Digital Skills and Research Methods

This report explores the utilization of modern technologies such as smart watches and Internet of Things. It also discusses the use of social media as a marketing tool, specifically focusing on Facebook. The report provides insights on the effectiveness of these technologies and their impact on communication and information gathering. The document type is a research report and the assignment type is a case study. The subject is Digital Skills and Research Methods, with the course code XYZ123. The course name is Digital Skills and the college/university is not mentioned.

Running head: DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESARCH METHODS
Digital Skills and Research Methods
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Evaluation of Effectiveness of the Use of Modern Technologies..............................................2
Technology 1: Smart Watches...............................................................................................2
Technology 2: Internet of Things...........................................................................................4
Exploration of Social Media as a Tool.......................................................................................7
Marketing on Facebook..........................................................................................................7
Gathering of Information through Facebook.........................................................................8
Communication through Facebook........................................................................................8
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................10

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
Introduction
Modern technology is the better advancement of older technologies. The major impact
of this particular type of technology is unmeasurable and the users utilize it in several ways.
The most significant advantages of this modern technology mainly include easier access to
information, encouraging better creativity and innovation, improved communication, ease of
mobility or convenience of travelling, improving lifestyle and many more (Rowe 2013). The
following report is divided into three parts. The first part outlines a brief discussion on the
utilization of modern technologies like cloud storage, Internet of Things, smart watches, self
driving cars and many more. The second part of the report will be describing about
exploration of social media as a tool and the third part will be providing evidence of online
presence.
Evaluation of Effectiveness of the Use of Modern Technologies
Modern technology is the significant collection of processes, methods, skills and
techniques that are used for the proper production of services and goods for the
accomplishment of objectives like scientific investigation (Thwaites 2013). There are several
examples of modern technologies that are providing advantages to the society. Two of such
examples are provided below:
Technology 1: Smart Watches
A smart watch is a wearable computer system within the form of a wrist watch that
could be used with one single touch. It has an in built smart phone application for providing
telemetry and management (Slovic 2013). The earlier models of smart watches can perform
few of the basic tasks like digital time telling, game playing, translations and calculations,
however the modern smart watches have better general functionalities that are close to the
smart phones like mobile applications, mobile operating system as well as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth

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connectivity. Few of the smart watches eventually function as portable media players with
FM radios.
There are several uses of smart watches and these are as follows:
i) Working Out: The first and the most important use of a smart watch is that it helps
in keeping track of the calories burnt or time invested during a working out session (Ohno et
al. 2016). It even has music players that help in relaxation.
ii) Keeping Track: The second important and significant use of a smart watch is that
to keep track of likes and even could be used for maintaining health. Apart from an alarm
clock, it even comprises of a reminder, which helps the user to note any particular time.
iii) Receiving Calls or Messages: Smart watches are also effective for receiving calls
and messages (Graedel et al. 2015). It does work like a smart phone at sometimes and hence
making the systems even more efficient than the rest.
Comparison and Contrast between two Providers: Apple vs Samsung
For understanding the difference of quality and features, the comparison and contrast
of two distinct providers of smart watches are as follows:
Apple Samsung
i) The Apple smart watch has a rectangular
design and a touch screen for matching.
i) The Samsung smart watch has a circular
touch screen display.
ii) It does not comprise of a rotating bezel
and instead it employs the rotating Digital
Crown for aiding with navigation through
the watch OS interface.
ii) This smart watch has a rotating bezel to
scroll through the operating system
(Simuforosa 2013).
iii) The sizes of an Apple smart watch iii) The sizes of a Samsung smart watch are

