Evaluation Q6

Q: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

Since the beginning of the course I did not use much technology to what I do now, before I would only use social media and a camera, but to a certain extent.

I have learnt how to use Blogger effectively, and upload/embed different things onto it to make it as creative as possible.

I have also discovered many different websites and ways to show my research and work such as how to upload a slideshare, how to create a prezi, an emaze, thinglink, flickr, slidely...

I also learnt how to use Adobe Elements 11.

It is a massive program with endless possibilities, and I have been using this to create my magazine.

Using tools such as the Text Box helped me draw out the sizes of the columns and the text boxes in each page, supporting the construction of each page. 

This tool helped me the most when constructing my contents page, as I had to create three columns.

There are many tools that I used to create effects, add things and enhance sections of my magazine to make it outstanding in quality.

There are many things that are used in Photoshop, but before I would even be able to access them all, I had to remember and learn that I should always work on Expert mode in order to edit my product in any way, shape or form.

I have learned about how to use layers and make them appear on the right hand side in order to get a clear view of what you are doing.

I have also used tools such as the photobin, which allows me to insert different photos as new layers, or as a new background.

This was one of the most crucial skills to learn on photoshop in order to be able to create my magazine pages.

Another important skill that I learned about photoshop is Levels.

By using this you can change the brightness and the shadows on the photo of your choice. I used this quite a lot on my pages, on my front cover image it was used to lighten the photo and make it pop more from the background, in my contents page I have used the same for the same model, to make her stand out more from the background, and in my DPS article in order to make the shadows less dramatic and more natural and light, which makes it easier to look at.

  I also learned how to use shape tools which helped me create different puffs and boxes in my pages and create a busier, more professional look for my magazine.

Another big page that I learned how to use was Flickr, which is where I uploaded the photos that I took and got feedback from my peers and classmates about which ones are the best to use. The media course in our college have our own little group where we all post photos that we took in photo shoots and this way getting opinion from people our own age, which are our TA.
This was one of my favourite websites to use and I believe it was extremely useful.

I found ThingLink as one of the most useful webpages, as it allowed me to annotate my research with speech bubbles directly on the photo/image which meant I spent lest time making screengrabs and placing them and instead, I could talk about the specific details of the image directly. I believe this webpage was very interactive and fun, also very easy to use. I love this webpage!

One webpage that irritates me to this day is PowToon, I cannot stand it up to this day. It was very difficult to use, as the page is too crowded and too many pop-ups from every side of the screen. It does the same thing as Prezi or Emaze, however, it is 'fancier'. I found it difficult to use and so I stuck to not using it. However, when I began my Evaluation work, I thought that it would be a good idea to revisit PowToon. It was not. It was a terrible idea.