Evaluation Question 4 – How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

BloggerI have constantly used Blogger over the past year to make updates on our progress. This includes our research and planning, theory work, and the evaluation work. It allowed me to be creative as I could post my work using different technologies which I will later explain.

I also could change the appearance of my blog to make it look as good and as professional as I could.

Camera/tripodThis year we were able to use the Canon HV30 cameras. These were better for us as they are HD cameras and our footage was a higher quality than last year as we used a standard Canon MD205 which wasn’t HD. We used the camera to film various things such as our preliminary task, music video, and focus groups. We have also used cameras on the groups phones which helped us when we created the Digipak and magazine advert.

I have used YouTube for a number of different reasons:• Firstly when doing research and planning I have used YouTube to look at real

media texts to compare my music video with real ones. I have posted these on my blog.

• Also I have used YouTube with my group to post our music video and other videos online

iMac

The iMac has been a very important part of the course as I used it to get onto programmes which I will later explain. As we also used the iMacs in the first year, this year I was well equipped with them and therefore benefited from using new things to help me. The iMacs are better than standard computers because of programmes only they have, for example, Safari which allows quick and easy internet access to help us work faster.

Helpful websitesWe have used a number of websites again this year which we also used last year. This includes SurveyMonkey, OneTrueMedia, Wordle, and Slideshare.

As I have been using these website for a long time, I know a lot about them and this year I have been able to try new things and this has made my work considerably better.

Unsigned and The 99s!A new piece of technology we used was www.unsigned.com which is the website in which we had to look at to find the music we would create a video to. I searched this website a lot for the correct piece of music in which I believed would be best for myself and my group. This was a good website to use as copyright is not an issue as they are unsigned.

I also studied www.the99smusic.com with my group to get more of an idea of what The 99s are like which would help us when creating the video with target audience etc.

Final Cut Express

This programme on the iMac has probably been the most important piece of technology we have used over the past two years. It has been used to create our music video this year, and our thriller last year. Although it isn't a new piece of technology for me this year, I have still become more used to it and has vastly improved my work. One example is that before, I worked on final cut express using only one layer, however I used layers for the music video and it made it a lot easier to work with. There were also a new range of tools I used, such the speed adjustment which I used many times in the video.

PhotoshopPhotoshop is a new piece of technology I have used this year and it has been vital in creating the Digipak and magazine advert. Daniel also takes ICT and has worked on Photoshop before and therefore this gave us an advantage as he knew about it. I believe this programme is very good and it didn’t take long to get well equipped for it.

PreziPrezi is a new piece of technology in which we have recently been introduced to by our teachers. It is a great way of presenting information and makes it a lot more interesting. It is also very easy to read.

When I first began using Prezi I found it very difficult to get used to, however after a few goes I can now quickly and easily create a presentation on Prezi. I have used it to present my answer to an evaluation and also to present information on theory work.