Multimedia Assessment Task #3

During this lesson, we were briefed on where we were supposed to up to, what we were supposed to write about and how we were supposed to present our information on our website. Below, I have briefly written some notes for myslef to refer to regarding what I had to do:

What to write about (Content)
- What is it?
- What do we use it for?
- How is it a part of our multimedia world?
- Are there different types? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type?
- A simple explanation of how it works
- Indication of the cost (If there is a cost or a device is being researched)
- Future directions, where is it going and what is the new technology in this area?

Overall Presentation
- Information must be easy to read
- Information must be easy to find
- Information must be organised in a logical format

Ways to organise information inclue:
- Question answer format,
- Headings on each sub-topic
- Paragraphs
- Dot points

What I must be up to at this point
- In the research phase
- Must have evaluated 2 sites at the very least
- Picked a website to use for my assessment
- Blogging about decisions constantly

What I need to do
- Insert a link onto my blog in order to access my Multimedia website
- Research my 3 topics
- Find a suitable background for my website which reflects Multimedia

I have completed evaluating 2 websites (Protopage and Jimdo) and have blogged about it. I am considering using Wix for my presentation as it is quite impressive and I have already created an account. I am currently playing around with it and experimenting. I plan to make a quick evaluation about Wix after I have finished learning about it. I intend to create a tab on my website for my bibliography but refer to it something such as 'More Information on Multimedia'. As for the format and presentation of my information, I plan to use either Sub-headings or the question answer format.

Jimdo Experiment

This lesson, we were analysing Jimdo, another webstite that we could use to do our Multimedia project. Unlike Protopage, we had to create an account in order to access the website. After that, we had to pick a layout of our own choice for the website. Below is a small clip from an extensive variety of things we could use:

Automatically, a side tool bar appeared with various things to choose from in order to change on the site:

 After the layout loaded, I started by editing the heading and layout of the top bar:

This was an efficient website which was quite simple and easy to use. After being given a few pointers, I was able to naviagte and Unlike Protopage, there was, unfortunately, the problem of having to make an account and log in so that a slightly annoying. This website allows me to use a variety of images and texts. I have not had the chance to make a link to a video on it but I am pretty sure that it is possible to do. Even thought I do not need to collaborate, I have learnt that two different login ins need to be made, then links have to be made to naviagte from page to page. Overall, Jimdo is an interesting website, however, my final decision comes down between Wix and Jimdo. I have yet to test Wix but I know for sure that I will not be using Protopage.

Protopage Experiment

During the last lesson we experimented, as a class, with protopage. As a part of our Multimedia Assessment Task, we had to evaluate all the websites for their versatility, ease of use and collaboration. Since I was working individually, it wasn't necessary for me to evaluate the collaboration.

Here is a brief rundown on Protopage and all the things that we did. If you were to click on Colours/ Settings on the top right-hand corner of your page, you will be able to change the colour of your widget content, text, your background colour and design and texture.

The home page allows you to create new tabs to organise your information and you have to ability to change the colour of the text box.

I also created a sticky note under one of my tabs. I clicked on 'Add Widget' and then clicked on 'Sticky Note' which resulted in my ability to quickly create a tip. If I were to add some last minute information on my webiste, the sticky note would be efficient because it is created in an instant. I also added a youtube video by clicking on 'HTML/ Rick Text Sticky Note' and embedding a youtube video. I had an interesting experience and enjoyed mysely immensely as the features of the website were fun to play around with.

 

Protopage was an interesting website which was fairly efficient and effective. It allowed me to post images, text, videos (from Youtube), new tabs or separate sections to suit my purposes and change the colours and backgrounds according to my preference. It was a fairly straightforward website, once I was aware of where to go to perform a particular action or operation. I had to be slightly guided in order to know what to do but after that it was pretty simple. Also, the tabs make it easier for me to organise all my information so I know what I'm doing. However, what bothered me about this website was that it didn't have much and it was too ordinary. For a quick presentation it's fairly efficient but I was looking for something more interesting and engaging for the audience. As for collaboration, I didn't actually experiment with it but I was told that two or more people could work on different aspects of the site at the same time.

Overall, this was quite an efficient and interesting website, however, it didn't suit my purposes and I thought I could find something slightly better. I hope to experiment with the Wix program next and evaluate that.

Multimedia Assessment Task #2

I spent the first weekend attempting to figure out which topics I would like to do for the Multimedia Assessment Task.After pondering for a while, I got a vague idea of the topics that might hold some interest for me. I picked one topic from each of the coloured sections and these were the more favourable ones:
Blue - Handheld Multimedia Devices
Pink - Software License Types
Yellow - CPUs
Green - Cloud Computing
The topics listed below are my back-up choices in case I change my mind and chose to pick something else: 

Blue -  Netbooks

Pink - Piracy and Copyright

Yellow - Types of Ports

Green - XML

These were my choices because firstly, some of these topics such as Cloud Computing, XML and Piracy and Copyright were new to me and I didn't know much about them. They seemed quite interesting and I would gain some knowledge doing some topics I wasn't quite aware of. Also, some of these topics we had touched in class and I had some basic knowledge about some of them such as Handheld Multimedia Devices, CPUs and Types of Ports. I had some background knowledge regarding these topics and they would give me a boost. I had picked some topics that I had absolutely no knowledge about and some that I knew briefly about. It was a fairly even divide so I decided to select the topics stated above. 
Next, I plan to pick one of the sites to create my online multimedia presentation and analyse them for their versatility and simplicity (how easy they were to use).