Evaluation

The Communication Technology project I have been working on over the past few weeks has been a thoroughly challenging although enjoyable experience. I feel that after a considerable amount of hard work through each of the processes involved, I have made a valuable and significant improvement on my skills and understanding of communication technology.

The task set was to create a website and short DVD, both displaying our personal loves and hates of technology. For the website we were required to use an adobe software called Dreamweaver which is a program designed to assist in creating websites by providing a basic structure to map your website design onto. When making the DVD I used a program called Final Cut to edit the video clips we had recorded. Although there were introductory workshops provided for each of these programs I feel I did struggle at times. I feel I would have probably coped better if I had been given the chance to familiarize myself with each program at a time rather than being introduced to both at once. As both the programs were new to me and the pace was fairly rapid I did find it quite difficult to get my head around them, but after spending time experimenting with each program by myself I began to become more competent.

Most of the problems I encountered were with Dreamweaver which is a particularly intricate program. After designing my website layout on paper I found that transferring it onto Dreamweaver was more difficult than I had imagined. The first problem I came up against was the home screen design. My plan was to use a photograph of my own bedroom, containing a number of different technological devices. The idea was to create the page so that different objects would light up after the mouse scrolled over them, indicating something was there. By clicking on the objects the plan was that they would take the user to a different page explaining that particular object. In order to achieve this it was essential to follow a complicated and specific procedure. Firstly it was necessary to slice the picture up into different layers. Each layer had to be saved twice, changing the colour of the object on the second time so it would appear to be high-lighted. Then in theory by linking both together, the desired affect would be accomplished. The process was very time consuming and I found it hard to grasp. On a positive note, I feel I have gained valuable experience through this task. If I had the chance to do it again I believe I would be more competent with the procedure and therefore more confident to work independently. Also by being more familiar with the program I would be able to work much more time effectively, allowing me to spend more time gathering information from a wider range of resources.

The other task we were given was to make a video of our thoughts on technology and also a narrative. This was a group task involving myself and two other students on my course. Firstly we planned a short video clip about the improvement technology can have on your life. To create a video there are certain rules and techniques which need to be followed. Also it was quite time consuming because each action sequence needed to be shot a number of times from a variety of different angles. I was really pleased with the final outcome because it portrays exactly what we wanted it to. I also made a short video by myself with my digital camera showing the technology in my room. This was my first time using video as a media and I feel I have come away with a deeper understanding of the fundamental elements of creating a video clip as well as finding a media that I thoroughly enjoyed working with. I found this project really interesting and I am looking forward to expanding my knowledge on it.

On completion of this project I can look back and see there are things I would have changed if I had the opportunity to do it again. I found that experimentation with the programs was a way of developing my personal understanding and therefore improving the outcome of my projects. I feel that if I had had the opportunity to spend more time working with Dreamweaver in particular I would have been able to develop my skills using it.

Altogether I have enjoyed learning how to use all the technologies and the different processes required to achieve the desired outcome. I have also realised that that technology can be very difficult to understand. I had decided beforehand to have all five of my technologies as loves because they all help make my life a little easier, however after doing this project I have realised there are technologies which I could happily live without.