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include 38 mm, 40 mm, 42 mm and 44 mm. 42 mm and 46 mm.
iv) It comprises of a GPS model that has Wi
Fi, however lacks LTE.
iv) The Samsung smart watch provides both
Wi-Fi and LTE.
v) The resolution is 324 X 394 on the 40
mm version.
v) Both the versions have resolution of 360
X 360.
Recommendations
The recommendations two both the smart watch providers are as follows:
i) Apple: a) It should support LTE so that more users are attracted to this watch.
b) The resolution should be increased for the 38 mm size as it is much lower in
comparison to the others.
ii) Samsung: a) The first recommendation is that they should do a thorough market
research for understanding the requirements of customers.
b) The second recommendation for them is to work on the product differentiation
strategy. More or less, the product is similar to other smart watches, hence it is required to
work on product differentiation so that they are able to obtain better competitive advantages.
Technology 2: Internet of Things
Internet of Things or IoT is the system of several interrelated computing devices and
digital machines that have the capability to transfer confidential data over the network
without needing human to human and human to computer interactions (He et al. 2016). It is
extremely important to assign an IP address and help in operating more efficiently and
delivering enhanced customer services to increase the respective business value.
There are several uses of this Internet of Things and these are as follows:

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
i) Smart Home: The first and one of the most important use of Internet of Things is
smart home. This type of home provides home automation and hence it is responsible for
controlling the lighting, climate, appliances and entertainment systems (Abramovich 2014). It
might even involves home security like access control as well as alarm systems. The various
home devices are connected with the Internet and they are the vital constituent of the Internet
of Things.
ii) Wearables: Another important use of this IoT is the wearables. These types of
devices are eventually installed with certain software and sensors that are responsible for
collecting information and data regarding the users and this particular data is then pre
processed for extracting the important insights about the user (Jones 2013). Such devices
broadly cover three requirements of entertainment, health and fitness. The pre-requisite from
the IoT technology for wearable applications are for highly energy efficient and smaller sizes.
iii) Connected Cars: This is yet another significant use of IoT, The automotive digital
technology has emphasized on the optimization of vehicles’ internal functionalities. This
connected car is the vehicle that has the ability to optimize its own operation, comfort and
maintenance of the vehicles with internet connection and onboard sensors.
iv) Industrial Internet: It is a new buzz within the industrial sector, even termed as
the IIoT or Industrial Internet of Things (Van Gosen et al. 2014). This is the empowering
industrial engineering with big data analytics, software and sensors for creation of effective
machines with greater potential for the sustainability and quality control.
Comparison and Contrast between two Providers: HCL vs Amazon.com
For understanding the respective and various differences or innovations in products, a
proper comparison and contrast between the two providers is as follows:
HCL Technologies Amazon.com

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
i) HCL Technologies has provided their
unique product of Internet of Things, called
IoT WoRKS (Dibble and Drouin 2014).
i) Amazon.com has provided an IoT based
platform, called AWS IoT Core.
ii) This IoT WoRKS enables IoT
applications within the specified
environments and organizations could
eventually optimize the costs as well as
other metrics included in these premises.
ii) The AWS IoT Core platform enables the
user in connecting devices to AWS services
as well as other devices, securing data as
well as interactions, processing and acting
upon device data and even enabling
applications in interacting with the devices,
whenever they are offline.
iii) Another solution of this IoT WoRKS is
FORCE that aligns IoT solutions with real
time information flow so that organizations
could offer new kinds of services on the
basis of innovative revenue model (Chen et
al. 2014).
iii) One of the major features of AWS IoT
platform is the AWS IoT Device SDK. It
even helps in easier and quicker connection
of hardware device or mobile application to
this platform and even allows to use an open
source alternative and write their own SDK.
iv) ASSET is the next solution that provides
access to real time ambient and accurate
data regarding product’s performance.
iv) Device gateway is the next significant
feature that serves as the entry point for
several IoT devices connecting to AWS. It
even manages every active device
connection and then deploys semantics for
several protocols for ensuring that all
devices have the ability to efficiently
communicate with the platform (Zhao

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
2013).
Recommendations
The recommendations two both the IoT providers are as follows:
i) HCL Technologies: a) They should focus on their features. The features of IoT
WoRKS are not much different than the IoT platform of IBM. For this feature, they might not
be getting new customers.
b) The second recommendation for HCL is market penetration. They should enter into
a new market for getting more customers in their organization and hence competitive
advantages would be gained.
ii) Amazon.com: a) Cost leadership strategy should be implemented in the
organization for the purpose of lowering the costs of the platform so that it is easily
accessible.
b) Although, they have an efficient marketing team, both online and offline, they
should change their marketing strategies so that the effectiveness is improved.
Exploration of Social Media as a Tool
Marketing on Facebook
Being one of the most leading social media platforms and with maximum number of
users, Facebook provides an effective means for marketing. It involves the most advanced
form of technology and this technology is being used on a regular basis for the purpose of
accomplishing some of the significant tasks and interests (Kwok and Yu 2013). A specific
amount is to be paid for such advertisement and it reaches to the maximum number of users.
The main steps for completion of advertisement on Facebook are as follows:

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
i) Creating Goals: The first step is to create proper goals for the marketing of
organization. These goals are also termed as the vision and mission of that company.
ii) Selecting Demographics: Next, choice of users is required according to age,
gender and location.
iii) Scheduling Content: The relevant content should be scheduled properly before
reaching out to the client.
iv) Determining Advertisement Strategy: A proper advertisement strategy is to be
made by professionals for getting more advantages (Rauniar et al. 2014).
v) Engaging Audience to Interact: The users or the audiences should be engaged for
interactions and by this step several organizations have gained popularity.
Gathering of Information through Facebook
Information can be gathered through Facebook by several methods and these are as
follows:
i) Market Research: A survey is provided to the customers and they are asked to fill
up the survey form and this allows the organization to know about the demands of customers.
It is hence required for understanding the position in the market (Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan
2013).
ii) Direct Data Collection: This is the second effective way of collecting data about
the user through Facebook. This social media platform itself collects data about the users and
then analyses them for behavioural patterns as well as rate of usage.
Communication through Facebook
The communication via Facebook is considered as one of the most significant and
effective channels by which huge organizations can communicate with the large base of

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
users. Since, it provides a user friendly platform, it is being used by several users worldwide.
Moreover, Facebook having the modern technology or evolved technology might replace the
previously used technology for its incremented advantages and newfound popularity. They
provide an ability to cater to the growth of the business. The modern technology of Facebook
could be stated as the core knowledge of processes and techniques and can be embedded
within machines for allowing operations without detailed knowledge of working. The
systems that are applying technology by undertaking an input, altering it as per the utilization
of system and finally producing the result is termed as technological system or technology
system (Kwok and Yu 2013). This modern technology is extremely safe and secured and they
are responsible for enhancing competency and creativity to a higher level. The
communication through posts and personal messages helps the users to learn about the unique
products and services of the organization and thus they do not face any issue while
completion of their marketing.

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DIGITAL SKILLS AND RESEARCH METHODS
Bibliography
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toward pedagogically sound uses of modern technology. International Journal of
Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 45(7), pp.1034-1052.
Chen, X.Y., Jin, J.X., Xin, Y., Shu, B., Tang, C.L., Zhu, Y.P. and Sun, R.M., 2014.
Integrated SMES technology for modern power system and future smart grid. IEEE
Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, 24(5), pp.1-5.
Dibble, J.L. and Drouin, M., 2014. Using modern technology to keep in touch with back
burners: An investment model analysis. Computers in Human Behavior, 34, pp.96-100.
Graedel, T.E., Harper, E.M., Nassar, N.T. and Reck, B.K., 2015. On the materials basis of
modern society. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(20), pp.6295-6300.
He, J., Lo, D.C.T., Xie, Y. and Lartigue, J., 2016, October. Integrating Internet of Things
(IoT) into STEM undergraduate education: Case study of a modern technology infused
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Jones, S.E., 2013. Against technology: From the Luddites to neo-Luddism. Routledge.
Kwok, L. and Yu, B., 2013. Spreading social media messages on Facebook: An analysis of
restaurant business-to-consumer communications. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(1),
pp.84-94.
Ohno, H., Nuss, P., Chen, W.Q. and Graedel, T.E., 2016. Deriving the metal and alloy
networks of modern technology. Environmental science & technology, 50(7), pp.4082-4090.

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Rauniar, R., Rawski, G., Yang, J. and Johnson, B., 2014. Technology acceptance model
(TAM) and social media usage: an empirical study on Facebook. Journal of Enterprise
Information Management, 27(1), pp.6-30.
Rowe, W.B., 2013. Principles of modern grinding technology. William Andrew.
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Thwaites, D., 2013. Accuracy required and achievable in radiotherapy dosimetry: have
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