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Blogger

2013-04-17 17:15:44 UTC

I had never had any prior experience with Blogger before I began this process. I used blogger to create my blog which I then used to publish all my work related to my magazine including research and planning, photoshoots, implementation and my finished products. To begin with i found blogger a little challenge to come to terms with as it was the first time I had ever used a blog or this type of website. I originally began to use pages instead of posts, yet became slowly more confident with the website, changing my blog design and posting all of my work. I learnt how to create a media friendly blog, something which I struggled with in the early days of this project, due to the ability to download many different widgets such as thinglink which made the overall viewing of my blog much easier.

Google Mail

2013-04-17 17:25:14 UTC

I previously had only ever used 'hotmail' as my email account but had to create a gmail account in order to use Blogger to create my blog. This was very easy to use and ensured that all my work was kept in one contained place. Due to Google's ownership of other programmes, such as YouTube, I could easily use this account to upload videos, something I found valuable when creating my evaluations.

Abode InDesign

2013-04-17 17:28:29 UTC

I had previously used this programme before but found it incredibly difficult and gave up without much success. I was rather reluctant to use it again considering my past experience, however, this programme was extremely valuable when constructing my media product. I used a wide variety of tools in InDesign such as the 'place' tool- to insert images, 'line' tool- to create borders, 'text'- to insert text into the programme and 'characteristics'- to change the features of the text such as the colour, stroke weight and outline. Once I had become more familiar with the programme after conducting my preliminary task, I found I was much more confident, which I believe is clear from my construction. I learnt how to effectively place features using this and export them into a professional product.

Abode Photoshop

2013-04-17 17:40:58 UTC

I used photoshop to manipualte my images to ensure they were worthy of publication such as removing any abnormailies. I had never used photoshop before and found it extremely difficult to work due to my inexperience. However, once I had gained a little more experience from my preliminary task I learnt how to use many tools including the 'clone' tool, 'spot healing' tool, feathering, 'magic wand' tool, black and white, contrast and curves. I found photoshop rather difficult to use, primarily due to the great variety of tools, many of which I did not know how to use. I found, unlike InDesign, Photoshop was a case of trial and error, adjusting different levels and colour to create a different overall look. I particularly liked the magic wand tool, something which I used extensively during the creation of my front cover as this allowed me to select the musical feature and place a coloured feature on top of the black and white image.

Canon DSLR and Smoke Machine

2013-04-17 17:48:14 UTC

I took all of my photos for my media product with a Canon DSLR camera. I had never used this camera before to take serious pictures with and normally only took images from a camera phone which would have not been suitable for my magazine due to the low quality. I also used a smoke machine, something which I had also not used before. This was extremely easy to use as long as used in conjunction with a black sheet to ensure the smoke could easily be seen in the images. I have learnt a lot about camera angles and lighting, something which I believe is clearly shown through my project as I feel my double page spread images are so much stronger than that of my front page due to this experience gained.

2013-04-17 17:49:12 UTC

Sky Drive

2013-04-17 17:57:49 UTC

I used this programme, owned by Mircosoft, as a sort of online memory stick. I had never used this programme before and found it extremely easy to use, especially as a way to store and transport images. I will definitely be using it again in the future.

Glogster

2013-04-17 17:59:58 UTC

I used Glogster, an interactive pin board as a way of presenting information in my evaluations. I found this programme to be rather straight forward and easy to use in terms of creation as it was an effective way of presenting my ideas. This made my blog more media friendly as was interactive in comparison to that of images and words which can be too much 'scrolling'. Additionally, Glogster was easy to embed into my blog which made the process so much quicker.

2013-04-17 18:08:48 UTC

Make a Gif

2013-04-17 18:09:09 UTC

I used 'make a gif' in my evaluations to compare my research to that of my final products, showing how I had used/challenged the generic forms and conventions of media products. This was a simple and easy programme to use and very efficient in comparing my own media product. This used images and changed them into an animation, making my blog once again more media friendly.

Windows Movie Maker and YouTube

2013-04-17 18:14:01 UTC

I had never used Windows movie maker prior to this project but found it extremely easy to use and a good way of creating a video with the use of images and audio. I then converted this to upload my video onto YouTube, something which I am very comfortable with. I quickly learned how to add transitions to the video, making it seem more interesting and professional. I liked this programme and would use it again in the near future.

Voki

2013-04-17 18:17:45 UTC

I used Voki to present my information for my evaluations as an audio file rather than constant text which ensured my blog became more media friendly. Much like many of the other programmes, I had never used Voki before this process but found it simple and quick to use, especially to embed into my blog. I particularly liked that you could customise your own Aimee and change the voice; something I appreciated primarily due to the fact I did not want my own voice on my blog. It was a effective website and due to the fun nature of creating your own Aimee, made the overall experience more fun.

Thinglink

2013-04-17 18:23:26 UTC

This was by far the best website I discovered when creating my blog. I found it particularly useful during the research and planning stage when talking about my images and their development. Thinglink allowed me to post interactive text onto an image, something which made my blog appear less 'wordy'. Although initially hard to load onto the blog as a 'thinglink plug in' was required, once this was downloaded any image placed on my blog could be immediately tagged with text through blogger itself, something which made the whole process quick and efficient. I liked this website the most and learnt how to make my images more interesting through the use of these interactive tags. I would definitely recommend this website.

Slideshare

2013-04-17 18:27:57 UTC

I used Slideshare during my creation process as another way of presenting my information in a more media friendly way. Slideshare is extremely similar to powerpoint yet is easy to embed into blogger. The programme was extremely simple to use and required the limited amount of knowledge to use, something which made the whole process better!

Prezi

2013-04-17 18:39:25 UTC

This was another interactive way of presenting information which could be easily embedded into blogger. I, again, found this site very easy to use, probably due to the template which came with the site. Prezi created a form of 'mind map' which presented information clearly and I found it to be very useful during the evaluations.

Padlet

2013-04-17 18:41:59 UTC

I used this website in my evaluations as it is similar to 'wallwisher', a programme which I have used before. I found it to be quick and easy to use especially when uploading images and text. This is also easy to embed into my blog as it is run by google, meaning I can use my gmail to ensure all my work is collectively in the same place.