Today was the last day of schoolk before the winter break. Most of the communication technolgy class today was spent dawdling around waiting for the final bell to ring. My group has submitted our audio projectto the class folder, so we spent much of the class watching videos, and talking pictures on the blue CG background. The course will soon come to a close after the winnter break.

Communication technolgy class today was rather productive. Group F is just about done our audio project. We were able to finish 95% of the editing today. The remaining 5% of the editing is mostly on small details of the project.The rest of the editing is going to be done tomorrow. Mr. Tammik extended the deadline for this project, as he did for many of the pther assignments. Tomorrow, we will be submiting all the components of the audio assigmment to be marked.

Today was the second last day to work on our audio projects in communication technology class.
My group is still looking for sound effects, and adjusting and re-recording our recordings. I am glad that the majortity of the work for this assignment is done, so that we won;t have to scramble to finish, as we did for some of the other projects. We decided to take out some of the sound effects in our script, because they took up too much time to search for online. However, we still have more than enough sound effects in our story to do well on the project.

Today was another very productive day in communication technology class. Group F continued working on the audio project for the second round of audio, video, and graphics. We spent the majority of the period today looking for the sound effects in our script, and editing our recordings. We had to spend a lot of time looking for the sound effects, because we have so many specific sounds in our script. The editing of our recordings is going well, as garage band is very convenient to use. We had to re-record parts of our script, as some of the recordings had mistakes.

Today was another very busy day in communication technology class. My group is still working on the audio project. We are done recording 90% of our script and have only the sound effects, and editing left to do. We decided to use a member from another group in our recording, because the story required a male character. We have started looking for some of the sounds effects and background music. Freeplaymusic.com was a very helpful website for finding royalty free music. The sound effects were a little mroe difficult to find, as we had some very specific sounds in our script.

Today was a rather productive day in communicatino technology class. Group F is still working on the audio project, and we are plowingh ahead rathere well. We are still recording our storybook, and we do nto seem to be having any diffculties with the garage band program (yet). I feel lucky to have group members that have good presentation skills. Many of the other audio groups had to find people from other groups to record the majority of their scripts.

Today was another day to work on our audio project in communication technology class. My group is done the script for the project, and we are now starting to record the actual storybook. The audio recording this time is going to be a lot longer than the previous recording for th first round of audio, video, and graphics. The sound effects for this project are very open. We have to make at least 5 of the sound effects by ourselves, which will be very interesting.

Today was the third day to work on our audio projects for the second round of audio, video and graphics projects in communication technology class. For this assignment group F decided to make an audio recording of a retelling of "Jackilocks and the Big Bad Wolf": a mmash-up of goldilocks, the three litte pigs, and various other fairytales. Our group started working on the script for the project today. We are currently half-done the script, and I will be finishing up the rest of it for tomorrow.

Today was the seond day for the second round of audio, video, and graphics projects. Our group started with the audio project, which is said to be the easiest assignment to do. For this assignment, our geoup is to pick a fairytale to dramatize as an audio recording. Our group decided that our audio recording would revolve around the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk", because we would be able to insert many elements from other fairytales.

Toady in communication technology class was a very productive day on our audio commercial. My friend and I finished all the recording for our Shubang commercial. I was surprised at how quickly we managed to do all the recording. After we had finished the recording, my friend and I started editing our rcordings, and trying out some effects.

Today in communication technology class, group F continued sketching out the script for our Shubang commercial. We also started looking for music, and sound effects on the internet and on garage band. I found that the sound effects on garage band were pretty good, and very convenient to insert in. HOwever, the sounds tat we couldnt find were much harder to insert and even download. We found it very annoying, because many of the files online didnt download.

Today was a hardworking day in communication technology class. Our audio group is hard at work on our script for the project. Mr. Tammik took up a part of the work period today showing us the proper formatting and recording for the commercial. Audio commercial scripts are organized in a specific manner. Music, or jingles (short melodies) are underlined with a solid line, while sound effects are underlined with a broken, dashed line. The people working for radio stations will sit on a recording studio and record script after script of commercial. The example commercial that was recorded was very well done. The music fit well with the script, and the sound effects added good emphasis and created an engaging atmosphere for the listener. Hopefully, our group will create an equally well-done radio commercial.

