REPORT ON OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE (OSS) AND LEARNING ABOUT

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT)

Members:
1- Norafazira binti Royal (A149295)
2- Nor Hanisah Binti Abdullah (A150339)
3- Fionna Anak Jeffery ( A151239 )
4-Tuan Nur Afzan Binti Tuan Nazam ( A150980 )

Group

: T1

Lecturer : Dr. Fariza Binti Khalid

1.1 Introduction...2
1.2 Literature background
1.2.1

A History of Free and Open Source Software.2

1.2.2

Open Source Software3

1.2.3

Criteria of Open Source Software..4

1.2.4

Benefits of Open Source Software5

1.2.1

History

of

Learning

Information

and

Communication

Technology5
1.2.2 Learning Information and Communication Technology.6
1.2.3

Benefits

of

Learning

Information

and

Communication

Technology6
3.0 Research Objective.7
4.0 Research Methodology8
4.1 Participants..8
4.2 Data Collection Method.8
4.3 Data Analysis10
5.0 Findings
5.1 Demographic Data12
5.2 Type of Software Used by Students13
5.3 Students Knowledge about Open Source Software15
5.4Knowledge Of Students About Information and Communication
Technology (ICT)24
5.5 Students Exposure on Information and Communication Technology.29
5.6 Significance Of ICT Usage In Students Lives..31
6.0 Discussion..39
7.0 Conclusion.41
8.0 Reference42

TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0 Introduction
Open Source Software (OSS) is software whose source code is available for modification
or enhancement by anyone without being charged or having to pay any royalties. In addition, the
source code can be accessed without limits to any person since it is publicly shared. Last but not
least, only the programmer who created the software have to request the release license and it is
privileged to the other users.
Learning Internet and Communicative Technology is a learning process which involves
technologies and at the same time, it is a learning process to enhance ones communication skills.
1.1 Literature review

1.1.1 A History of Free and Open Source Software

The idea of creating OSS burst out because of the incident involving an
annoying printer that could not be fixed due to the fact that the source code was
withheld from users. He also got in a disagreement between Stallman and
Symbolic Inc. over an updates of a lisp machine involving MIT code. Not long
after that he opened the free software foundation for the reason to promote and
publish the concept of free software. So, in the year of 1983, Richard Stallman
decided to design a system that is completely free from any limitation or
restriction in using or fixing the source code which is called the GNU Project. In
1985, he published an outline called the GNU Manifesto, which explained the
purpose and importance of free software.

1.1.2 Open Source Software

The term open source is actually referring to something that can be
edited since the design can be access publicly which means the source code is

available to the world to be used, modified, prototyped free of charge, which will
assists in community development .
Richard M Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, uses the
illustration of cookery and food. How would we experience the world around us if
recipes were not freely available or free to change and modify? What would it be
like if we committed a crime every time we made a copy of the recipe or gave it
to someone else?
In other words, we can say that open source software means a software
that its source code is freely accessible so that the software can be freely used,
changed, improved, copied and distributed by all who wish to do so. This source
is basically created to allow collaborative works and the programmers are able to
share changes with the community.
1.1.3 Criteria of Open Source Software
There are a range of types of open source licences, with very important
differences that will be discussed below. It is worth noting that the term open
source has entered widespread use, and in consequence its meaning has been
somewhat uncleared. However, a key definitional source is the Open Source
Definition document maintained by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), a non-profit
corporation. Software licences which meet the terms of the OSI Open Source
Definition can be certified by OSI and display the OSI Certified Open Source
Software certification mark ( Charlesworth & Grant 2006).
First, unrestricted distribution which means all the users can use,copy or
prototyped and even sell the software without paying any charges or taxes.
Second, source code distribution. It means that the code of entire product must be
easily modified and during in the absence of the source code, the product must be
made to a reasonable,lower price resource where other users can obtain it. Third,
modifications . The licenses allow modifications for unlimited person, venue or
time and its terms remain unchanged for distribution for improved versions.

