In this month's Link supplement, Jack Kelly points towards a plethora of free, or nearly free, software for schools: word processors, art packages, online collaboration tools and video editing systems. Surely there must be some more we've missed?
SketchUp, which lets you model 3D buildings and place them on a map, looks like a fascinating tool for classrooms, covering geography, physics, design and even history. Children can create and walk through Greek temples, space ships, Victorian edifices and local landmarks. Best of all, it's free for schools.
Web-based video-editing package JumpCut is also free. Tell your class to use copyright-free newsreels, or their own footage, or splice them together. Let their imaginations run amok, and share the results online.
And there's no shortage of replacements or enhancements to the old classroom warhorse Word. Zoho Writer and J2E are good substitutes, and Google's inbuilt word processor even allows you to collaborate on writing with others, no matter where they are in the world.
Now it's your turn. What are your software secrets for the classroom? Don't forget, keep them free, or very cheap.
