2) Annotation Tool: Word

Note, I made a word file showcasing word's advanced commenting features. I emailed it to everybody. Not sure if I can upload that file to github.

Also, the notes below apply to Word 2007 or 2010. 2003 and XP have these some of these features, but don't have some because they lack the ribbon interface.

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**Design Aspects: **Extremely powerful user interface. Important functions are organized. Most important word processing functions located at the home tab. More powerful elements are located in the other tabs. Extremely powerful formatting and citation tools.

User interface has a learning curve. Becomes very powerful once user learns it.

Learning Aspects: No real time collaboration. Word has great commenting feature. Can insert images, and audio comments. Great version tracking system (can easily see what user did what). But no real time collaboration at all. If a team uses word, only one person can work on the document at a time. Not easy to merge conflicting versions. Not easy to share automatically.

Very poor tool for teaching. No drawing annotation tool without tablet.

Greatest Features: Commenting: image and audio comments. Commenting: navigating comments: view pane to see all comments at once. Text tracking: block and accept edits. See who edits what specifically. Strong formatting functions.

Weaknesses: No real time collaboration. No live communication. No annotation tool without tablet.

Possible Learning Usages: Most students will use Word as a tool to edit their documents. Word was not designed as a collaborative learning tool. However, it's very advanced commenting and annotation features can be used by teachers to annotate student's homework. An English teacher will find word's commenting and text tracking tools very useful in grading papers.

-- Richard