Fourth, no personal discrimination or in other word, nobody, either a

person or a group, shall be discriminated against during open source product
distribution. OSS are open for everyone regardless what races a person is. Fifth,
no restriction on application means that OSS can be used in any field and for any
purposes which will assists in community growth. Sixth, the privileges attached to
the original program extend to all who received the program, so recipients do not
need to apply for a separate license. Only the programmers have to apply and
obtain the license, after that, the users of OSS just follow the privileges for the
original programs and there is no need to redo the license.
Seventh, no restrictions are allowed on distribution of OSS products
bundled with product developed on other software platform. The usage of OSS is
so wide in range and universal and can be used simultaneously with other
software. Technology neutrality, license should not be issued on the basis on
specific technology involved.
1.1.4 Benefits of OSS
Based on Digital Connections Council (2006) despite the criticism on
OSS, there are many factors why programmers contribute to open-source efforts
which are the culture of sharing, the desire to contribute to a communal effort, the
sheer joy of creation, the feeling of accomplishment for solving a difficult
problem, the reputational gains from a highly regarded piece of work and the
expectation of reciprocity from helping those who might later help the user.
The sharing feature just like the definition of OSS suggests is favourable
by most internet users where software can be shared to anyone.

1.2.1 A History of Learning Internet and Communication technologies (ICT)

Information and communications technology (ICT) in education has been
taken up by educators and educational researchers since the 1980s with varied
success, although it is the relatively new uses of the internet and World Wide Web
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that are stimulating new demands and expectations in education, even if research
to guide best practice remains scant. In order to identify the trends occurring in
ICT in education and research, the author starts with a brief history that has a
number of implications that might help us to think about the pathways that ICT
may take in an education context. From this brief history, three obvious
implications emerge for ICT in education. Firstly, the computer has become a
productivity and communication networking device beyond its uses as a
standalone machine in its first incarnation. Secondly, the new trend towards SaaS
services from remote locations no longer requires the purchase and installation of
desktop software productivity applications, but does require access to the Internet.
Lastly, the www as a platform for interactive communication is changing the
expectations of experienced and connected online users from a 'push' to a 'pull'
model of communication (Gerald K. White, 2008).
1.2.2 Learning ICT
ICT is the acronym for Information and Communication Technologies. It
can be used to access for information through telecommunications. It is the quite
similar as Information Technology (IT) but give more focus on communication
technologies. Learning about ICT means an high exposure to knowledge
regarding ICT to learners.

1.2.3 Benefits of Learning Information and Communication Technology

Learning ICT has affected us through many ways and changes few aspects
of our life. ICT is broadly used in nowadays life in order to lighten up the burden
and enable human to do their work with ease. Now, we are going to discuss about
the benefits of learning ICT.

The benefit of learning ICT that we can clearly see is that ICT learning
enables information and knowledge to travel faster and further. The next benefit is
ICT supports information and knowledge sharing on a large scale. In order to
conclude these two points, we should know that ICT is known as a borderless
which makes the information and knowledge can be spread in an unlimited space
in the internet network so thats explain how information and knowledge can travel
faster and further in a larger scale.
ICT in a way can makes available just-in-time information and knowledge
for learning since it is using internet in making it functioning, we can use the
internet to seek knowledge and information. By doing that, all the information is
up-to-date and we are able to make them as references and able to study better.
Looking to the future, we found that ICT learning has brought about revolutionary
advances in distance learning which the educator and the learner is no longer need
to meet up so the learning session can happen. They can learn through various
ways and one of them is flipped classes which is already been implemented in our
education field nowadays. Last but not least, we have reach at the most important
part of the benefit of learning ICT that is it can significantly reduce learning costs
in many ways. For example, we do not have to buy thick,heavy reference books
since there is online reference sources provided. We also do not have to waste
paper by printing out the lecture note since we can keep it in documents in the
laptop or computer or even smartphone.
In conclusion, there are a lot of benefits that we can gain by learning ICT
and we only need to make use of them instead of let it be wasted.

3.0 Research Objective

1.
2.
3.
4.

To know the kind of software used by students.

To test the students knowledge about Open Source Software.
To find out the knowledge of students about ICT.
To know how far these students are exposed to the usage of ICT.

