Manual
We call the assessment of technology ‘cycles.’ The reason is that we believe that designing, assessing, using or discussing a technology is all about asking questions, answering them, gaining new insights, making some changes and then cycle back. It is a continuous process, hence the cycle!
Start a new cycle
The moment you click on the option ‘start new cycle’ you will be asked to sign up. The only thing you have to fill out is a username and an email address. The email address is not mandatory, but is used if you have forgotten your password.
Name and describe a technology
The first step is to name a technology and make a description. You can make the description as long as you want, but the tool will show you that only the first seven lines are printed on the canvases. So make sure you summarize the technology in the first 7 lines and elaborate after that.
Private or Public
You can choose to share your work (public) or keep it to yourself (private). If you choose public, your work will become part of the public cycles. If you choose private you will be the only one that can see it. You can change the status (private/public) any time you want and as often as you want.
Choose a scan
OK, now you are ready to start a technology impact cycle. You can choose from three options. You can start a Quick Scan, a Full Scan or an Improvement Scan.
Quick Scan
A Quick Scan is designed for a quick, short first impression of the impact of a (new) technology. It is often used at the start of an assessment, discussion, design or implementation. If you choose Quick Scan you will be offered ten questions. Every question has some help text to get you started. The answers to these questions are printed on a canvas. Only the first seven lines are printed on the canvas. So make sure you summarize your answers in the first 7 lines and elaborate after that.
Remember to always save the results. All answers are stored in the same database. So if you are doing a Full Scan later you will find the answers you already provided. By using the option ‘download Quick Scan Canvas’ you can easily download a canvas with your answers. By choosing the back option you return to the page with the description of the technology and the choice menu with the three scans.
Improvement Scan
If you already have a decent idea for the design of a (new) technology or have you been using it for a while then the Improvement Scan may be of value. If you choose Improvement Scan you will be offered ten questions. Every question has some help text to get you started and think about possible improvements. The answers to these questions are printed on a canvas. Only the first seven lines are printed on the canvas. So make sure you summarize your answers in the first 7 lines and elaborate after that.
Remember to always save the results. All answers are stored in the same database. So if you are doing a Full Scan later you will find the answers you already provided. By using the option ‘download Improvement Scan Canvas’ you can easily download a canvas with your answers. By choosing the back option you return to the page with the description of the technology and the choice menu with the three scans.
Full Scan
If you want to do a full analysis of a (new) technology you can use the Full Scan. Here you can answer questions in ten different categories. In every category you can see if a question is part of the Quick or Improvement Scan. You can print the answers in a technology impact document. In every category you have the option to skip the category if you think it is not applicable.
All categories offer a selection of further reading and viewing and links to more detailed frameworks. If you have a suggestion for a paper, book, video or framework do not hesitate to contact us.
Progress
The Technology Impact Cycle Tool allows you to track progress. In the right upper corner of the different scans and the categories of the Full Scan, you can see small triangles. Red means not answered yet. Green means fully answered. Orange means partially answered and Gray means that you decided to skip the category.
In the Full Scan you can also see if you think a category is important and what you think about the quality of your answer. This way you can track all categories and see if you have fully answered the categories that you think are important. From November 2020 you can also track the progress of the online courses you completed.