18smiths blog heyy killjoys;)

Below is my evaluate reflection during this unit we would usually just write our reflections up our blogs but this time we have done a video, my previous reflections were for the Investigate, Create and Plan

This is a google presentation about what me and my friend Kate thought was the most important part of the digital citizenship week which we represented in this presentation  which was a bit of a boring way to represent it. The reason we made this is because in Tech we had a 30 minute challenge to make anything to represent what we learned in digital citizenship week.

How To Play How To Safe a Life on the piano from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

What I learned from creating this tutorial is that to make the viewers actually enjoy you tutorial you have to add a lot of important criteria which we looked at in our 6A tutorial criteria. Also what I learned is that you have to be loud and use everyday language because you don’t know who your audience is going to be.As well as learning a lot of things that make a tutorial amazing.

I am not that happy with my finished tutorial because I think that missed out on a bunch of criteria like making the tutorial step-by-step because thats one of the criteria’s that I thought was most important because sometimes you can’t tell when the tutorial is going to continue or stop. But one thing I think that made me a bit happy with my tutorial is that I think the editing is good because I added text on the video while I was playing. Another thing that made me unhappy with my tutorial is that me in the video in general isn’t a exciting host for the video because my voice doesn’t show any enthusiasm, and sometimes what I said made it hard to understand how to play the song because I made many mistakes.

I think some things were very easy for me to create but others not so much for example I found edits like making title slides very easy because I had done that many times before but one thing that was harder to do was to record the video and make sure I said everything clearly, and make sure to hit all the criteria. I think I found this part especially hard because that in most subjects is my area of weakness because I don’t know how to talk to a audience through a computer. Also something else that was bit tricky is editing the parts where I had to add the notes in though it was simple sometimes I made the mistake I typing the wrong note causing me to have to edit the whole entire video again.

I think my tutorial meets the following criteria: Understandable because when I explain the notes in the song I give a clear HD view of the keyboard, I say which note it is as well as also editing the notes played into the tutorial.My tutorial also meets the criteria a descriptive title because I think its clear what my video is going to teach. Also I gave tips in the beginning on how to play the song easier and how to learn it quicker. Zoom as well because I zoomed in at times when I thought it was needed. Also I think my tutorial was also in focus of what was happening because it never really left the keyboard which is where all the action in the video was really happening.

Right now what I need to learn to make even better tutorials is maybe just how to use a clearer voice and make a better editing to make it look more professional by not having different themes at some parts which I might have done at some parts of the tutorial. Also I think I need to know how to make tutorials more helpful like what things people really want to see in tutorial to get help in. Maybe also to make a awesome tutorial I need to learn to use more everyday language as well as having more confidence while  I speak.

During this unit we also watched 2-3 tutorials that other students from different classes had made, I watched Josefine, Anna and Juulia‘s tutorials which you can watch below.

How To Draw a Realistic Face from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Above is Josefine’s tutorial what I learned from this amazing tutorial is  how to draw a realistic looking face in a short amount of type with few materials and also some tips on how to draw a realistic face which makes it easier to draw.What I also thought made me learn a lot from this video is the way it hit the criteria because if you didn’t have some of the important criteria that really stood  out was  the HD quality because it was very easy to see what you are doing and it was clear, also her voice was always easy to hear and she used everyday language.

Music Ettiquette from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Above is Anna’s tutorial, what I learned from this tutorial is the proper ways to hold a instrument while sitted, how to bow in a performance and how to sit on a chair. I think that the reason I could learn these things easily is because she had most of the criteria like focus because the camera was always focused and what she was doing and also there was no background noise so there was really no distracting noises.

How to Draw a Realistic Eye from YIS Academics on Vimeo.

Above is Juulia’s creative realistic eye drawing tutorial , what I learned from watching this tutorial is how to draw a realistic eye in the many ways you can draw it, also I learned some tips on how to draw the eyes like you shouldn’t draw it like a seed.

I think that this create part of this unit was one of the biggest part of the entire unit because it was where we actually made the tutorial and where we learned all the skills. I also really enjoyed this stage of the unit because I had  a lot of fun planning,recording,editing and reflecting, this really gave a chance to learn how to  teach other to learn which also gave me a chance to take a lot of risks with technology.

During this unit in tech so far we have looked at around 3 to 5 tutorials on our own and wrote a few descriptive sentences saying what was good about it and what was harder to learn from  in each on them(which was a tutorial research grid in google docs) after we looked at 3-5 tutorials we picked one of our favorite ones and wrote a blog post on why it was the best out of all the ones we viewed and also why we didn’t pick the other tutorials we viewed. We also made our own simple tutorial with just screenshots, a few simple words and directions on how to do easy things on your macbook. We have also commented on other class friends favorite video tutorials and shared what we thought made it a good tutorial and what made it harder to understand and learn from.