5. To figure out how significant ICT has been used in the students lives for formal and informal
matters.

4.0 Research methodology

We used the same topics as the ones we presented in class. By using the presentation
slides, we started to find the objectives of doing this survey and brainstorm any related ideas to
be asked. After that, we started to create possible questions that come out from our mind. The
questions are then were sorted off to from simple to complex ones as well as according to the
type of questions whether it is a yes no question, scale, multiple choice or open answer. These
methods were done by using Google Docs. After finalising all the questions that we wanted to
ask, we transferred all the questions into Google Form and created the survey form. The link that
we get was then spreaded by using different social websites such as Weebly forum, Facebook
and Whatsapp group.
4.1 Participants
The participants involved in this survey consist of students from UKM and other
institutions which were 14 males and 72 females. 56 of them are from courses other than
Faculty of Education, 24 of them are TESL students while 7 are from Special Education
program. None of them are from Sport and Recreational program. The highest age range
that contributed in this survey is between 15 to 19 years old with a number of 67 people.
Then, followed by age range between 20 to 24 with a number of 15 people.The age range
from 25 to 29 and 30 and above have the least contributor which is 1 and 2 respectively.
4.2 Data collection method
The data was collected using an online questionnaire which we use Google Docs
to discuss about related questions and after that, the questions were developed via Google
Form. There were 48 questions asked to the respondents which covered the topic on OSS
and also Learning ICT. From 48 questions, there are 19 questions for OSS and 29
questions for ICT.
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Diagram 1 : Our discussion sheet on questions about OSS and ICT via Google Docs

Diagram 2 : Our finalised questionnaire on Google Form

4.3 Data analysis

After we have reached a number of respondents, we decided to turn of the forms
and started to do the analysis of the data collected over a period of time. Overall, we got
88 respondents which make our survey a success. The data is not manually analyzed
since we used the Google Forms which make our works much easier. We got the
summary of the survey and so, we do some study on data analysis.
Since we implement both descriptive and qualitative questions in the survey
forms, we have to analyze the question in both ways too. We used the varieties of
questions type so that the respondents will not get bored and interested to fill up the
forms.
Descriptive analysis is the discipline of quantitatively describing the main features
of a collection of data which by means we do the analysis by using numbers. We

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calculate the total on respondents, the means and also the percentage so that we could do
some conclusion for this survey.

For example, we picked a question about gender. The total who answered this
question is 86 and total of male is 14 while total of female is 72. The mean is calculated
by summing up the total and divide by two so we get a mean value that is 43. Next, we
shall calculate the percentage. The percentage of male is calculated by dividing the total
of male with the sum of male and female then multiple by 100 percent. That way, we got
16 percent of male who answered the question. For females percentage, repeat the same
steps but use the total of female so we can get 84 percent for female.
We were also provided some question in terms of scale. The respondents have to
rate between one to five ; One(Totally disagree), Two(disagree), Three(Neutral),
Four(Agree), Five(Totally agree) so we have to analyse the data qualitatively. We also
provided some space to allow the respondents to give suggestions.
Qualitative data is harder to analyse than quantitative data. It is useful for studies
at individual level such as survey forms which is done individually and we are able to
find out, in depth, what are people out there are actually think or feel.
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5.0 Findings
In our questionnaire, we divided the questions into 3 sections which are students background
(Gender, Age, Course, Academic Level), Section 1 about Open Source Software (OSS) and
Section 2 regarding Learning about Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
5.1 Demographic data
Students Background

Diagram 3 : Gender Distribution

After doing this research, we found out that most participants are female which is 82 percent
whereas 16 percent of them are male which shows that there is less participation from male
compared to female since the large difference of number.

Diagram 4 : Age Distributions

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Most of the participants are university students aged 19 and below whereas some of them age
between 20 to 24 years old. Three of the participants are 25 years old and above.

Diagram 5 : Course Distributions

For the course taken by the respondents, 64 percent of them are from other than Faculty of
Education. 27 percent are from TESL and 8 percent are students from Special Education. None
of the respondents are from Sports and Recreational program.

