Open Options | What are educators using?

The survey is open to anyone using open source in K-12, and was publicized in the K-12 open source community. The survey tries to answer a few main questions about current users:

Who are they?
What are they using?
Are they using open source on the desktop?
Is it difficult to use open source in K-12?
What solutions do they recommend?
What are their general opinions about open source?

For more details about the survey, see "Our survey results"

The survey also asked about their motivations, and those results are discussed in "Why do educators choose open source?"

To participate in the ongoing survey, go to: http://www.netc.org/surveys/oss/oss.asp

Who are they?

The majority of the survey respondents are managers who work equally in schools and districts. Their districts are more rural, than suburban, than urban. Of the respondents who work in schools, most work in high schools with the majority serving student populations of 100-499. Of those who work in districts, the majority serve student populations of 2000 or more. More than half of the respondents don't teach students, more than half have administrative responsibilities, and most choose software for other people's desktop computers. Most respondents are from the United States, although there were more non-U.S. respondents this year than last. About a quarter of the respondents work in Washington and Oregon.

More: "Our survey results: Who are they?"

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What are they using?

Educators are primarily using open source on the backend, for Web hosting, Web filtering, email, and similar solutions. They prefer the Linux operating system, and many use recycled hardware. By deploying Linux, Apache, and other backend solutions, educators are leveraging the most mature, robust solutions the open source movement has created. These open source projects are large and stable, and the community of expertise and support is expansive. The community includes a thriving subpopulation of educators, so current users rely on mailing lists like K12 Open Source Now and community Web sites for advice and support. Many use open source operating systems for their own desktop computers, and many are using thin clients for their stakeholders. They choose open source solutions for the reliability, desirable features, price, and security. On the frontend they also look for interoperability.

More: "Our survey results: What are they using?"

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Are they using open source on the desktop?

Most respondents (61%) use open source on the backend, but far fewer use it on the desktop (37%). This may reflect the long maturity of open source solutions for servers, compared to the more recent development of user friendly frontend solutions (e.g. Mozilla, OpenOffice.org). This may also reflect the greater ease of migration on the backend.

More: "Our survey results: Are they using open source on the desktop?"

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Is it difficult to use open source in K-12?

Compared to similar solutions, most respondents find implementing most solutions easier or about the same difficulty. In write-in responses and interviews, some educators explain that migration and initial deployment can be challenging, but the solutions are more reliable and otherwise satisfactory in the long term. Resistence by supervisors or other stakeholders is light, perhaps no more than resistance to any migration in technology. In write-in responses and interviews, some educators describe significant user resistence to changing operating systems, largely based on mindshare. Much of this resistence dissolves when users began to appreciate the new operating system or decide it's a trivial part of their computing.

More: "Our survey results: Is it difficult to use open source in K-12?"

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What solutions do they recommend?

Red Hat Linux is popular among respondents, including K12LTSP (a distro built from Red Hat Linux). The partially reflects how the survey was publicized, as well as the relatively expansive community of Red Hat/K12LTSP educators. The minority responses reflect the variety of opinions and TMTOWTDI in the open source community. On the backend, Apache and SquidGuard are popular. Many respondents recommend OpenOffice.org, the GIMP, and Mozilla as frontend solutions.

More: "Our survey results: What solutions do they recommend?"

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What are their general opinions about open source?

Nearly all respondents think that some open source solutions are mature enough for schools. (This is not surprising since they're deploying solutions in school.) Most want to use more open source solutions where they can. In write-in responses and interviews, some educators explain their plans for incremental migration as new solutions mature and the community grows. Most are pragmatic about choosing solutions based on their needs, while some continue to be influenced by the values and philosophy of the open source movement. In write-in responses and interviews, some educators explain that they want to use more open source software, but that they would never deploy an inferior solution or otherwise neglect their professional responsibilities to their stakeholders.

More: "Our survey results: What are their general opinions about open source?"

Many write-in responses are included in the highlights from the interviews.

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Open Options is a product of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These materials are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission. The following acknowledgment is requested on materials which are reproduced: Developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Portland, Oregon.

This Web site was developed and maintained by the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium. The federal funding for the regional technology consortia program ended on September 30, 2005, and no further updates are planned unless additional funding becomes available. However, much of the content is still useful and NWREL will continue to provide access to this site to support educators and to meet its own technical assistance needs.