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.

Exploring Dreamweaver

Dreamweaver Reflection

Dreamweaver was very helpful for making my Uganda Website. While I was working Dreamweaver would make the html code without me having to do it. It was very simple because I could just write anything, insert pictures and other kind of multimedia without worrying about how to link them to the correct folder. Once I set the path for the folder in the beginning I didn’t have to point to the specific files as I added them to the website. The design is simple and easy to work with. There are so many functions I think I have only learned some of them by making this website. Dreamweaver is a very helpful tool.

            We need Dreamweaver for creating a website so it doesn’t take too long to make it. If we made the website by writing the html code in notepad it would take ages to make just a page. Dreamweaver makes it easier to create a website and has many options on what you can do so you don’t have to learn html and the specific code. There are many people out there who create websites and don’t know a lot of html.

            With Dreamweaver it would be easier to create my digital portfolio because I can easily add all my work from school and organize the website. I don’t have to write the html code, meaning I can create the website faster and I don’t have to know all the codes for everything I add. I would use Dreamweaver to create my digital portfolio.

            Dreamweaver and HTML is similar because both of them use the html code. The only difference is that one does it for you and for the other you have to write the actual code. However, sometimes when using Dreamweaver to create website you need to know some basic html because you might need to insert a <br> to make the lines and spacing how you want them to be. To make the layout of the page however you like you need to know some html so everything (pictures, videos, text) goes where you want it to go.

            I think the site I created was very good. I included all the things I was supposed to and organized it the way I liked. Recently I have started to put pictures and text side to side so that is what I did on my web pages. Some strengths of my website are that the text is clear to read, the background color and text color has a big contrast and I put my video and music on the same page so it was a mix of multimedia. I like using tables on the webpage’s because everything looks more organized. Some things I could have done better were to keep the font and format of the text on each page the same. This way the website has a specific format throughout all the pages. Also, the width of my table in each page is the same but the mid point line isn’t. On the dances page the pictures are all in different sizes so I think I should have made the length or the height the same so it looks better. Overall, I think my website was pretty good and creating it helped me understand how to use Dreamweaver better. By doing this task I understood how to make a better website and this will help me create my digital portfolio.

Teide Volcano Leaflet

Exploring Web Editors

Exploring Web Editors

            A web editor can be two things. It can be a software program that helps people create websites by using HTML. It can also be a person who creates and edits web pages.

            The relationship between a web editor and HTML is that the web editor helps you use HTML to create your website. It is like creating your own website but with some help from a program. 

            Dreamweaver is program that helps people create websites. Three main features are synchronization and transfer of multimedia and informaition, it has ideas of templates you can use for your website and gives you an option to play around with the HTML.

            Two different web editors apart from Dreamweaver are Namo Web Editor and Easy Web Editor.

            The difference between a web site and a web page is that a web site has many web pages you can go to and explore. Web pages are only a small part of the whole web site.  

            A web browser is a program that can interpret the codes of the World Wide Web (ex.Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox). The web browsers take the codes and display them in an easy way that all people can understand so not everyone has to know HTML coding.

            Web servers are places on the web where people upload their websites so they are easily accessible. People can search on web servers and find websites that contain information they are looking for. Web servers are like search engines (ex. Google,Ask). The computer that powers the whole program can be called the web server too. After creating a website and uploading it on the web server it can be accesed on the World Wide Web.

            Domain names are the identification label at the end of URL’s on the World Wide Web. The Domain Name System allows people to write a word at the end of a URL after the dot (ex .com, .org, .net) instead of a code. There are three domain name levels which depend on what type of website you are going to create. The top-level has the general domain names, com, org and net and the country code domain names like fr (France), ug (Uganda), de (Germany), uk (England). The second-level and third-level domain names are open for users that want to connect their local area networks (LAN) to the Internet and run web sites.  The URL specifies the location  of a website or page and tells the web browser how to access it. The domain name is part of the URL and tells the name of a network or user. It usually has the name of a company or organization followed by .com or .org.

Exploring HTML

Exploring HTML

HTML stands for hyper-text markup language. It is a special formatted text written that includes specific words that the computer can understand. When you write this text everything you include is shown on your website. It is like the language for computers.

We need HTML to create websites because the text that we write is telling the computer what to show on the website page. You can say whether you want text, pictures, videos and other cool things. By just learning some basic HTML you can play around with colors on your website and make it look great.

I find HTML a good option for creating my digital portfolio because I can control everything that comes up on the page, unlike on blogspot. I placed the parts I wanted on the page anywhere buy just adding a few more words in hyper-text markup language. At first it was difficult to get used to the format and words I had to write to tell the computer what to do. When I got used to HTML it was pretty fun adding everything else. I thought it was going to be boring when we started making our websites because it seemed so complicated, but after doing the learning it was a lot of fun because we could apply our knowledge in a creative way.

I was very happy when I finished the two page website. It was my first website created (and definitely not the last) that taught me a little about HTML. My website is very good because the hyperlinks to the other pages are at the bottom of all the pages so this makes it easier to navigate the website. I have a clear introduction about myself on the homepage and have many ways of showing the information about my country (like, tables, lists, paragraphs). I also have many pictures that have some text underneath to describe what is going on in the picture. When websites have many relevant pictures I find them more interesting. I also used nice colors for the background, and text that you could easily tell apart. Something I could have improved on is my making the color of the hyperlinks different because the bright pink is hard for the eye to read over the purple background. For one of the pictures I could have put the caption under it so it would be easier to tell which picture it was referring to. In overall, I think I did a pretty good job creating my first website.