Education Week: Digital Directions

Last week I talked about technology and its use as a tool in the classroom. This article in Education Week's Digital Directions outlines how this could become less expensive and easier to implement. Some schools are switching to Freeware or Shareware in order to save money. They don't want to mess with Microsofts licensing or Apples high prices. I remember when computers first came to the classroom. Apple took a chance and made them available in many classrooms during the 1980's. It might be one of the reasons that I still prefer them today. The article talks about using a open source operating system and applications in order to keep cost down. I would think that Microsoft and Apple would want to keep people using their products and offer their tools to students for a greatly reduced price in order to get them "hooked". This would be advertising to minors that would be looked on in a positive light. Most widely used applications such as Word and Excel are becoming obsolete specially when you consider what is available on the web for free. I do have some reservations about what these free applications might cost us in the long run.