Technology

Lenovo ThinkPad T60

This is the laptop I used to create my music magazine. I can take this laptop to school and use it at home, so it is convenient and I used it throughout my research and planning, production and evaluation. It is also useful as it has access to the internet and all my pictures and other files I need for my coursework.

Google.com

I used this search engine throughout my coursework and in my opinion is the quickest and has the best results out of all the other search engines available. I use it to access my blogger account, slide share account and other sites that I needed to use.

Blogger

I used www.blogger.com to post all my updates on my music magazine. I have access to the internet at school and at home, so the site is easily accessible. If I am anywhere without my laptop, but need to get onto my blog, I can use my mobile phone (Sony Ericsson Xperia Play). The site has the facilities to be accessed via other technology, not just a computer, which was very useful. At first, because I have never used the site, it was difficult to navigate around, so it took me a while to get used to it. After a few times using the site I found it easier and easier to use. However, even towards the end of my coursework, there was a few things I was still a little uncertain about.

Slide Share

I used www.slideshare.net to present my ideas on a few of my posts. Quite a few people recommended it so I decided to create an account. When it came to uploading a presentation to my blog, it took me quite a while to work out how to do so, as it was a fairly complicated process. However, eventually I worked out how to do it and I was impressed by the result. I thought it presented my ideas in a neat and organised way. I would defiantly use it again if I needed to do a presentation.

Kodak M550

I used a Kodak M550 to take my pictures for my music magazine. This is my own camera and it is around a year old. I would have liked to have used a higher quality camera but unfortunately didn’t have access to one at the time I wanted to take my pictures. The camera is 12 megapixels and produced some good pictures. I didn’t edit the images on my camera; I instead waited to use some better quality photo editing software. The images were easy to upload to my computer via the USB cable. I used it to take the pictures for my music magazine, including the smaller images around the sell lines on my front cover.

Sony Erisson Xperia Play

I mentioned earlier that I used my mobile phone to access blogger. I used it for other things that helped me with my coursework. As well as blogger, I used it to communicate with my models and I also used it to access the internet when I didn’t have access to my laptop. The phone is touch screen, but also has additional buttons which were useful when I was doing research or editing my blog. Unfortunately, the internet was a lot slower than on my laptop. However, I was very useful to have if I didn’t have my laptop.

Picnik

I used www.picnik.com to edit my pictures. I found this site extremely useful when editing my photos. It allowed me to airbrush, add makeup, change colours, add stickers and text, crop and brighten my pictures (to say a few!). It had a brilliant variety of colours, stickers and fonts to choose from. It was easy to use and everything was very clear and labelled. Unfortunately the site will be shutting towards the end of April. The only thing I couldn’t do on picnik, was add additional images onto my existing page. For example, I couldn’t add a barcode to my front cover on this program, so I had to find somewhere else. Also, once the image had been saved, you couldn’t go back and edit it, for example move text around or change colours, which I found quite difficult as there were times when I couldn’t (for various reasons) complete a draft in one go. Apart from these 2 negatives, I would defiantly use www.picnik.com again for editing my photos.

Microsoft Publisher

I used Microsoft Publisher to help me make my music magazine. There were certain things picnik wouldn’t allow me to do – for example, I couldn’t add additional pictures to my front cover (like the barcode). I only used Publisher for this purpose and it was useful in this sense. I use publisher regularly and would defiantly use it again.

Microsoft Word

I used Microsoft word to do many things, including designing my questionnaire and doing my risk assessment. I used this piece of software regularly and find it very easy to use and there were lots of other useful things included on it, for example changing fonts and colours. Word also helped me when making slideshare presentations, because a document needs to be uploaded in order to create a presentation.

Microsoft Excel

I used Excel to create help me present my questionnaire results. This was the only thing I used it for, and at first I wasn’t quite sure how to use it, but after doing a couple of the pie charts it became easier and easier. I would use it again for this purpose, however I am not completely aware of its other functions and this could be something to look in to.