of problems: the first one is related to the school managers
and teachers’ unawareness about OSS solutions; the second one is related to the reluctancy normal
people have about OSS products, due to the wrong idea that they may have on the quality of OSS
products; the last one refers to the difficulties in choosing the best solution that fits specific
requirements.
The usage and adoption of ICT technologies in Italian schools is very poor. In a survey conducted by
the Italian Osservatorio TEcnologico (OTE) in 2005, the number of schools that adopted a Linux
distribution for their personal computers was limited to 1000 (Battistoni, 2008). If compared to the total
number of Italian schools (at the time of writing, 60000), the ratio is worrying. Moreover, projects
about the adoption of new software technologies are not systematic and come from the rare initiative
of teachers that are privately interested in technologies (Battistoni, 2008). The Regione Autonoma
Valle d’Aosta and the Provincia di Bolzano are two exceptions in Italy (Rossi et al., 2006). These
realities started two pioneer projects to completely migrate their schools from proprietary software to
OSS solutions (FUSS, 2005).
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Italian schools do not have the economical possibility to invest in
the adoption of new software solutions. However, a plethora of OSS solutions, which can support
managers, teachers and students in the educational work, are currently available online for free. For
example, a quick look at the web portal www.sourceforge.net can confirm this statement: the portal
lists more than 450 OSS projects related to education.
This paper tries to help school managers and teachers to understand how OSS solutions can actually
improve their management and teaching activities and suggests a set of OSS products for their daily
work. The paper provides a survey on how OSS is used in some Italian schools to report on success
stories and to suggest how to adopt successfully OSS avoiding critical risks. The paper gives a review
about past and still active Italian projects on the adoption of OSS products. The survey has been
conducted by investigating and analyzing both projects with the purpose of developing OSS products
specifically designed for schools, and also experiences in adopting OSS products.
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