The student used a variety of old and new technologies for their A2 coursework, including for research, planning, construction, and evaluation stages. For research, they used a PC, laptop, internet, and PowerPoint. For planning, they used a still camera, SlideShare, and WordPress blog. Construction involved using an iMac, iMovie, still camera, Photoshop, and video camera. Photoshop was the most difficult to learn but they gained proficiency. For evaluation, they used PowerPoint, Excel, Viddler, YouTube, and SlideShare to upload and present work. Viddler and Photoshop were initially the most challenging technologies.

1. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? By Matt Everatt

3. Laptop

4. PC

6. Still Camera (Photo function for storyboard)

8. iMovie

9. Still camera (Video function)

10. Photoshop (CS4)

11. Video Camera

13. Excel

14. Viddler

15. YouTube

16. SlideShare

18. Technologies used for my A2 coursework - Planning For my planning i used a Still Camera to take multiple photos which I composed along with PowerPoint to make my storyboard. I then used SlideShare to first upload my storyboard and then transferred a link to embed it onto a post through Wordpress and onto my blog, this was rather clear to do however i found it a little tricky on how to use SlideShare but thanks to help I was able to gain knowledge rather quickly and use it with ease. I didn’t find any problems with using a still camera because I had used one before for my AS coursework and I had also used Wordpress to present my research and planning on my blog for my AS coursework as well.

19. Technologies used for my A2 coursework - Construction For my construction of my A2 coursework I used an iMac which had the programme iMovie already installed on it. I used iMovie for my AS coursework last year so I had already had some experience using the programme. Although I did find some difficulty using parts of the iMovie programme but after playing around with the programme i eventually learned these odd occurrences and was able to use it with no difficulty at all. Also for my construction I used two different camera’s because I always used zoom on the Video Camera so i switched too a Still Camera (Video function) which was a lot more effective because it restricted my use of zoom and I was able to achieve a lot more shots for my main production. For my ancillary tasks which consisted of a movie poster and a magazine cover, for my movie poster I used Adobe Photoshop (CS4) this was my first time using Photoshop so I had very little knowledge of how to use it but after having a play around and doing a lot of tweaking I was able to use Photoshop a lot more smoothly. For my magazine cover I used Microsoft Word I found I could use this a lot more easier because I had a sound knowledge of how to use it and what to do.

20. Technologies used for my A2 coursework - Evaluation I uploaded my finished production to Viddler and then to YouTube I had quite a bit of knowledge on how to use YouTube but not as much as I had hoped because i didn't know how to achieve this as I had never uploaded a video before but thanks to the instructions from YouTube I was able to upload my production fairly easily. I had used Viddler for the first time so my experience wasn’t that great although i found this easy to use by following the various steps however it was a little tedious waiting for my trailer to upload. To present my final evaluation and bits of research I used PowerPoint and Excel these two programmes were easy to use as I had a lot of knowledge on how to use these, I then used SlideShare and Wordpress to upload these onto my blog.

21. Technologies used for my A2 coursework - Conclusion The technology I found the most easiest to use was PowerPoint and SlideShare however it was difficult to learn how to use Photoshop I also found that this was effective a rather easy to use. The technology I found the most difficult was Photoshop and Viddler but after playing around with both programmes I was able to use both of these easily and make a really effective Movie Poster for my production. I hope to continue using this array of different technologies and hardware in the near future.