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Kabir Bankole
DETC 630 9040
04/09/2015
Tech Report and Scorecard Description

Technology Report

Introduction
Online learning technologies have evolved. The passage from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0
Internet has switched the teacher centered approach of online learning to the learner centered
approach allowing interaction. This interactivity has tremendously impacted online learning.
Also, applications that before reside inside computing infrastructures in-house are now cloudbased. In addition, some technologies make their impact on the market; therefore, they disrupt
other technologies. In classifying the tools that we have used in this class, it is of the most
importance to take care of these considerations of educational use, cloud-based, interactivity,
and disruptivity.
A technology is a science or knowledge put into practical use to solve problems or
invent useful tools (http://www.yourdictionary.com/technology). Using this definition, the first
categorization of our scorecard considers the following question: What is the use of the
technology tool in education ? . In our point of view, the need of technology in education aims at
satisfying the following main tasks: presentation, annotation, updating information, grading,
research of information, storage of information. Presentation can take form of writing, audio or
video. In our scorecard, one point is attributed to each task and zero point is attributed if the
technology is not used for education.
The second categorization is the notion of cloud-based. Technology has also evolved in
the way that the software that allows the technologies to run are no longer loaded from a
physical device. Cloud-based technologies are defined as ... applications, services, or
resources made available to users on demand via the Internet from a cloud computing
providers server (http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/cloud_based.html).The advantage of the
use of the cloud is that software are less costly. Software inserted into CD-ROMs were very
expensive. Now these software are at the reach of small size companies which can subscribe

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for a monthly payment. One point will be given in case the technology is cloud- based and zero
if the technology is not cloud-based.
The interaction categorization aims at showing the interaction that the technology allows.
There is a dramatic change in todays online education since the arrival of Web 2.0 based
Internet. Web 2.0 has switched the learning from teacher centered to learner centered. Today,
students can explore a wide range of resources that are imported into the classroom through
collaboration. Technologies such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, wiki pages allow the
intervention of external users. Facebook or Twitter streams navigate when they are inserted in
any learning environment . More, any user who is given the authorization can modify the content
of a wiki page. In the field of education critics raise about using the collaborative tools pointing
them as disturbing an environment that should be just learning. Others favor the collaborative
side of technology arguing that todays education must be collaborative. Our opinion is that with
some restrictions, these collaborative technologies can positively help education. Considering
the different weights by which interaction impacts education, we allocate one point to a
technology that favors normal interaction, two points for intense interaction, and zero point for
no interaction.
The last categorization will focus on the disruptivity of the technology. Christensen
(2012) explains disruptive technology as the technology that shakes the market in the way that
the old technology looses part of the market.The example of personal computer in the
technology field better illustrates the term of disruption. Before personal computer came into the
market, the tool most used for typing was a typewriter. When personal computer came the price
was so high that no everyone could afford it. Then the price went down allowing many people to
buy it. From there, typewriter disappeared. Another example of disruption is online newspapers
taking the place of newspapers. The following allocation applies: one point in case the
technology is disruptive and zero point in case the technology is not disruptive.

Scorecard

Use in
Education

Cloud
Based

Social
Networks

Disruptivity

Score

Postano

Tagboard

Bagtheweb

Rich Site Summary (RSS)

Animoto

Massive Open Online Course

(MOOc)

Brainpop

ClipChamp

Geometry quiz

TalentLMS

Diigo Outlineer

Prezi

Dropbox

Comparative Analysis of Technologies

At least, all technologies score one point for use in education although this use varies.
Technologies can be used for presentation; Animoto, Prezi, and ClipChamp are allowed one
point for that use. Gaming technologies such as Brainpop, Geometry Quiz also received one
point. We also give one point to technologies that allow annotation such as Diigo Outliner.
Dropbox which is used for storage receive one point; one point is allocated to RSS for allowing
updating of information. TalentLMS and MOOc which are learning management tools receive
three points for allowing presentation, grading, and research of information together.

