End of Year Evaluation

This reflection is based on all the things I have done in my Computer Technology class in 8^th grade. I will mention my digital portfolio, general performance, how I used the design cycle and my feelings about the class.

The last project of the year was to create a digital portfolio. I think my digital portfolio was great because the colors fit well together, the text was easy to read, there were explanations for everything included, it was easy to navigate through the website and things were organized on each page. Some weaknesses, though, were that sometimes you had to scroll down the page when it shouldn’t be necessary and my partner didn’t send me all the posters she did for the IB Learner profile on time so the gallery page only included half the attributes. Mostly I am happy with my digital portfolio and know that the things which aren’t so good can easily be fixed. The digital portfolio could have an impact on my friends and family because they would see how useful it is to have one. They might create one for themselves so they can easily show people their work when applying for jobs. I already know a person who would like to make a digital portfolio and they even asked me if I could help them create it.

During this year I have performed well in my Computer Technology course. I have handed in my projects and reflections on time and always completed each project following the class expectations. I also learned some extra things that I used to make each piece of work better. Some things I could have done better were to take more time out of class to work on projects such as the IB learner profile posters. When you spend more time on a project the product is usually of higher quality. In general though I think I did pretty well this year in my computer technology class.

The design cycle is a process always used in both of my technology classes. Usually you follow it in every project (researching, designing, planning, and creating). I have followed this process for all my projects but depending on the project I spent more time on specific stages. For example for the poster project I spent more time designing then investigating but for creating a website I spent quite some time on investigating and planning before creating the website. I think the design cycle is useful because it guides me through the different tasks we are given. The stages are clear and there is a logical order which helps create higher quality work.

I have enjoyed the grade 8 MYP Technology course throughout the year. We have done various projects all helping us develop our skills and knowledge on the computer. We have mostly focused on creating websites and I find this very fun. This year has inspired me to become a website designer when I grow up. Even though I liked making the websites I didn’t make them how I really wanted to because there wasn’t enough time to focus on details, colors and format. I will remember this year as the year when I started learning about online technology.

IB Learner Profile Poster- Reflection

          During the plan stage of this project I was mostly thinking about the pictures I would like to use for each trait. I made a word document with all the traits of the IB Learner Profile and wrote next to each one what I would like the picture to show. It was difficult thinking about what pictures I could capture and if they would show the traits clearly enough. I kept in mind that these pictures had to give of the same meaning to everyone in the ISU community. During the design stage I mostly experimented with different things on Photoshop. I liked the idea of big squares of color in the background so I made a black rectangle on the left of the poster and put the name of the trait on top. I had written the name going downwards but after getting some feedback I decided it would be easier to read if the writing was sideways like on the spine of books. At first I made one template of how I wanted my posters to be like, and then I took that template and just changed the name of the IB learner profile trait and picture. I also changed the colors of the text and other items on the template so they look like the dominant colors of the photo.
          Planning helped me a lot when creating the actual posters because while making them I knew exactly what I wanted. I didn’t want to have extra writing describing the trait because I thought that would only be effective for the people who can read and not the very young children. Also when taking the pictures for the posters I knew exactly what I wanted and didn’t have to worry about how each picture should look like. While taking pictures I also saw people doing things that would be great for the posters and just took the pictures even though I hadn’t planned to in the very beginning. While creating my poster I learned more functions on Adobe- Photoshop and became even more fluent at using the tools.
          Some improvements I could have made to my posters were to add a few more words describing the trait because that way if would give people a better understanding. Maybe the younger kids wouldn’t understand but the older people would. Also the font for the part that says “ISU” on my poster is slightly hard to read because it’s written in cursive. Not everyone can read cursive and the I looks slightly like a T so maybe I should have changed the font. My partner and I decided to do half of the posters each but in our own style. I think this wasn’t a very good idea because if half of the posters are different from the other half it will look like they are not a whole group of posters but two different groups.
           For students who do this in the future I suggest they make a clear design of what they want their poster to look like before designing it on Photoshop. This way they will know exactly what they want and creating it on Photoshop will be much faster.

Exploring Photoshop

At first when I started using Photoshop I wasn’t sure what each tool was for and it took longer to finish the workshops. As I spent more time working on it I got more used to the different functions and could finish the workshops faster. I think Photoshop is a very helpful program which has many great things you can do to pictures that you can’t do with other programs. If someone were to fix something in an image I would recommend they use Photoshop.

In general, I did well in the tasks we had to do using Photoshop. The potato man was easiest and helped me with getting used to the simplest tools. The women with the patch was more complicated to fix but by using the smudge tool and changing the colors it wasn’t very obvious that the picture had been fixed on Photoshop. The bald man was a funny one where we needed to take the hair of one guy and put it on a man who didn’t have a lot of hair. This workshop taught me how to move part of an image into another image. The other workshops helped me learn how to change colors in specific parts of an image and how to cover up unwanted things (e.g. I covered a boat in the sea by using the stamp tool).

Photoshop can help me when creating my website because I could adjust pictures before putting them on the web. For example I could crop parts of an image which I don’t want or I could change the brightness if the picture is to dark. I could also change the color of objects in the picture so they are easier to see and don’t blend in with the background. Another great way Photoshop could help me when creating my website is by making a good picture which I can use as a background for all the pages. There are many other things I could do to the pictures before I put them on my website.

I can relate Photoshop to my Digital Portfolio because I could use it to make cool titles or pictures (clip art, logos) then put them on the web pages. For instance, I can make a title and add a background to it then put it on the top of each page on my web site. My navigation bar could also be created using Photoshop. Photoshop allows me to be more creative and make normal things like tittles look more interesting.

Exploring Images/ Pictures

The resolution of an image is how many pixels there are in it. Resolution is identified by the total number of pixels. If an image has a lower resolution when it is stretched and made bigger on a computer screen it becomes pixilated. If it has a higher resolution the picture is better quality and can be stretched more without becoming pixilated.

The resolution needed for an image to be put on a website is 72 pixels per inch. If it is larger than this, the web page will take longer to load.

The size of a picture/image is its actual width and height when printed. The image size you see on the screen will not be the same when the image is printed. Based on the resolution of the image and the screens resolution the picture will look bigger or smaller.

 Vector images are images made of individual objects. They are not considered using pixels and are higher quality. These objects can be points connected by either a straight line or a curve. Each object in a vector image can be changed or resized without any quality loss. Vector images are very important because they are used for maps and company logos since these graphics need to be resized frequently. The outline, color and fill of each object can be changed yet the basic shape will not be changed. Also, vector images don’t have a white pixel background so you can put an object on top of another and the one beneath will not be blocked. These types of images are important because they are very small files. The file only contains the mathematical equation that determines the shape of the lines in the image. It does not contain the image itself. Since the file is smaller it won’t take up much space on a computer.