Throughout “Online Communication,” I have learned about some things that I did not know before. We covered a wide array of topics such as blogs, polls, inserting charts, HTML, widgets, and much more. By using all of these skills, I was able to complete my final advisor project where I created a website for the Foran High School Natural Helpers.
I always knew how to work Windows Movie Maker, but I got to explore it a little more throughout this class. Most of the time I’ve used it before was to just string clips together. I never concentrated on the affect aspect of the program. This is my technology autobiography where I used my new knowledge of movie affects to enhance my presentation. I was able to add slides with color and learned how to make effective transitions between the pictures. Also, I never used Movie Maker to link pictures together. So, that was something different then what I have done in the past. I found out that it’s just as easy, if not easier, to make a slideshow with pictures.
I think Movie Maker-produced slideshows helps enhance a website, so I used it for my final project. I made a slideshow of pictures that I had from this past year in Natural Helpers as a “closing” application of the year.
A second skill that I learned more about was Power Point. We did a collaborative group tutorial where our group looked closer at how Power Point works. Not only did I learn how to make Power Points look better, I am now able to apply it to any project I have. Recently, I did a Power Point for my AP European History class where I was able to use enhancements to better my project. These skills ultimately made me able to complete the projects.
With my personal blog, I was able to explore the use of widgets. For example, the Voki was added using a text widget. Before this class, I had no idea what a widget was. Now I learned that all it is is a piece of code. These little pieces of code really add more substance to a website as opposed to keeping plain text.
My new skills from the linked projects will help me with future projects. I know that in senior year, and even college, I will need to create Power Points. Instead of just having Power Point’s full of text, I’ll be able to add effects that help not only my understanding of the topic, but my audiences understanding.
Another skill that I learned about that will serve me well in the future is the use of blogs. I never used a blog before this class but I check several blogs daily so I am aware of how they work. Now, if I ever wanted to create a blog for a class or for my own purposes, I know enough about widgets and code to make it something that people will actually want to look at. Most of the blogs I know of are full of information and enhancements such as MJ’s Big Blog.
The project I am most proud of was my advisor’s website. I’ve always liked Natural Helpers and working with Mrs. Hart so it was a beneficial experience for me to work with her on it. I also think that I added a lot of good widgets such as the Voki and Health Tip of the day. Natural Helpers are about personal health as well as the health of others, so I felt it was appropriate. I think my information page came out the best and will serve as the most helpful on the website. There are many issues there that even I am not completely informed about so I think it could help me, as well as others. Natural Helpers are apart of so much within the community that I think this website will help organize dates and information and be very useful to the club.
Overall, I am happy I took this class. I did learn a lot about blogging and how to enhance websites. I did feel that some of the things we learned were tedious. It just felt like sometime there was too much time spent on things like the website and polls/surveys where I felt as we could have got the same amount of work done, in a shorter amount of time. This would have allowed for us to work more on other topics we had not had the time to look at. I also wish we could have done more projects. I understand it is a half year course but I did think we were going to complete more then three projects. However, I am glad I took the class, and I would suggest it to people who want to learn more about computers and how to use them. I would consider myself naturally advanced with using computers, but even I learned some things that were beneficial to me.
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