If you can't afford the latest version of Adobe Photoshop or Premiere on your school budget, you're not alone. Thankfully there are free alternatives available. There are some good programs available to download either free, such as Paint.net which is very similar to Photoshop or cheaply such as Artrage.
If you are restricted in your school and can't install programs on the computers there are some online options around. You can do online image editing using the user-friendly Picnik or edit video online with kaltura
Also available online for free is Celtx a free pre-production program for scriptwriting, storyboarding and scheduling.
Picnik edit images easily online (links in with Flickr)
Paint.net free alternative to graphics programs like Photoshop
Artrage wonderful graphics program, very therapeutic!
Big Huge Labs also have some good things to play with
Fotoflexer
Visit our found footage section, for places to download and repurpose other peoples material.
There are lots of fun sites around for making some very creative material. You could make cartoon strips using Toondoo, show off a presentation using Slideshare, and make cool multimedia things for your Bebo or MySpace page using RockYou. You can also download creative programs such as ComicLife or Photostory to use in class. These are also useful for analysing a film or making a storyboard.
Scratch make games, programs and animations
Slideshare upload and share presentations
Rockyou share photos and slideshows in different social networking sites
Toondoo create comic strips online
ComicBrush create comic strips online
ComicLife software for creating comics, easy to use and not too expensive, you'll find it within the Plasq site.
Photostory free program
Pikistrips used to be Comeeko
Although these won't teach you much about editing - they are powerful tools worth experimenting with
Garageband create and mix music (Apple Mac only)
JamStudio an online music factory (a bit like Garageband)
Audacity awesome, highly regarded, free audio editing program
Create online animated characters
Build your wild self
Voki
Simpsons
Open Office a free alternative to Microsoft Office
Google Docs online word processor and spreadsheet
Buzzword online word processor
Slideshare for sharing presentations, not creating them
Zoho
Scribd
Notecentric
Notely
NoteMesh part note taker, part wiki, part social network)
Google Notebook This is a tool that lets you keep a scrapbook of web stuff. It's part doc sharing and part social bookmarking.