Impact of Free Software in Schools in the Department of Santa Ana

Abstract

The results of research on the impact of free software for teaching and learning in public educational institutions, and those that have support from the Ministry of Education in Santa Ana, El Salvador, are presented.

Traditionally, educational centers in El Salvador in the area of computer science have taught proprietary software from Microsoft: Windows system and Office. In recent years the government has decided not to continue paying licenses for this software, so schools must migrate to free software and teach the Linux system and the LibreOffice or OpenOffice suite.

The descriptive study, using surveys of teachers and computer classroom coordinators in selected educational centers, determined the level of progress in adopting free software, the level of teacher preparation for teaching, its influence on students, and the difficulties encountered in the process.