Web-based Productivity Tools
Infoworld has a great article on using browser-based productivy applications. (In other words, replacements for programs like Word or Excel that are run off the web and through Internet Explorer, Firefox, or whatever web browser you happen to use.) Many are free, and can do most of what the programs you currently use can do.
In addition to the advantage of not needing to install the software on your computer, many of the web-based applications have collaboration features, so that multiple people can share and edit the same documents.
The article found that there are many options available, and gives a pretty good overview of the ups and downs of working this way. The end opinion seems to be that there are a lot of possibilities in this approach, but it’s not quite ready for prime time yet. Knowing how much pressure already exists on the bandwidth in many school districts, I would think this is still and “out there” solution for a lot of schools, but it’s not that long until virtually everyone will have the network access to make this work.