What I learned from viewing and commenting on Anna’s ,Rhiannu’s and Layna’s blog post about there favorite tutorials and why is was there favorite is that sometimes just having simple pictures with your voice explaining it all can make a great tutorial. Also giving advice and tips on how to do something can help your viewers enjoy what there doing and get better at it with your general advice. What I noticed in Rhiannu’s blog is that the video just wrote out bullet points on what the maker of the video was saying but in a simpler form and a more understandable way. What I noticed in Anna’s  video is that the maker of the video tried to be friendly and use pretty chill language to make the viewers comfortable but the quality was a bit low. What I noticed in Layna’s video is that the black marker showed up really well on the video but the maker of the video didn’t add a introduction on what the video was about but everything else was pretty good and clear because of the friendly yet quiet voice.

During the Investigation unit I have learned a bunch about how little things like if its bad quality  or if your voice is muffled or unclear the viewers will find it much harder to learn from. Also if the tone of the voice the viewers seem to be more comfortable with the tutorial. What I could use from this unit is what you should include in your tutorial like tips,extras and what people enjoy viewing like a clearly shoot video with no background sounds. Also learning the bad things from the videos which could help make sure not to do. As well as making a mini tutorial before making a more professional one which is really helpful because than we have had at least some experience with making tutorials.Something that helped me through this unit and was like a learning guide for me was the 6A tutorial criteria which says what my class thinks was the most important things to have in a tutorial we made this based on one the first tutorials we watched. Personally I think that the most important things you need in a tutorial is”step-by-step” learning which shows you what you need to do in simple steps, tips which help viewers not only learn but also have a few extra tricks up their sleeve,also having a small introduction could be helpful so the viewers really know what they are learning and as well as the visual quality because even if you have a nice voice, a great talent and friendly language people won’t notice that they will mostly just notice the bad quality of the video and they won’t be able to see exactly what you are trying to show.

In conclusion to make a amazing tutorial that most viewers will like is to make a video with a nice clear,friendly voice using a high quality camera with no background sounds and no mumbling voices. Also with good,helpful information that anybody can learn easily from without that many appliances need to do what you are teaching viewers. This unit has also made me want to watch more tutorials online instead of looking for a book about it because it is alot easier and quicker and it is very convenient because you can learn anything from any where with your laptop. What I need to learn to make a even more amazing tutorial is how to have a good quality video,find out something alot of people want to learn and what type of editing system would be the best to use.  I also need to be confident with myself and use a good clear voice that is friendly and uses everyday language that anyone can understand. As well as  recording in a good enviroment with  no background sounds.

During tech class we’ve been researching blogs,watching the tutorials and writing about what was good about it what was bad about, I think we did this in the beginning of this unit because its really just about research and I think doing this research was pretty helpful because the next step is to make our very own tutorial.

Since we were suppose to watch 5 videos and write about the pros and cons, and after that we were to chose which one was the best I chose the one which taught us how to play 21 guns(the video is above)I chose this because it had good quality and was really helpful was the first one which was teaching drummers how to play the song “21 guns” which is by Green Day. I thought this was the best even though it was only a preview it showed alot and the maker of the video tried to be clear most of the time, he also made it easy for more advanced players to understand but it wouldn’t be so great for beginners cause it doesn’t exactly show how to play each fill but if you were more of a intermediate drummer it would be amazing because it shows some what how to do each part of the song at a good speed. Also the quality was high defintion, The creators voice was easy to hear ,friendly and he said good information to be able to make this video. I chose this over the other ones because one of watched about how to draw a rose had really bad quality. Also some of the other one tutorials I watched were too fast and didn’t share enough information.

I think I’m pretty happy with my project because I completed almost everything in time expect for the my original design drawing. Also I think I did most of my work with good detail for example the How To Grow A Blog worksheet I believe that  I wrote a lot about my goal for the end of the year. If I were to change something I did for the project I probably would change my designs for the blog because I think that I could do alot better for example I could have more creative ideas and color them in more detailedly.

The most important thing I think we learned was in the beginning (even though it wasn’t the most fun thing we did) was a project we did where we filled out a worksheet(called investigate) and we had to search our blogs to find out what each widget did and what almost every edit you can do on your blog. I think this was important because it really taught us how to start our blog and how we can make our blog unique.

My favorite part of the project I liked the best was the “Design” because it gave you a chance to make your own blog design and personalize it to your own passions,hobbies and likes and also got to be so what creative by using different colors.Also the create was one of my favorites because we got to perfect your blog and make a personal header which I really enjoyed making because I got to use some of my editing skills.

I think the “Technology Design Cycle”helped me keep organized and complete my project because each step taught us something different. For example the create was like using all the things we learned to make a amazingly,awesome blog from the stages we learned before like the design and plan part of the project which included the how to grow blog worksheet which we wrote as I said before our goals or commitments to our blog etc and this part of the project also included designing(drawing) what you want your blog to look like in future time. Also another part of the project which was the one of the first parts of this unit was Investigate where we had to look at three or more different blogs and wrote the good things that had about them which I think taught us what we could do to make our blogs similar to those blogs we researched by finding great things that made their blogs viewed by many people.

