Ning Videos

Today I spent some time on the ning, looking at previous videos of the people in our grade. I noticed that each of them had a video of themselves introducing themselves, and their topic. Then they had a seperate video of what their topic was about, along with their partners. This project looks interesting from what i've seen so far on the videos, however, I still don't know much about it. The videos have helped, but not enough. Therefore, I am going to have to do some further research.

Mr. Friedman - The World is Flat

April 16th, 2009

Today in IT class I watched a video about author Mr.Friedman, and his book "The World is Flat". He discussed how the book was an "accident", and that people used to say the world was flat. He analyzed globalization, in the 21st century. He suggests that the world is flat in the sense that globalization has leveled the competitive playing fields between industrial and emerging market countries. I found the video very interesting, however it was very long.

Wikispaces Evaluation

Paragraph on the Uses of Wikis (How can they be used?)

On a wiki website, you can create your own account really easily, which can be very helpful. Basically, the whole site is a collection of different homepages and such, that anyone with an account can access. It’s very useful for planning trips, or for work. Anyone can go onto your page, give you ideas, or edit the actual page for you. It’s very useful for finding information about things on a wiki too.

Paragraph on problems encountered with wikis

There are many problems you can come across while using a wiki account however. Because ANY one with a wiki is able to access your pages, this means they can write whatever they want on it, whether it’s irrelevant or not. People can sometimes write rude comments on other people’s pages, but also, they can also write false information about that topic.

Paragraph on how to improve the look of wikis

I think wiki would look much more appealing if there were just a few changes made. For example, myspace and bebo have an application where you can change the backgrounds of your page to whatever color or theme you like. This would make wiki much better. Also, on site’s such a blogger, you can change the fonts and the colors, this would also be a good quality. One more thing that would create a better look for the wiki websites is if you could add your own borders to your page, to give it a more personal look.

Paragraph on what might replace wikis for sharing information in the future

There are many other sites today. Some of the most popular now are myspace, and facebook. On both, you are able to leave comments to each other. But in the future, if ever you need to contact someone, facebook would be quicker. There is now a new application called facebook chat. It allows you to talk to anyone that’s online facebook at that time. If wiki had these types of applications that you could add yourself, they may get more viewers.

WikiSpaces

Wiki spaces is a great site for anyone to use. It allows you to easily sign up, for free. Then, you can create your own webpages. The cool thing about this, is that anyone can access this page for you, and edit or make it better if they want. You can do the same for other people's pages. Another cool thing about this, is that you can add videos or games or anything to your homepage, so that their always there, and you never have to go online and look for them. Now in IT, Tooba, Erin, Francesco and I are making a project. It's all about entertainment in Qatar, including Malls, Food, and Clubs. We each are making a seperate page on wiki about our topic, and we will combine them all later on, when they are completed. Wikispaces is a very convienent site to use for this type of project.

Photoshop Project

For this project, we were supposed to create an advertisement for any company or brand. I chose H&M. It is a clothing store that I particularly like. Our aim, was to make an ad that is eye-catching and creative. I think I have succeeded in those two areas. To do that, there were a few things I had to do, including using different tools. The first thing I did was the background, just a plain black. For this I used the ‘gradient’ tool, and dragged along the screen. After that, I just started adding all of the pictures, and the logo, and checkerboard design. Then I started to customize each image individually. I started with the models. Some of the pictures had a lot of white around the background, and other colors. So I used the crop tool to get rid of as much as I could. Then I used the magic wand on the rest, to delete and parts I didn’t want. I also used the magic wand tool for the logo, for the same reasons. Once that was done, I decided to decorate the background. I used one of the stamping tools. The shape I used was checkered, and I put it all along the bottom of the ad. After, I put all the models in place, and created white/gray dashes in the background from using the healing brush and clicking multiple times. The last thing I had to do was edit all the pictures, and place them on the ad correctly. I used the rotate tool to turn the models in different directions, and place them nicely. Then I wanted to create more eye-catching effects on all pictures. I used the sponge and dodge tool to make them brighter or darker, so that some stood out more than others. And then I used the magnetic lasso tool to get rid of the flower on one girl’s head, and to trim around any bits of white I missed with the magic wand tool. And finally, I used the filter tool, to give almost all of the pictures different textures and styles, to make them look unique in comparison to each other. I really enjoyed working on this project. It gave me a better idea of how Photoshop works, and I can use this knowledge for future assignments.

Abstract Art

This is a picture I made on photoshop. It contained many different colored and textured shapes. the colors are all very bright, which draws attention to it. This is one of my brightest pieces!

Repair Create

For this picture, I used two different tools for the editing. I used the healing brush tool, and the patch tool. With the patch tool, I copied certain horses, and pasted them in other areas of the picture to give it that kind of ghost effect. With the healing brush tool, I used the color of the green grass, and blotched it all over the ground, to cover all of the shrubs and dirt, to make it all look like grass.