Vicki

Passable word processing

Microsoft Word is the king of word processing programs, but the market for less expensive, nonproprietary alternatives is burgeoning. DevVicky Word 2010 is a free word processing program that mimics a lot of Microsoft Word's features, but it has several drawbacks that kept us from taking it seriously among the non-Microsoft competition.

The program's interface is attractive and has the usual layout of a word processing program, with the typical toolbars across the top. Since it hews pretty closely to convention, it's not difficult to figure out how to use it; the program has most of the … Read more

Educators take Web 2.0 to school

I spent part of last week in Washington, D.C., at the annual National Educational Computing Conference. The event, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, is sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

As you'd expect, there were plenty of workshops on the nuts and bolts of using technology in the classroom. But as technology evolves, so does the way it's used by some creative educators.

There were several sessions, for example, on how to use cell phones within the classroom. Considering that some school districts still ban students from bringing cell phones to … Read more

Vote: Battle of the nonviolent robots (Round 1, Part 2)

Voting is now closed for this round. See the results of these battles here and vote on the Sweet Sixteen matchups here.

These robots don't want to fight. That's why you have to pick the winners. Here's part two of the first round of our grand tournament, featuring robots from the movies and TV. All you have to do is vote for the winners.

Voting is open from now until next Monday, September 10. Check back then for the results of this round, exciting second-round matchups, and a couple of surprises.

See last week's matchups and tournament rules … Read more