The document describes the various media technologies and software used by the student at different stages of their media project. During the planning, research, and production stages, the student used a Nikon DSLR camera, their Samsung phone, the college Macs and printers, an SD card to store and transfer files, and software like Blogger, Photoshop, WIX, Emaze, and Slideshare. They also used Microsoft Office, Survey Monkey to conduct research, and Moodle for guidance documents. While some technologies like the camera and Photoshop required practice to use proficiently, the student felt more comfortable with the tools compared to their previous media project due to increased experience.

1. z
How did you use media
technologies in the
construction and
research, planning and
evaluation stages?

2. z
Hardware

3. z
Camera
During my AS I primarily used the studio at the Bede campus so for this project I decided to add
some variety for my images as I used more locations for shooting. By using the Nikon D5600
DSLR it made my images appear much more professional and convincing to be used for my
magazine. In my first year I did use the same type of camera so when taking the photos for my
project I was fairly up to date with how to use the camera, where as last time I had to have some
practice and help when using it. However I still had some of the same struggles as the last time
such as knowing where my model should stand with the lighting of the room and also some of the
first couple pictures I took were slightly out of focus. But because of my past experience using this
camera and being in a photo shoot these slight problems were quickly rectified.

4. z
Mac
This was used throughout the whole process of making my
magazine as I done the majority of my research and planning
along with the production of my product and the evaluation. The
mac I used was at Sunderland college and gave me access to
the internet, Photoshop, Microsoft office and online soft wears
such as blogger, Prezi and emaze that I might not have access
to outside of college. I found using a mac much more easy and
fluid to use rather than a computer/laptop and I have become
fairly comfortable using it. Since AS I have become much more
familiar to operating a mac as until my first year I had little to no
experience using a mac but now I am much more comfortable
and confident to this. In becoming much more experienced and
use to the keyboard commands it made doing my work much
more faster and efficient.

5. z
Mobile PhoneI used my Samsung phone during my research and planning as way to take pictures of my peer
feedback and then upload them to my blog and made it much more quicker to have work
uploaded and ready to be used. This was also used to contact and sort out the model for my
photoshoot as it was much easier to message a friend that can help with that and keep in contact
with them, by using Facebook messenger or email. My phone proved useful when using social
media for my survey and meant that I could contact and reach out to a much wider range of
people by posting this onto Facebook or asking friends to partake in the survey, this was useful as
it meant that I could much more feedback than if I had just went around my classroom as I did last
year.

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Printer
I used the college printers on a few occasions while doing my
coursework , a main reason I used this was to print out copies of my
products. The reason I done this was because it meant that I could get
feedback on the drafts of my product much more easier and quicker
instead of asking for verbal feedback. So the printer proved to quiet
useful in adding to my blog and improving my product. I used this in the
same way during my AS but also used the printer to make copies of my
survey. However I did not do that this year as I done my survey
completely online intead.

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SD Card
The SD card meant that I could transfer my work to other macs and work on my project in my own
time as well as in other classrooms. This was also used to store the images taken during my
photoshoot, this was so that all of my work was kept close and together meaning that it was easier
to find my work and everything was in order. As well as keeping all of my work together and
ordered it also added and extra layer of security in case my blogger or Mac crahsed.

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Software

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Blogger
Blogger was used as a way to order, organize and record all of my research and planning as well
as the actual production of my product and also my evaluation. This allowed me to publish or
embed any type of file/document meaning that I could have my work be media rich. I was constantly
uploading to this and expanding on what I had already done adding any progress I made during the
course. I also could label each of my posts and categorize them, this was very helpful as it meant I
could have my work ordered and then making it easier to access and use. Blogger was used for the
same purpose in my AS but this year I was much more confident and comfortable in using it, I feel
that is is evident as in my A2 everything is much more organized.

10. z
PhotoshopThis was the main piece of software that I used for most of my products,
magazine and billboard. Photoshop is a very popular software used for editing
and is frequently used for many professionals in the media industry. It allowed
me to add different layers, texts and images to work on within one document
and slowly build them all together. In Photoshop it also allows for you to bend
and shape images into one product. Before AS I had little to no experience
with Photoshop and since then my skills have improved but it is still something
that I can struggle with, but despite this I do feel as if I worked more faster and
efficiently this year although because I took my time more in AS some of my
products from them could be seen as better. In using Photoshop I was quiet
simplistic, primarily just using color, crop and the magic wand tool as well as
some other tools. This was mainly because I had not used Photoshop since
early AS and had forgot some of what I had learned.

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WIX
Wix was used to help design my website and it also an online software used
by many professionals and is highly regarded. Within this the drag and drop
tools made this very useful and easy to use. In design my own webpage for
my magazine it gave me the option of over 500 pre-designed templates
which was very helpful and added to making my products resemblance to
real media conventions. I was also able to use a range of images for my
website and allowed for me to be creative. This was a software that I had
never used before and so it took some time to get use to it, even though
there was a fairly simplistic layout but I still did struggle at times using this.
However without Wix I would have struggled even more with this task as I
am not well experienced in coding and creating a website from scratch
would prove to be costly and even more time consuming.

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Emaze
This is a presentation platform allowing for me to create and share
presentations, proving very helpful when looking to present and manage parts
of my research and planning. Emaze offered a large variety of backgrounds and
templates for my presentations, making them stand out and visually appealing.
By using this it has made my research and planning appear much more
professional. This was something I also used in AS for the same reason and
effect.

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Slideshare
Slideshare is a very popular platform that shares presentations online. This
proved to be rather helpful for my project as it allowed for me to upload
PowerPoints and then add them to my blog so that they can be accessed and
seen. By then having my documents loaded onto Slideshare it then also
meant that I could then access them from another location.

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Safari
This was the main web browser that I used during this project, a
reason for that is because it is the default program installed on the
macs here. This proved to be very quick and reliable, in turn this
proved to be time saving meaning I could create and navigate sites
with ease. Safari was very helpful in my research and planning as it
gave access to many online softwares such as Emaze and Prezi. This
also meant that I could research into similar products and then take
inspiration when I came to my own product. Safari was also very
significant in accessing Wix in order to create my website.

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Microsoft Office
For Microsoft Office I really only used Word and
PowerPoint. These softwares allowed for me to help
present my ideas and research, being able to edit texts
and create an array of different slides to make it more
visually atheistic to people. They also gave me a large
selection of different colors, fonts, templates, layouts and
others. Word was especially useful for my double spread
page article as it allowed for me to draft it out and pin
point the mistakes, with the likes of spell check being
very useful here.

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Survey Monkey
Survey Monkey is an online survey software, helping you
create your own professional survey online. By using this it
helped me get a grasp on what kind of audience I was aiming
towards and helped hone in on who they are and how I should
go about my products. By doing this is as an online survey it
meant that it was a lot less time consuming than actually
asking people one by one, it allowed for me to aim at a much
larger audience and quicker. So for this I posted the link online
as well as sending it out to all of my friends so that as many
people answered the survey as possible.

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Moodle
Moodle is a website, designed to provide educators, administrators and
students as a open-source learning environment . For this my Moodle
home page had a media coursework folder which contained different
documents which would help and guide me while doing my work.
Something that Moodle gave me was a check list for my research and
planning which was very helpful and meant that I could see where I was
at. It also gave a document for my evaluation which allowed for me to
know what the questions were and how to answer them.