Diagram 6 : Academic Level Distributions

After the survey, we found that there are varieties of academic background/level who had
contributed in our survey. With the highest rating, matriculation/foundation with a number of 68
people followed by STPM/STAM with a number of 9, 6 people from SPM level and 5 people
from diploma level.
5.2 Type Of Software Used By Students
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Based on our study, we discovered the kind of software used by our respondents to later be
analysed and it is one of our main objectives.

Diagram 10
As we have observed, from the diagram we can say that almost all of the participants of the
survey are fond of using the search engine of Mozilla Firefox which is one of Open Source
Software with the total of 95% while the rest with the total 3% never use the software at all.
From Diagram 10, we found out that almost all the respondents are using Mozilla Firefox which
tell us that most people are using Open Source Software with or without them knowing it.

Diagram 11
Based on our observation after the survey, a total of 81% participants used Mozilla Firefox not
more than 5 times. The rate of usage of Mozilla Firefox is daily but only for few times only. We
can assume that maybe they are using other OSS.
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Diagram 12
Based on Diagram 12, most of the respondents are exposed to using one of the OSS which is
Mozilla Firefox since they are young which aged between 11 to 15 years old.

Diagram 13
Based on Diagram 13, the majority of respondents use Open Office aside from Firefox by 64%
compared to other OSS like Gnome, Moodle, Linux and Apache, the users are less than 20%.
Less exposure to OSS is the factor of the low usage of the softwares.

5.3 Students Knowledge About Open Source Software.

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Our second objective is to investigate students knowledge about OSS and we received
responses from our respondents in form of objective and subjective answers.

Diagram 7
The diagram above shows that most participants who had taken this survey which about 61
percent of them are aware or have come across the term Open Source Software (OSS) with only
32 participants are not aware of it.

Diagram 8
The diagram above shows that a little more than half of the participants know exactly what is
Open Source Software while the rest do not know anything about this software.

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Diagram 9
From our observation, this diagram stating over half of the participants with a total 51% have
used Open Source Software for anything related to education purposes while a total of 45%
participants have never used it in that way.

Diagram 14
The diagram above shows that generally respondents dont have much knowledge about OSS
hence 39% agreed that OSS is free product while the rest are not sure of the fact. OSS is both
free and charged as programmers can charge money for the open source software they create or
to which they contribute but in the end becomes free for end users.

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Diagram 15
Based on Diagram 15, less than 50% disagreed to the statement while the rest were unsure and
agreed to the statement due to their lack of exposure to OSS.

Diagram 16
Almost half of the respondents disagreed to the statement while 3% agreed to the statement. This
implies their understanding of most OSS are free when it comes to end users.

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Diagram 17
According to Diagram 17, 3.712 agree that all users can access to any OSS with most of them
agree that OSS is accessible for all users.

Diagram 18
According to Question in diagram 18, most of the respondents said that OSS is easy to be used
and managed because they might have used the software and it helps them in many ways.

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Diagram 19
According to Diagram 19, Many of the respondents do not sure that the source code is needed.
They might not know what the source code is. The mean of 2.867 says that source code is needed
before using OSS.

Diagram 20
According to Diagram 20, the mean is 3.571 which shows that they agree using any open source
software is important to help in their learning or when doing assignments.

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Diagram 21
Based on Diagram 21, more than 50% agrees that all students should be exposed to OSS in early
stage as it will help them for their studies.

Diagram 22
According to the respondents based on answers in diagram 22, they are interested to try any
other OSS softwares that they never used before.

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Diagram 23
Looking at Diagram 23, they will ask for help from the ones who knows about OSS in order to
use or to utilize the functions of OSS.

Diagram 24
In Diagram 24, the respondents will search for more information regarding the OSS to know
more about it.

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We provided a space for the respondents to give suggestion.