In this significant project I think I learned the most in the was probably Practice because we had to actually look through the blog and check out the different things we could do with each button and editing tool, plus we had to fill in a sheet with a group.Also when I did this stage of this project I think thats when I finally figured out how to work everything because it taught me by experience and practicing. I think another part I learned the most in was the in reality was reflecting on almost each and every one of the parts it did this because when I reflected it helped me look back at what I was learning and really remember what I had learned.

When I get older I can use the skills I have learned from this assignment, I could use these skills in college to make a blog with all my work that I have finished and instead of sending it to my professors I would just send them a link to a blog post, also when I’m in college I would create a custom header to not show my personality but what I’m learning so it would be more serious rather then all the things in I like in life. Also when If I get a job after college the job may involve making a blog for the company I work at and I the things we learned like customizing the header its like in my job I may be responsible for making a awesome header which reflects the company.

This unit in tech has been really experimental and fun to me cause we have done some many things from researching other blogs and making a brainstorm of what we like, to designing our own blogs and filling in the how to grow a blog and writing many reflections and now were at our final steps of this project. I think the whole point of this project(unit) was to get us prepared to be able to make any sudden changes on our blog on our own and quickly, and also to guarantee that we have a amazing blog that people will find interesting.

I’m pretty happy with my theme and design of my blog because I think its shows my part of my personality, and I think the contrast of my blog is easy to read and doesn’t clash, but in the future I plan to probably make a new header and change my blog around a bit to show my other hobbies and likes. Another reason I’m happy with my blog is because the header is a photo I took my self and edited, and in the beginning of the making of my blog I really wanted to make a blog that only had original photos.

I think I’m most proud of on my blog at the moment is probably just my header because I worked hard on editing the photo and finding a background that matched. I am also proud of my organization on my blog because I think I mostly always remember to put my posts in a suitable category.Another thing I’m proud of is my posts(aside from the titles) because I think they always give a lot of information and make sense.

I think for me to become a even better blogger I need to learn how to always put my blog posts into categories every time I write a post because at some points I have to go back and put it into a category.I also want to learn how to make a fascinating title that will catch my readers eye but also to be able to have a relevant title. I really want to learn about how to make a blog that I design by myself and maybe even my own widget. Lastly I think if I want to make a amazing blog I need to post things beside my school work to my blog like things that not only my teachers would look at, but a bigger audiences would be interested in.

In conclusion throughout the year I want to improve the things I want to learn to make a awesome blog and I want to have a blog that will catch a wider variety of viewers eye by having not just educational posts but also posts that involve the outside world like music, sports and big news. I think this unit was a big help to me to make a blog that showed personality, variety and school work, and each brainstorm, reflection and project we did was gigantic help.

During this unit of  tech we have been working on steps to improving our blogs each step I think is to help us built up to creating an amazing blog, we have gone from typing brain storms and researching other blogs to drawing and designing our own blogs we just finished writing about how to grow our blog which is basically writing about what we want our blog to accomplish by the end of the school year and what we want our habitats to be.

I chose my blog theme because I think it shows my passion of snowboarding, it really meets my needs because it has some of my favorite colors and I think the design I chose has pretty good contrast because the background colors are  gold and light purple ,the writing is in black  and  as I said before it shows my passion of snowboarding which has been my passion since I was 4 years old.

What I really want to learn how to do on my blog is have the ability to design my own theme on the computer and be able to use it as my own blog template(even though I’m not sure its possible), to learn how to do this I’m going to do some research about it, probably try searching online or if I have to look through some books, I think another possible thing I could do is ask people that are really advanced and see if they can help me.

In conclusion I think this unit was really helpful and I actually enjoyed doing this unit because we had a chance to design our blogs, plan what we want our blog to look like and plan what things we want to do over the next semester. We did our how to grow a blog.

I will use the skills I’ve learned to make a awesome blog with help from doing my blog research, that will show my personality, who I am and my studying by editing my header into my own personal picture that shows me or my interests which will help show through image what I find enjoyable, I will add a about me page so readers can see who they are following and get a taste of my personality,what some of my favorite foods,music and others. I will try to make lots of posts that share about field studies, projects I have been doing in all my different subjects.I will add links to what websites that I use alot or websites that connect to my school work, other blogs that I visit and find interesting or my friends blogs.I will post pictures that show my interests and activities I do. When we go on field studies I will post pictures and videos of what we do, I will also write make sure to write a detailed caption to go with the pictures/videos I post.I will categorize my blog posts so readers will know what subjects I am posting about and categorizing my posts will also help keep my blog organized. I will make sure to keep my contrast in a way that readers will be able to clearly read , see what is on my blog .

When I design my blog I will include “about me” because it will share about yourself in writing, you can write about your interests which I wrote alot about in my blog brainstorm, your favorites and basically just what you think is important and interesting about yourself,what you are going to talk about on your blog. I will also include categories because that way everyone will know which subject or topic I am writing about.Categories are also really important when students or teachers want to look through work you post on your blog but instead of looking through everything, readers will only have to look through the categories and find exactly what posts they are looking for.I will also include a header, headers are really important because that header is basically the first impression of your blog, you can add a original picture you took about your interests, you can add a picture of you.When I make posts I will always try to come up with a interesting title that will catch readers eye but will also describe the post well.