1. The first technology related aspect of media I learnt to use
was Blogger, a free online website that allows users to
create multi-purpose posts for anyone to see. I was able to
customise how the blog looked and what the blog was
called, and I was able to see how many people had seen
what I had posted. I used it for the sole purpose of
displaying coursework I had completed and evidence of my
research into the magazine industry. The site is easy to use
and useful for posting things in a short amount of time, as
working online is much more convenient than with pen and
paper.
2. Prezi was the next useful website which helped me to show
the research I had done into professional magazines. This
website is a great tool to provide evidence that lets other
people learn from you have also learnt. There is a range of
unique display formats, such as slide by slide or mind map,
which provide creative methods of laying out work and
thinking of ideas for a product. The slide can be easily
embedded into a blog post through using the Share option,
meaning anyone can view your work in a small file without
having to download or pay for anything.
3. The Adobe products by far took the most time to use, and if
you are without prior experience you will have to take
some of your own time if you want to learn how to use the
software to its maximum capabilities. Photoshop lets a user
edit images compatible with the software through bitmap
and vector styled editing tools. Indesign lets a user create a
magazine or book or page based format and add different
styled text and graphics and images. Both products are
practically compulsory in the magazine and music industry.
4. SlideShare is a website similar to Prezi, but requires the
user to have downloaded a presentation application like
Microsoft PowerPoint. The website then links the software
and saves it online for use on any website, such as Blogger.
Again it can easily be embedded and anyone can view your
work, even those without PowerPoint installed, because
SlideShare uses its own compatible code to make the slides
visible on another person’s computer. This is a simpler way
of combining ideas, and is usually most effective as a
conclusion to a piece of work, like this PowerPoint you’re
reading.
5. Lastly, hardware was obviously used in the creation of my
product. A camera was used for the photos you see on each
cover of my magazine, uploaded to the computer first for
easy input to the product. In one instance, computer
software was used to create an image, which was my album
cover. The computer also contains access to the internet, and
so both Internet Explorer and Google Chrome web browsers
were used to access research information and the sites used
for my work.
