6) What did you learn about technology?

Software and WebsitesHere are some of the software and websites that I used to help plan and create my final product:

•Internet Explorer•Blogger•Slideshare•Survey Monkey•Adobe Photoshop•Adobe Bridge•QR Reader•Microsoft Word•Microsoft PowerPoint

Hardware

Here is some of the hardware I used to help plan and create my final product:

•Camera•Laptop•SD Card•Memory Stick•Computer•Sound Recorder

Where did I use technologies?

Research Planning Production Evaluation

Software and Websites

•Internet Explorer•Microsoft PowerPoint•Survey Monkey•Slideshare•Blogger

•Internet Explorer•Microsoft Word•Microsoft PowerPoint•Slideshare•Blogger

•Adobe Photoshop•Blogger•Adobe Bridge•QR Reader

•Internet Explorer•Blogger•Microsoft PowerPoint•Slideshare

Hardware •Sound Recorder•Laptop•Computer•Memory Stick

•Laptop•Computer•Memory Stick

•Laptop•Computer•Memory Stick•SD Card•Camera

•Laptop•Computer•Memory Stick

What technology couldn’t I do without? Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer was essential for completing my product, without a web browser it would have been virtually impossible to do any of the research or planning that was needed. This web browser allowed me to use search engines such as Google to find information that I needed for planning; for example, when I was researching music magazine publishers like Bauer Media and IPC Media. I could go directly to their website and find accurate information. It was also necessary for my Evaluation, allowing me to access Blogger to upload all of my work and check that I had all my posts online.

A good thing about the Internet is that you can use it to find lots of information that may not be available elsewhere; it is unlikely that you would be able to find out about a magazine’s target audience by only using books. It allowed me to use Slideshare so that I could get all my PowerPoint presentations onto Blogger and display them in an effective way.

A negative side to this is that you do not know how accurate some of the web pages are; for instance we had to be careful not just to rely on information from Wikipedia because you do not know who has written it.

BloggerI used Blogger to upload all my research, planning, final product and evaluation, so all of it could be viewed online. This saved paper and made it easier to check all of the individual components.

Although Blogger was not essential to the course, it made displaying all of my planning and evaluations much easier. I could potentially have handwritten the drafts and the photography plans etc, but being able to type them up using Microsoft PowerPoint and uploading them all to my Blog saved a lot of time. It also meant that there was less chance of misplacing work; if there are a lot of hand written sheets of paper then it could be very easy to lose one somewhere along the line.

I have never created an electronic blog before, so I learnt how to make and edit posts, as well as how to change the titles of the posts, the layout and the colours.

A negative of using Blogger is that it does not support certain file formats, such as Word and PowerPoint documents, which meant that I had to find different ways on converting them. There is an upload limit of 1MB per page on Blogger, so I had to reduce the file size of my contents page because it was too big.

Slideshare

Slideshare was a vital piece of technology that allowed me to upload of all of my PowerPoint presentations to Blogger, as Blogger does not support these files. I have never used Slideshare before, so I learnt how to set up an account and how to upload the presentations. I also learnt how to embed the files into my Blog, using the HTML code and pasting it into the HTML section when creating a new post.

Slideshare was great because it was an easy way to upload PowerPoints, and they are an effective way of being displayed on my blog. However it could often take a lot of time to upload and sometimes the files weren’t converted straight away.

HardwareAs there was not enough memory for all the large files to be saved in my user space on the school’s computers, I used a memory stick to save all my work onto. Although this meant that I had to remember to bring it to each lesson and not leave it in the classroom, it was a much more effective method then emailing all the work to myself.

I used a bridge camera to take all my images, which developed my photography skills. This taught me how to change the exposure on some pictures that were too dark. I learnt about lighting, for example when the flash did not look right and when it was needed to bring the picture into focus. I also learnt to use the zoom, to get close ups and medium close ups of my models. I used a tripod when taking the pictures to avoid camera-shake and blurry photographs.

ExposureWithoutflash With flash

PhotoshopAlthough there are alternative programmes that you could potentially use to create a magazine, like Microsoft Publisher, I think that this project would have been impossible without Photoshop. I had a basic knowledge of Photoshop before but only when it came to editing images, I had never used it to create such a project before. Here are some skills that I developed:

Colour levels and balance

Layers

Stroke

Text Tool

Shape tool

Gradient

Bevel and Emboss

Character Spacing

Line tool

Pen tool

What technology could I have done without?

o I think that I could have done without Blogger, because it would have been possible to have hand written the research, planning and evaluation: it did not have to be presented electronically.

o Similarly I could have done without Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, because it was not necessary to type up my findings.

o I could have completed my project without using Survey Monkey; it would have been possible to just ask my peer group some questions and note

down the responses.

What are the positives of using technology?

o The most significant reason for completing the project using technology was the factor of time. Without certain software and hardware, some of the processes would have taken a much longer time, therefore the execution would have been a lot less effective. For example, Survey Monkey meant that I could add a link of my survey to Facebook and Twitter which ensured that I got lots of quick responses. If I had had to ask each person individually, then I would not have been able to collect as many responses, therefore the information would not have been as reliable.

o In addition, technology made it easier to access a variety of information at any time of day; there were no constraints to when you could undertake any research.

o A final positive of using technology is that it is easy to download pictures or transfer photos from one device to another, ensuring that work could be completed anywhere. This was especially useful in the production stage.

What were the negatives of using technology?

o One of the negative points of using technology is that it cannot always be relied upon. Often software and hardware crashes, which can be frustrating and wastes valuable time.

o Sometimes there are problems with file size and converting between different file types: it can be difficult to find the correct solution.

o In regard to finding information using technology, not all websites are accurate and it is not always possible to tell who wrote the source and

where it has come from.