Evaluation of Converging Technology

Today we are looking at two extended texts for a converging tech exercise.
Sharon and I chose
The OTEN website
and
ZinniaJones Blog

The two sites are very different. The Oten site uses a much greater number of technologies, employing some pretty impressive auto-play video technology. As soon as you access the site, an overlay video plays encouraging you to explore the OTEN site further. It also uses slideshow technology, drop down nested menus, search functions, keyword searches, social networking links and a student portal which requires a login.
Zinnia's site is extremely different. Zinnia's site is a personal blog, used to communicate with his subscribers. He has RSS feed tech on the page, allowing you to subscribe to his blog, social networking links, and a link to his YouTube channel which provide alternative ways to follow him, search tags for easy access to previous blog posts and an archive.

When discussing which text looks better, Sharon and I agreed that this was really based on personal opinion and can relate back to what you're looking for. OTEN provides a lot of it's options on the front page, it uses a lot of technology to increase interest in the site, and allow ease of navigation. It has more than one page attached the site, and the information is far more involved on the front page than the blog site. On the other hand, Zinnia's blog is very simple. It's not flashy or overdone. It's easy to nagivate because there's not a lot of content there. There is only one page, with options to access an archive of older posts. It's not overly involved because it doesn't need to be.

As far as which site communicates better, again this depends on what you're actually after. Sharon pointed out that the OTEN site would be much easy to find. It has much more content to search for. You know exactly what the site is about when you come across it, and the auto-play video technology sums up the websites purpose very quickly. Zinnia's blog, however, is not immediately understood. Unless you were searching for IT specifically (or a very narrow and defined topic search) you would probably never find it. It doesn't communicate it's purpose well.

Over all the OTEN site employs better technology and uses that technology well. It enhances the site and it's purpose.

x
Sarah & Sharon.

Music Over Time - A Storybird Collaboration

http://storybird.com/books/music-over-time/

A podcast created in class by Sarah and me ...

My very first blog

Hello everyone !

I have created my very first blog during class this morning for 'Emerging Technologies'.

I am feeling both excited and exhausted at the end of week one of our 'TPC' course.  Even though a lot of our time this week was spent on introductions and settling into life on campus, I am blown away by how much I have learned already.  I can confidently say that I have learned at least one thing in every class we have had so far.

I think we have an awesome class - what a sensational group of people! 

I'm looking forward to week two