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Time has passed when the applications that run technologies are downloaded into the
hard drives of computers or inside CD-ROMs and needed to constantly be upgraded. Today,
technologies are provided by third party provider through server in order to take advantage of
the affordability that cloud computing provides. The technologies are cloud-based. That is the
reason the column cloud-based scores one point for all technologies.
Unfortunately, disruptivity is a notion for which all technologies can not score. A
disruptive technology gains the market of other technologies for being better than these
technologies; as a result, Bagtheweb scores one point. Padveen (2013) in a research
conducted by Social Business and Digital Marketing Place classifies Bagtheweb among the four
best content curation tools with Curata, Aggregate, and Eqentia. We also believe that RSS is
revolutionary tool because it brings a tool allowing no need for updating information. MOOc, we
think is also disruptive; The objective of MOOc is to shake the state of Higher Education by
making tuition free. Diigo Outliner has made Diigo obsolete with the organization of annotations.
Prezi is disruptive for inserting a zooming motion in presentation. Dropbox has made saving in
hard drive, in CD-ROMs, in USB drives a thing of the past.
The same as the notion of disruptivity, the notion of social interactivity is one for which all
technologies will not score. Most of the technologies which score one point are content curation
technologies whose main objective is to present different points of view about topics. These
content curation technologies are compilations of very engaging discussions among individuals
all around the World. The examples in our scorecard are Postano, Tagboard, and Bagtheweb.
We call that normal interaction. MOOc is an example of technology where interaction is at the
extreme. In MOOc classes, there is no instructor; therefore, participants are the ones who
decide the course of the study. The presentation technologies do not score since there is no
much interaction when Animoto or Prezi is used in a classroom; there is no interaction between
the students and the teacher. In the same trends of thought, when game technologies such as
Brainpop and Geometry Quiz are used, the user is focused on the game and does not interact
with anybody else. As for Dropbox, it is allocated one point for interaction since Dropbox has the
ability to allow users to interact in the Cloud.

Three applications to experience

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The technologies that we choose are : Diigo Outliner, Dropbox, and Bagtheweb
Scenario.
A group of college students to be soon graduated is assigned a multi-field project. The
project needs to be submitted online and need to be reviewed by the public who will have its say
before the project is presented. The project also needs to include quotes from experts on the
different fields. The group of college students objectives are-before they gather to start writing
the project that they have already selected and have already collected quotes in random- are to
have the project put in presentation, let the public has its opinion, have the quotes organized in
the expertise fields, and have all documents safeguarded with no possibility of them getting lost.
The group is approached by a publishing company which wants to charge them an exorbitant
amount of money. I approach the group of students and clearly state to them that the company
that I have just started and that I called Banks Publishing can do the job for them at very
lower cost. I will use these following four technologies tools: Bagtheweb, Diigo Outliner, and
Dropbox.
Collection and presentation of information: bagtheweb.
To satisfy the need of putting information into presentation, and make the presentation
available to the public, I will use Bagtheweb.( Seven reasons you have to try out Bagtheweb
now, 2013) summarizes the technology as
The most powerful browser tool for content collecting; that is a rich media which
supports embeds for the webs most popular sites, that organizes bags into sections,
that blurbs within bags using markdown to format notes; that embeds for bags sizes to fit
needs, and that re-bags.
Here is how to use Bagtheweb
Once I registered on the site, I created a bag called Exploring. To add links to your bag,
you can either copy and paste them into the bag with the add link button, or you can install an
add-on onto your browser called Bookmarklet. I installed the add-on and started exploring how
to use it.

Searching on Google for articles on Assessment of Engineering Projects, I collected

some useful articles and used the bag button to add the links to my bag.

I also searched Youtube for Engineering projects and other videos on engineering.

Once I had all the links in my bag, I could choose the order in which they would appear
in the finished bag. You can also add dividers with headings to different parts of the bag

I then changed the picture of the bag.

The final product of the bag is shown below

Then there are four options of embedding the bag.

