FREE SOFTWARE AS A TOOL FOR A QUALITY EDUCATION IN LATIN AMERICA

This paper presents a documentary research about Free Software, their background, main features, principles, successful experiences, advantages, disadvantages and valuation as the best choice for the Latin American educational sector. The methodology used was the electronic information application, and the review of literature on the subject. It exposes a set of considerations and sociocultural-economic reasons that justify the use of the liberating information technologies in the education sector in Latin America, mainly free software both in the processes of teaching and learning as in administrative processes, against the option of using proprietary software. Through an historical and conceptual overview of free software that lead to conclude that free Software has become in the future a safe, economical and efficient computerization of the Latin American educational system, showing as a tool to achieve a shift towards one quality education, at the same time that is moving toward the consolidation of the technological independence of the region.