Do you have any suggestion on how we can expose the functions of OSS to other students?
Their writings are as follows :
1. We can show them in class. Friends share knowledge about OSS with other friends.
2. I don't think Firefox is as important as google. Personally, google chrome is better thus most
students prefer it compare to others. You can't deny the efficiency of google and is 'speed' in the
new highly informatized era.
3. You can compare OSS with the original software such as openoffice with microsoft word or
others.
4. Teachers can use OSS more often in class or as a teaching aids.
5. I'm not sure.
6. No.
7. Campaign.
8. Teachers should be exposed more on the benefits in OSS.
9. Always encourage students to use OSS .
10. Hold seminars, speeches, demonstrations or other programs.
11. I dont even know what is OSS.
12. Video making contest on OSS.
13. Ask the teachers to teach OSS from primary school.
14. Introduce and use OSS in classes.
15. Honestly, I don't know anything about this OSS thingy. I just wanna help u by answering this
survey. Hope it's helping.
16. Campaigns.
17. More advertising on the Internet about this.
18. Build a blog relates to OSS.
19. Include it (briefly) in the course syllabus.
20. Put it in as one of the syllabus in ICT subject.
21. By conducting an open talk about the OSS. Spread the importance of OSS through media social .
22. Expose to the student during the computer lessons.
23. Applying the usage of it frequently in the teaching and learning process.
5.4 : Knowledge Of Students About Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
Based on our mini research, we also aim to find out students level of knowledge on ICT
considering the vast development in technologies today.

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Diagram 27
Based on our observation of the chart above, it stated that over 59 respondents which is 67 per
cent of the chart are aware of the differences between IT and ICT while the rest thought that ICT
and IT are basically the same things. We can assume that most of university students are
confused about the two terms as they are closely almost having the same meaning.

Diagram 28
Based on the diagram shown above, more than half of the respondents which is 49 respondents
that took up 56 per cent of the chart can distinguish between IT and ICT while the rest which are
37 respondents are confused with the two terms took up 42 per cent on the chart.

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Diagram 29
Has brought about revolutionary advances in distance learning
Based on the diagram, we observe that 70 respondent which means 90 per cent agreed with the
statement above and only 6 respondents which is 7 per cent do not agree that the statement is not
the benefit of using ICT in this century.

Diagram 36
From Diagram 36, we can get different answers about purposes of learning ICT which most of
the respondents agrees with the purposes are to gain knowledge in wider range and also to assist
in education purposes.

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Diagram 37
Diagram 37 shows that most of the respondents (min=3.814) agree that they know what ICT is
and surely they know how to use it.

Diagram 41
For the diagram above, the highest percentage is neutral which is 32 percent whereas the lowest
percentage of disagree is 8 percent. The mean of the respondents answer is 3.321 which means
that most of them agree they can teach their friends about ICT.

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Diagram 43
From Diagram 43, the highest percentages is 31 percent who agree with having no problems with
gadgets while only 9 percent disagree with the statement. The mean of this question is 3.442
which shows that they agree with it.

Diagram 44
Based on Diagram 44, the highest percentage about learning ICT is easy is 32 percent which is is
neutral. The mean of the result is 3.310 and it means that most of them agree that learning ICT is
easy.

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Diagram 45
Based on diagram 45, 34 percent and 31 percent of the respondents very disagree and
disagree with the statement with only 6 percent being the lowest agree that the statement is
right. The respondents agree that learning ICT is interesting as the mean of 2.118 agree with the
statement of dull and boring. It means that learning ICT is not dull and boring as the percentage
of disagree is higher that agree.

Diagram 46
Based on above diagram, The respondents disagree that they do not need help in learning ICT.
The mean of 2.353 agree with the statement and it shows that they need help in learning it. 25
percent of them really disagree with the statement and only 3 percent agree with it.

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5.5 Students Exposure On ICT

We too included questions to know how far these students are exposed to the usage of ICT
as it is one of our research objectives.

Diagram 25
As we have observed, the diagram shows that most of the respondents which is 45 participators
in total of who had answered this survey learn about Information Technology when they were 7
until 10 years old which is 51 % of the diagram followed by 31 respondents stated that they learn
about It when they were 11 until 15 years old which is 35% of the diagram. Then, 8 persons of
them said that they find out about IT when they were 16 until 20 years old which took 9% of the
diagram and the rest which is 2 respondents learn about it aged 21 until 30 years old. From this
data, we can say that in this digital era most people are already being exposed to the knowledge
about IT in a very young age. Thus, Information Technology is not an unfamiliar concept to most
of university students.