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The drawback of using Bagtheweb is that after creating a bag, the result comes into an
an embed language that need to be transferred to another site such as a blog editor or a
portfolio editor in order to visualize the final product.
Organization of quotes: diigo outliner.
There was Diigo, then Diigo Outliner. Both Diigo and Diigo outliers annotate information.
While Diigo uses tag and folder, Diigo Outliner organizes information the way the brain works, in
a easy way to remember and share. As Lui (2014) states it, Diigo Outliner collects and
organize ( p.1)
Since the college students want their quotes to be organized, I will use Diigo Outliner.
First I load Diigo Outliner extension on my Chromebook. After the loading is properly done, a
sign appears on the Bookmark bar.The sign is a d with white text color in a blue background.

After clicking on the blue d sign, a window opens as

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To annotate a page, one clicks on Annotate. A bar opens with a pen. Clicking on the
pen, brings a yellow pen. With the yellow one colors the lines to annotate

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The annotated part is written into the Diigo Library

Clicking on Outliner on the Diigo bar brings the windows where the user can organize
the annotations : give title, insert bullets as shown in the windows above

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A setback about using Diigo Outliner in this particular case, is the lack of verification of
the authenticity of the quotes. It will help if a tool that is used to verify the authenticity of quotes
was incorporated into Diigo Outliner.
Storage of documents: dropbox.
With Dropbox the days of saving documents on hard drives and USB drives are over.
Documents are saved in a server and even if the computer burns, documents can be retrieved.
One characteristic of Dropbox is document sharing in the Cloud where people can be invited to
share documents (Dropbox blog, 2015). Another advantage of Dropbox is that documents
saved in the Cloud can be used in different electronic devices such as computers, phones,
tablets (Dropbox blog, 2015). This following quote from an anonymous feedbacker my life was
a dark box. Now thanks to Dropbox, Im no longer lonely cause I am able to share the best
moments of my life Bye Dark box! (Dropbox blog, 2015, p. 5) shows how useful Dropbox is.
To use Dropbox, the user needs to download the application which I did from my the
chromebook store. After, downloading and going through the settings, an icon (white balloon in
a blue square will appears in the Bookmark bar). The user clicks on the icon; a windows opens.

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On the window, there is also a blue arrow by the user name (here mine) . When the user
clicks on the blue arrow by ones name, the user gets the window below.

Then, the user needs to sign and the following window appears

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The user pastes an Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the document to save inside the
rectangular window titled 1-input your file URL here

After that, the user chooses any cloud icon and folder following instruction 2-Click any cloud
icon then choose a folder

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Then, the document is shown flying to the cloud. Instruction 3 says: wait for the content
and applaud .

And the document is showing when it arrived

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If on one side Dropbox has many advantages, on the other side, when information is
saved in a place which is not on the users hands as such as on a hard drive or USB drive, the
security of data stored comes at stake. Information stored in the Cloud is in the disposition to be
accessed by a third party.
Conclusion
The comparative study of technologies in online learning helps analyzing how diverse
the technologies are. If the technologies that we present are all used in Education, the
technologies differ in what they are used for; they differ as well for the interaction they allow the
users who manipulate them to have. To be able to use them, the users need to learn the
process of inserting them into their environment; the practical experience of this technology
report was for that purpose.

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Reference

Christensen, C. (2012, March 30). Disruptive innovation explained [Video file]. Retrieved from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDrMAzCHFUU
Dropbox blog (2015, March 12). The Dropbox Tour. [Online blog]. Retrieved from

https://www.dropbox.com/tour

Liu, J. ( 2014, December 4). Meet Diigo outliner-the best way to structurally organize your

information and thoughts. [Web log post]. Retrieved from:

http://blog.diigo.com/2014/12/04/meet-diigo-outliner-the-best-way-to-structurally-organi

ze-your-information-and thoughts

Padveen, C. (2013, August 21). 4 of the best content curation tools . Social Business & Digital

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Marketplace Blog. Retrieved from:

http://t2marketinginternational.com/4-of-the-best-content-curation-tools/

Seven reasons you have to try out Bagtheweb now (2103, October 9). Retrieved from:

http://www.bagtheweb.com/b/lAqMdZ