Accessibility for All!

In my grad class, we are looking at the General Public License (GPL).  With GPL software, there is such a thing as free!  I am amazed that I haven't realized this before.  My brother was always the technology guru of the family and I would often tell him the woes of having no money, but needing some software.  He would always direct me to CNET Downloads where - unbeknownst to me at the time - I would download free software.  Now I am making the connection!

I think the ability to download, see and edit code, and redistribute the software is a really interesting idea.  It reminds me of Wikipedia in that no one is getting paid or making any profit by writing or sharing knowledge in this online encyclopedia.  Similarly, on Source Forge, Fresh Meat, and Open Science Project, people are coming together to collaborate on software or in the case of the latter, science projects, to create better products.  

So I looked into Source Forge for some software that I would like for free.  I was thinking about my love of music.  In one class in undergrad, I had to compose a short piece of music.  While I was using staff paper and pencil, I wanted to be able to create the music in a software program.  I used the likes of Sibelius and Finale, but these were expensive, and the free trial versions were very limited.  Sure enough, I type in music in the search bar and I come across MuseScore.  This sheet music generator has all the aspects of Finale that I enjoy, but it's free!  It plays the music, I can create notes, rests, ties, etc.  I can save, print, export, import - it's amazing!

As far as educational uses - I can think of a few.  I definitely would like to incorporate music into my teaching when I finally get into a classroom.  One way I could do this is by creating or downloading songs to sing or play on the piano.  Using this free resource - it would be a cinch!  Perhaps if I run an after school chorus or even if I want to incorporate mini music lessons into my classroom teaching, this would be a great tool to use!

What do you think of the GPL and sites like Open Source?  What cool software have you found and downloaded for free?  How could you use GPL software in the classroom?