Bridging digital divide in schools in developing countries: Perceptions of teachers of free software opportunities

Abstract

21st century information society requires more and more use of ICT (information and communication technology) in everyday life. Nowadays there is much talk about the digital divide, which means economical and social disparities in digital technology use and availability in society of a particular country and among different countries. In this paper we sought to explore teachers knowledge and use of ICT resources in the context of free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS). When relying permanently on free tools there are several benefits which in turn will grow sustainable information society and will fortify economy in larger scale. For the mentioned purpose we use Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) first version. We found that TAM model is not ideal to accomplish mentioned tasks, especially in educational institutions. If teachers will be aware of FLOSS then they can increase ICT resources use in schools in a meaningful way. This in turn will reduce also disparity in schools and we may call it as a digital turn.