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Diagram 26
Based on the diagram, it seems that the answer yes dominating over the answer no. This chart
obviously shown that most university students have experienced IT- related subject in their
school as it is well chosen by 77 respondents which took up over 88 per cent of the chart above
while only 9 respondents have not at all. From the diagram, we can assume that either the school
that respondents are attending or had attended a school with poor facilities or the school did not
offer an IT-related subject.

Diagram 35
Based on Diagram 35 above, they may use more than one kind of ICT where 80 respondents love
to use social networks compared to instant messages which is 39 respondents and email, 49 of
them.

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Diagram 38
Diagram 38 shows that the respondents have experience in using ICT where majority of them
which is about 60 percent of them agrees with the statement and only 14 percent do not agree
with it.

Diagram 39
From the diagram above, the percentage shows that the respondents mostly agree that the
teachers or lecturers are the ones who guide the to learn about ICT which and only 13 percent
does not agree with the statement.

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Diagram 40
From Diagram 40, we can see that the respondents learn ICT by exploring it themselves which
about 51 percent agrees with the statement and only 23 percent does not agree with it.

5.6 Significance Of ICT Usage In Students Lives

The final part of our survey we focused on figuring out how significant ICT has been used
in the students lives for formal and informal matters.

Diagram 30
As we can observe in the diagram above, 90 per cent of the respondents which is 79 people
agreed about the usage of ICT in helping them communicating with people even better while 7
per cent respondent which is 6 people have disagree with the question.

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Diagram 31
From Diagram 31, we can see that 66% which is 58 students who answered this questions prefer
themselves to use ICT rather that playing sports. Only 32% which brings 28 students would like
to choose sports for as their interest.

Diagram 32
According to Diagram 32, the respondents realize that internet is very important in the ICT fields
where 91% which is majority of them agree with it. However, there is 7% which is 6 respondents
who do not agree about this statement.

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Diagram 33
Based on Diagram 33, we observe that 80 respondents which means 91 percent of the
respondents agreed that gadgets are really useful and important for ICT and 6 respondents which
is 7 percent do not agree with the statement.

Diagram 34
Based on Diagram 34, it shows that 58 percent of the respondents agree that the textbook and
reference books are essential in ICT while 39 percent do not agree with the statement.

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Diagram 42
Diagram 42 shows the result for the statement of having no problem with the internet access.
3.224 is the mean which the respondents agree about the statement.

Diagram 47
Based on Diagram 47, in terms of having at least one device to access the applications of ICT,
(min=3.709) it can be concluded that the respondents are agree with having at least one device.

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Diagram 48
From Diagram 48, in terms of knowing that the ICT knowledge is important, (min=3.98) most of
the respondents are agree that it is important especially in this 21st century.

Diagram 49
Based on Diagram 49, (min=3.291) it can be said that the students have no problems having
flipped-learning class.

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Diagram 50
From the above, Diagram 50, (min=2.482) it can be concluded that the revolution in learning and
education is not a burden for the respondents because most of the disagree with the statement.

Diagram 51
From the Diagram above, (min=3.605) it can be concluded that the respondents agree with the
statement of revolutions in learning and education is great.

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Diagram 52
Based on Diagram 52, in terms of adaptation to the changes of ICT, (min=3.695) it can be
concluded that they can go through it although it takes time.

Diagram 53
Diagram 53 shows that most of the respondents (min=3.814) agree that ICT is useful for learning
purposes and only 9 percent do not agree with it.

