Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

During this project the use of media technologies was vital in a variety of ways. We were able to complete all three stages and it made the process of communication between the group easier. Although there were a few challenges along the way with some of the technology we used, individually I was able to make a huge learning curve and with the benefit of hindsight now, I see that there were a lot of things we could've done differently with the hardware and software we had available to us.

Research and Planning

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How we used Mobile technology

1) WhatsApp- This mobile app was our main point of communication as a group for when we weren't together. It was more effective that it was usable via mobile because it meant we could contact each other on the go, wherever we were. Therefore whenever there was an emergency situation (for example in the screenshot below where we had to hold an emergency meeting to finalize our song and move on with creating the steal-o, which we were already behind on) we could easily get a hold of each other.

A screenshot of when we were
planning one of our initial group
 meetings

Our WhatsApp group

WhatsApp had cross media convergence capabilities. This meant that not only were we able to send messages to each other through the group chat, but we were also able to send, pictures, videos and voice messages to each other. The multi-media aspect of WhatsApp meant we had many creative solutions to completing work. For example, when designing the flat plan at home, I was able to send pictures of some of what I had drawn to my group for feedback on how to improve it and things to add to it.

2) Instagram- This is another mobile app that we used to plan out and research costumes that would make our artists appeal to the Rnb/Pop/Street music fans. As you can below, one of our main searches would be "Urban Street Fashion". This is an app where people from across the world can post their own pictures, so this app also helped us learn directly from our target audience how to appeal to them.

A screenshot from when we were
 researching costume ideas for
the music video via the
 Instagram app

3) Capturing media/ research evidence- As you can see from the short clip below, to be able to capture most of the evidence for our blogs and content to send via our WhatsApp group chat, as much as camera's were useful, phones also had a beneficial use too. They are small and portable and because the WhatsApp mobile app we used is integrated to our phones, it was easy to send the media content directly to each other.

Construction

Evaluation

Web 2.0

1) SurveyMonkey- An online service that allows users to create web browser based surveys; the survey I made can be found below. We used it in order to get feedback from a randomly selected group of people so that we could get an authentic image of people's opinions regarding our three texts and whether we were able to successfully reach and appeal to our target audience. 

Create your own user feedback survey 

Benefits and Disadvantages of using SurveyMonkey

2) Prezi- Prezi is an online presentation tool that can be used as an alternative to the traditional slide making slide program, PowerPoint. I used it because of the many creative options it provided me with when I wanted to make my method of presenting information on my blog visually interesting. 

Benefits and Disadvantages of using Prezi

Benefit- Being able to embed the prezi into
our blog posts on blogger, which is also a
symbiotic element of the site 

3) Imgflip- An online image creator that specializes in memes and GIF's. I used it for visual presentation purposes in order to create moving images that could clearly example points I made in my evaluation blog posts. Below is a video example of how I would create my GIF's.

4) Padlet- Probably one of my favorite online web tools to use as it's cross media convergence was better than all the other web tools since you could import even GIF's, as well as videos and photos etc. Padlet is a virtual wall that allows people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. I used it for visual presentation purposes. 

Benefits and Disadvantages of using Padlet

Software:

1) Microsoft Word 2016- I used word to be able to create most of the diagrams for my blogger evaluation posts because it was really simple and quick to use.

Hardware:

1) Cannon Legria HFG30- We used it to film our focus group interview as it had great image quality and it was easy to use so wouldn't distract me from asking questions while filming at the same time.