It’s time to dump your desktop software. Why? Web-based software can do (almost) everything traditional applications like Microsoft Office and Corel can do. And the best part? Web applications for word processing, spreadsheet editing, presentation creation and database maintenance are FREE.

While all of the applications work in any Web browser and have easy-to-learn interfaces, Zoho and Thinkfree offer complete productivity suites. They also allow the user to collaborate with other users. This is an incredibly powerful tool for the science classroom. Project teams can use this feature to collaborate on the Internet to create presentations and reports, and teachers can share presentation and report templates with their students. When ready to share work with other people, Zoho Writer walks you through sending an e-mail invitation to another user and offering read or read/write access to the file. You can see the other user's presence and view the edits, or cancel sharing if you change your mind. You can also make your file public for anyone in the world to view and save it in RSS format.

In order to function effectively in a 21st century workplace, students must be able to select and analyze information from various sources, including electronic and print resources. Science teachers can leverage applications like Zoho and Thinkfree to assist students in processing selected information and creating written reports to share and communicate scientific ideas, plans, results and conclusions resulting from observations and investigations. These applications also help students to create rich multimedia presentations incorporating number, symbolic, and graphic modes of representation to share scientific ideas, plans, results and conclusions. All of these skills are built into successful project-based learning strategies.

For a closer analysis of these resources, point your browser to Google and type in the query "zoho thinkfree review."