We have already covered how you can replace your pricey install of MS Office with OpenOffice.org’s amazing office suite, but there is more than one player in this game. Imagine not only having a quality office suite for free, but having the versatility to use it just about anywhere without having to carry around your files on a flash drive or disk, and the handy ability to share and collaborate on multiple document types. Enter the online office apps. Google Docs and Zoho.

There are several similarities between the online office applications and their harddriven counterpart OpenOffice. Both offer ease of use that is similar to the applications you are used to having. Both are free. But taking your work online offers a few unique features not available to OpenOffice.

Extreme Portability
Easily shared via publishing
Ease of collaboration
Ability to broadcast presentations

These unique features could very well change the way teachers collaborate, and students work on assignments. Imagine the possibilities.

Share live presentations of lessons(hmmm… PDs?)
Collaborate on lesson plans
Manage a department calendar
Create a wiki for students to collaborate on
It’s only the begining. We plan to begin a set of howto guides on several of these features, but while you are waiting why not go ahead and sign up for one of these services and give it a test drive.

Not sure which one is right for you? Lifehacker has put together an extremely useful comparison of several of their features.

Know some good uses for these online apps? Leave them in the comments.