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

PhotoshopBefore making my product and doing this course, I had never used Photoshop

before. I feel like I learnt a lot and got much better just from practice however it took me a while to get used to all the different tools. I used Photoshop even though I wasn’t familiar with it as I knew it would give me the best outcome.

I learnt how to manipulate images in everyway that I needed to, I learnt how to change the page size so it could be A4 for my cover and contents page but A3 for my double page spread. I also learnt how the layers work and how some things are in front of others on the page. I also realised that there is an ‘auto select’ tool so it selects the layers automatically and you don’t have to waste time finding the correct layer at the side.

I used the different tools to edit my images a lot. The tool I probably used the most was the blemish tool because I wanted to make sure my models looked perfect.

Prezi

I used Prezi as a way to present some of my course work. This is also something that I had never used before. I like using Prezi as it is like PowerPoint however it has a unique style and makes work look better presented. There are quite a few themes to pick from and I used a few on my blog to present my work. Prezi is also good because you can add many different types of media onto a Prezi and make it interactive. You can also embed them straight onto a blog. This was good for me because it means my Prezis are accessible right on my blog.

Slideshare

Slideshare is another way to present work however I like this one because you can make a PowerPoint presentation and then embed it and make it accessible through a blog. This makes work easy to view and it is also more interactive than uploading slides individually.

Survey Monkey

I used survey monkey to ask my audience what they would like to see from my magazine and also gather information about who my audience are and who I should aim my product at. I learnt how to produce a survey and also change the style of the answer to make it suitable for the question. For example, multiple choice or just a blank box. Using an ‘Other’ option on multiple choice answers was good because it meant that you could get a more specific answer. On some questions it is good to offer the option of selecting more than one answer so they can answer more accurately.

Publisher

I was already quite familiar with Publisher before i started creating my products however I used this to add the text onto my double page spread and did learn some new things. I learnt how to change the page size and how to use the rulers to make sure everything was correctly aligned. I also learnt how to put text into two or three columns.

Blogger

I used Blogger to show all of my coursework. Blogger is easy to use and although I’d never used it before I quickly learnt how to use it. I learnt that you can either type straight into the text box or you can add files into a post and create it that way. Using Blogger meant that my work can be accessed easily and I didn’t have to carry around a huge book. Also, because the work is media based it made sense to be able to see it how its meant to look.