End of Quarter Blog

After taking this class Emerging Communication Technology I have learned a lot of new things.  We had an array of assignments that used a specific software we had to learn and use.  The first thing that we learned was how to make podcasts.  We used the software Audacity and it was great to have that learning experience of making podcasts.  We also learned how to create websites in Weebly or Wix.  I think it was great to gain hands on experience on how to use these user friendly website makers.  I think that I was most excited about getting the chance to make out own websites and learned how to do that.  We bought domain names and mine is www.bellaphotography.org. and had to create it from scratch by using Photoshop and Adobe Dreamweaver.  Im glad that I was able to learn the softwares because it is important to be familiar with the software.
 Overall I really enjoyed the class and can even see how opportunities are opened when you learn to use emerging communication technologies.  Even with this blog it seems that I have learned something that a lot of people use and I can see how it works.  I probably won't continue this but Im not sure if I would start a personal one, seems like something that I wouldn't have time to do it.  But who knows!

Here are some sights that can get you started!

http://www.weebly.com/
http://www.wix.com/
http://www.blogger.com

SixthSense Technology

This weel we have been assigned to watch 2 videos on this emerging technology called the SixthSense.  It is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information and lets us use natural hand gestures to interact with that information.  I think this is a really cool idea which almost seems that it at once upon a time was impossible.  I have always thought of ideas like I wish we could just have a mobile phone somehow attached in our brains rather than having a separate object that we connect to people through.  even though its a thought there would be no way I would be able to even start thinking about doing this.  Well, the creator of SixthSense seems to have found ways of doing this.

It is said that Sixth Sense technology will "help us to stay human."  He continues, "to stay more connected to our physical world."

And that it will "help us avoid being machines sitting in front of other machines."

I think that we are definitely human that have already turned into a digital world and it could never go back.  I think that it is beneficial that we a re turning towards a digital word because it is what keeps us in touch with people that arn't within reach.  If there is a way of connecting the two I think that we will enter a whole new arena of possibilities in which we can achieve as humans.  I don't think that is a bad thing, although I think it is still important to keep in touch with the physical world, we couldn't live without the digital world.

I am excited to see how this SixthSense technology progresses and to see how it would fit into society and day to day life.

Online Website Builders

One of our class progects was to make a group website.  There are many sites out there that you could use to make your website and it basically comes down to personal choice.  Some of the website builders we used was weeblys.com and wix.com.  I had used weeblys in the past and thought before we even approached the site that this is what I would want to use.  After experimenting a little bit with wix, I realized that I wanted to go with that.  The reason why I did this was becasue It felt alot more user friendly and had a really nice finishing touch to it.  To me the site looked visually appealing and also and had a lot of cool tools that you could use to make your site.  Our group website is called "Get your Drip" and we designed it with wix.  It a website that showcases places to go to get coffee in different neighborhoods in Bellingham, WA.  We all decided as a group that we should use wix so there wasn't too much of a problem with that decision.  We were all able to work on the site from seperate locations and each page jived with the rest of the site. 

Here are some useful links to use when deciding to use an online website builder:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3KnDMPclhQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ciz-UQuzuco

All in all I think there are many great sources that one could use for bulding a website online and you could always watch a tutorial on each one or even go to the ite and playa round with it before jumping into the first website builder you know of.

Podcasts

This week in class we learned how to create a podcast.  some of the tools that we learned to create a podcast was Audacity and Freemusicbeds.com.  Audacity is a free software you can use to record your voice and also use different tools or edit the recordings.  Some of the things we learned was to fade your voice in and out and also fade the music in the background to fade in and out.  We also learned how to cut out parts you didn't want or even add in sounds or "no sound" to a certain point of your podcast.  You can layer your recordings to add different effects or music to the background.  Some ways of doing this is getting free sound effects at freemusicbeds.com.  It is a very easy software in which you can download the effects and simply add them into Audacity.
I found a site that I thought really had a lot of information on how to podcast and some help on how to choose something you would want to make a podcast about.
http://podcastanswerman.com/learn-how-to-podcast/
I also found this site that shows you how to podcast through using audacity.
http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm

Photoshop

This week in class we got to use the program Photoshop.  I personally don't have much experience with it but found that with clear instructions it was quite easy to get around.  There are so many things you can do design wise and you just have to play around.  For one we have learned to insert layers, change text, copy/paste and edit photos and playing around with colors and shaping and how to manipulate those.

Here are some websites that may be able to help you with the basic details on how to use photoshop

1.) http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/design/learn-photoshop-basics/
2.) http://www.photoshoplab.com/photoshop-tool-basics.html

Here is also some great YouTube videos that may help:

1.) <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/qgsWuru82Dk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
2.)<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6idvDikh-vM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Top 10 Rules of Website Design

My name is Lena and I am a student at Western Washington University.  I am enrolled in a class called Comm 350 and it is all about Emerging Communication Technologies.  One of the assignments that we have been given is to write a blog about new technologies.

Top 10 Rules of Website Design:

1. Keep your site updated – An updates site will bring back new visitors regularly.
2. Promote your site – If you want more viewers then you need to be able to promote it through advertising and on your business card.
3. Keep it simple – This is important that you make sure people can get around your site easily. It could be frustrating when you can't find what you're looking for and you could lose a viewer.
4. Your site should sell your business – The site should be there like it is a 24 hour salesperson.
5. View other sites – Do your research so you can gage what other successful website have done in order to gain viewers.
6. Stick with web-safe fonts – This is especially important because some people may not be able to display certain font on their computer. Another thing is to make sure that you keep your fonts to a limit of 3 different ones. You don't want to confuse your viewers.
7. Don't use too many colors - You don't have to use every color in the rainbow... keep it mono, duo, or tri-toned.
8. Explain your service one your page - Using allot of informative text in your website that states the services you do... this will greatly help your rankings in the search engines.
9. Don’t put animation in the way of your content – If possible, try to avoid making a website completely out of flash or out of graphics. This is because of search engine rankings and load time.
10. Domain name - Try to find one that is fairly short and easy to remember.