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6.0 Discussion

After we have completed this given task regarding on Open Source Software (OSS) and
also Learning ICT , by studying the definitions, advantages and disadvantages, benefits and also
know the history lays behind them, we encounter a lot of new information and findings that give
us a deeper understanding on these topics and exposes us to a new grand world which teaches us
to appreciate all the facilities we have got today and make use of them wisely.
There are several of research techniques that are implemented in this assignment as we
can learn and apply the skills in the real conditions. We used Google Drive as a platform for us to
do various task such as online discussion, designing forms, establishing the forms, data
collections, reports writing and share the documents with other group members so we can do the
tasks simultaneously regardless the place or time as long as we have the internet connections.
In our survey, we divided it into three sections that are the students background, Open
Source Software (OSS ) and also Information and Communication Technology ( ICT ) Learning
that are focusing on the exposure, knowledge and also usage of those in students habitual
routine. We were able to gain 88 respondents and analyse the data and making conclusions
regarding our topics. Then, we narrow down the finding into few aspects that describing on type
of software used by students, students knowledge about OSS, students knowledge about ICT,
students exposure on ICT and significance of ICT and OSS for students.
We found that most students are only exposed to a few specific software such as Mozilla
FireFox, some know about Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. However, Gnome, Moodle,
Linux and Apache shows the lowest percentage since there are lacking of exposure on those
softwares which minimizes the students usage of the softwares. This fulfill our first objective to
know the type of software used by the students.
Our second objective is to know about the students knowledge about Open Source
Software (OSS). The students are actually do not aware that they are using the OSS because they
are not familiar with the term of OSS itself and of course they have no idea about what OSS
really is. From this survey, we can tell that students are lacking to the exposure of OSS and have
low level of knowledge about OSS. From the respond, there are suggestions on how instill the
terms to the students such as use the term in early computer education so the students are
exposed in early age and that will ease the learning progress in the future.

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Moving on to the knowledge of students about ICT and as we expected, the students
acquired the knowledge and skills since they were kids. They knows how to use ICT very well
and have no problems with it. They understand the concept and usage of ICT either for personal
benefits or educational purposes. This proves that they have high exposure on ICT fields when
they can show the relation of ICT and their communications achievements which is the main
objectives of ICT learning. This means we achieved our third and fourth objectives.
Last, we focus on the fifth objective that is the significance of ICT usage for students. In
general, students nowadays are fully immersed to the technology lifestyle and getting along very
well with gadgets. In nowadays education methods, technologies are used as the aids to make the
teaching and learning process more effective. The students are agreed that technology showers
them with advantages and benefits in their learning progress like making them to learn with ease
and systematic. Each of the students have gadgets at least smartphone as a medium for them to
use ICT with the internet connection either Wi-Fi or mobile data.

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7.0 Conclusion

Based on our mini research, we found out that only a small number of student have the
knowledge of Open Source Software but quite a number have used it before without they
realised it. This shows that students are not yet fully exposed to the real information of
technology. They have the skill to use it but they do not know how to identify it using the correct
term. It shows that how shallow minded is the young generation in IT however they are very
skilful in handling technology. With the right amount of exposure, the young generation will
undoubtedly gain all the knowledge and even possibly surpass the old generation in enquiring the
Information in technology.
Other than that, from this research, we figured out that students doing just fine in learning
about Information and Communication Technology due to their almost all positive feedbacks.
Mostly, they had been exposed with the appropriate skills and knowledge for beginner during
childhood either at school or home. It shows that everyone has the foundation In ICT before
entering university. This means no one is really hopelessly blind in term of ICT. We can safely
conclude that the young generation is already equip with at least a small amount of ICT that
enable them to survive in the digital age of the twenty first century where everything revolve into
using technology to solve daily routine.

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8.0 Reference
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http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/open_source.asp
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Beal, V. 2008. Open Source. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/open_source.html

[30 November 2014]
Charlesworth, A. & Grant, A. 2006. Open Source Software Licensing.
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/Portals/12/Documents/PDFs/OpenSourceSoftwareFAQ.pdf
[19 December 2014]
Digital Connections Council. 2006. Open Standards, Open Source and Open Innovation.
http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED502318.pdf [19 December 2014]
Gerald K. White. 2008. "ICT in education."
http://research.acer.edu.au/teacher/vol2008/iss196/5/ [19 December 2014]
GNU. 2007. Overview of the GNU System. http://www.gnu.org/gnu/gnu-history.html
[30 November 2014]
Open Source.com. n.d. What is open source? http://opensource.com/resources/what-open-source
[30 Novermber 2014]
Open Source Iniative. n.d. The Open Source
Definition.

http://www.opensource.org/docs/definition.php [18 December 2014]

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