Free Online Applications

Google Docs:
With districts looking for more and more creative ways to save money open source software could be a largely untapped resource. Google docs is a great resource for educators. You can easily upload files from your desktop and create folders. Probably one of the greatest advantages of Google docs is that it can accessed anywhere that Internet is available. This allows for maximum portability and access of school related materials. This would eliminate the painstaking process of attempting to log into the limited school resources available off site.  In my building collaboration is vital to our daily work and Google docs allows work collaboratively with file exchange capabilities and team project flexibility in real-time. There are some drawbacks, but the benefits seem to far outweigh those. There is always the safety issues of storing confidential documents online (FERPA), but google has a quality security reputation. There is of course the issue of not having access to the Internet, but that's an issue with the existing close software being used as well. Google docs seem to a quality and reasonable option for any district looking to increase productivity and save money.

Picnik:
I have to start by saying I am not a huge fan of photosharing websites, so free photo editing probably has a limited value to me. I think I have used adobe photoshop maybe once or twice this whole school year. My wife and I were just talking the other day about how it seems like we never get the pictures printed off our digital hardware and that we missed old style cameras. That being said Piknik once again is a open source savings to districts. It is available to all formats including Mac, Windows, and Linux. It allows you to  pull your photos from where you store them either online or on your computer. It offers all of the same tools that the leading closed source software does for free. This also allows access form anywhere that Internet is available. I am still not sure about the security issue of my images being available online and parents may be wary of this as well. As a resource for schools it is a reasonable financial savings and available to all.