technology

1. Question 6
Technologies

2. Blogger
Blogger is the most important piece of technology that I used in my process as
this is how I tracked my process throughout the journey, it also allows a clear
difference between the journey for my preliminary task and the journey for my final
music magazine. Before this course I had never heard of Blogger, never mind using it
and luckily it was really easy to use and I got the hang of it quickly. After I set up my
blog to ensure the sidebar was visible on the main blog and chose a colour theme
and background that I liked, I made my first post. This was really easy and it made
me feel more confident in using it, knowing I could do so without trouble.

3. Adobe Elements
11 Photoshop
Using elements is how we actually made our magazines, the tools we used allowed
for a range of editing skills. The colour replace tool for example was on of the most
helpful tools I used because I wanted the colours in my pictures to be different
coloured like one of the photographs I changed the colour of someone's hair to
bright red to represent the rock genre, I also used it to change the colour of my
main models lips as the make up she had was not dark so I made her lips a purple
colour instead. There are many other helpful tools like the blur tool to smudge the
background to make something in the foreground the focus. Adobe Photoshop is
also how I added the text to my magazine, I used the text tool and went through all
the fonts, the wide range of fonts is really helpful and allows for a variation in
styles.

4. Microsoft
PowerPoint
Microsoft Office is a staple part of any computer users daily life so using Microsoft PowerPoint was reassuringly easy, I was familiar with all
the tools already and so I was able to complete my target audience research analysis with no troubles. The different templates allow for a
range of looks suitable for a variety of purposes. The crop tool meant I didn’t have to use the Macs all the time to take screen captures so it
was easier for me to complete power points at home or in the work room where Mac computers were not available.
To insert the graphs and charts I used on my target audience profile I
used Microsoft Edexcel to create the graphs and imported them into
the PowerPoint.

5. Slide share
Obviously creating a slideshow for my blog means I needed
a way to upload these online. Slide Share is a website
which allows for PowerPoint presentations to be uploaded
online using an embedded hyperlink. I had a few issues
with this as Slide Share would not work on the college
laptops or the computers that weren’t the Macs so when I
needed to upload something it had to be in the actual
media room.
I had no previous experience with using Slide Share before so at first I
didn’t know what to do and I found it hard to upload my first
PowerPoint. I shared the wrong link instead of using the embedded link
and I didn’t paste it into the HTML section on Blogger so it did not show
the PowerPoint. After some feedback I realised my mistake and
corrected it, from then on I have had no problems with Slide Share.

6. Microsoft Word
Using Microsoft Word in media was really easy as we have had to use
this all through senior and junior school. There isn’t much you can do
wrong with Microsoft Word which is why it is such a simple but
effective tool to use, this is the best technology to use just for typing
up answers to questions or to create questionnaires like the ones we
made to complete our target audience research. This tool allows
numbered lines (ideal for questions), pictures, word art (great for
creating options for a magazine masthead) and just plain text which
is how I wrote the double page spread for my music magazine.

7. Flickr
Flickr was a new technology that I used to upload the photographs from my
photo-shoots to allow my peers and teachers to comment on them and tell
me which photos they liked best and how to improve, this allowed me to pick
successful shots to use in my magazine. This technology was really helpful as I
didn’t know which photographs to use and the ones I liked the best are not
the ones which my target audience picked and so it really helped me to make
a magazine specifically made for them and not just what I liked as this would
not have made a successful product.
Some of the comments were really helpful, for example how
to crop an image to make it more effective, or what kind of
effect to put on it to make it look more rock. I didn’t find all of
the comments helpful but people giving their honest
opinion, all in all, really benefitted my final product.

8. Prezi
I had never used Prezi prior to starting my
media course.
Prezi is quite similar to PowerPoint but
instead of slides, there are different
bubbles. These bubbles can feature
pictures or text and there is as many
available as you need. There is different
themed Prezi’s you can create dependant
on the use of it. I was able to use this quite
easily however I always forgot to embed
the Prezi and make it the correct size as it
always ended up covering the sidebar
which is not correct so I always had to
reopen Prezi to embed and resize the Prezi.

9. Slidely
The website Slidely creates online PowerPoint shows allowing the use of
uploaded images or images selected from a web browser. Using Slidely
has the limitation of a maximum character limit, therefore any
annotations have to either be very brief or added at the bottom once
the show has been embedded. I like the fact that Slidely offers a range of
music to accompany your slideshow to make it more unique and make it
more interesting to view. It did take me a while to initially figure out how
to work Slidely, and I had to restart them a few times as I could not make
it stay on a screen capture of writing long enough to be read but overall
it is a really helpful tool and I really enjoyed using it.

10. Google
I used Google to find the images of the logos of social media to make my magazine
interactive and modern. I also used Gmail to email myself the work I needed to
finish at work/college and email myself links or pictures I needed for my work.

11. Camera/
Memory Card/
Memory Card Reader
I used a camera to take my pictures from my
photo-shoots and also to take pictures of the
Bring Me The Horizon concert I went to
which I wanted to include in my magazine to
appeal to the parts of my audience that enjoy
going to concerts. The memory card
obviously saved the image and then the
memory card reader was important to import
the pictures from the camera onto the
computer to allow them to be edited and
used on my magazine.