Communication technology class today was the third day to work on our audio radio commmercial projects. My group started on the script today for the commercial. The radio commercial for our service has to be exactly 30 seconds long. Mr. Tammik explained that actual radio stations would cut off commercials if they went over the set time limit. Group F will have to be very precise in the recording and editing of the commercial so that we do not go over or have less than the 30 seconds we are alloted. The script for the commercial is coming along rather well. I feel fortunate that my group members have good presenting skills for the recording.

Communication technology class today was the second day to work on our audio projects. My group continued hashing out our product profile, and determining the target market. This part of the audio assignment was really very strenuous and annoying. I feel that we should have more time to work on the actual recording of the commercial, because there are numerous technical things that one has to figure out. It's true that we need to have a good idea of the audience that is targeted and the information about the product or service. However, spending an unnecessary amount of time on these things is not efficient. As a result, i volunteered to finish the target market and product profile for homework so that we could start the script for the commercial.

Today in communication technology class was the commencement of our audio project. This project was to be the third and final assignment for this round of audio, video, and graphics. This audio project required us to create a radio advertisement for an imaginary product or service, which was aimed at a specific audience. My group decided to create a "zero gravity bumper car" service called "Shubang". Our first order of business for the project was to find and record several definitions of jargon related to our project. As per usual, we split up the definitions for homework. Tomorrow, we will be getting top work with the target market and product profile of Shubang. Mr. Tammik says that the audio project is the easier of the projects, so hopefully my group will do well.

Day Forty=P

Today was the FINAL day to finish our graphics projects. Our graphics group had mostly merging and spelling names out left, so we were not very behind. We were able to get everything done fairly quickly, although we did run into some trouble with the technicalities of making PDFs. As a result, we had to stay afterschool to fininsh up the last bit of the assignment. Fortunatly, everything was done on time for once, and we were able to sumbit the project at the deadline. As i mentioned before, I found this project to much easier and less stressful. I think I have found a personal interest in graphics. :)

Day 3x13

Today was a very very busy day in communication technology. Our graphics group was still had merging and the spelling of names to do for our projects. We also had to create the final PDF for all the files, and gather a list of 10 common modern symbols. Since we were a little tight on time, we had to work at lunch today. Our group was able to completely finish our characters, and mangaed to begin the merging by the end of class. Mr. Tammik allowed us an extra day of working for the project, because he realized that grahics groups always were scrambling to fininsh everything. Today was also the quiz for the assignments. Yet again, our group did rather well on the quiz.

Day thirty Eight!

Today in communicatoin technology class was another day spent on our graphics project. This period was the second last period to get everything done to submit for tomorrow. Our group had basically done our characters (or most of them) so I was able to start a sheet that we would merge the entire alphabet on. I was able to arrange some of the characters onto the sheet, but since m,any of the group members still had not completely finished their letters, very little was accomplished. We plan to work tomorrow at lunch to finish the merging, spelling of names, and submission.

Day 30 +7

Today in communication technology class was another day spent on the graphics project. As well, our group was FINALLY able to finish and submit our video projects to Mr. Tammik. What a relief! Today, we were able to learn how to add a gradient onto our images in order to give them a realistic appearence. I found the gradients to be very fun to use, and I was able to completely finish my pictures. Tomorrow, we plan to merge our characters into the entire alphabet sheet, and to create our names. Tomorrow will also be the quiz for the graphics project. Our group is actually up to date with everything. This assignment is definitly less stressful than the other!

Day 36 =)

Monday in communication technology class was spent again on the graphics project. As I had mostly finished my characters and definitions, I decided to help my other group members with drawing their characters, as they did not have as steady a hand as I did with the mouse. I spent most of the period helping my friend with her drawings. What I find especially nice about Illustrator's brush tool is that it kind of "smooths out" the lines in your drawing to make them more appealing. The rest of the members of my group are still a bit behind on their drawings, but it seems that they will be able to finish in time.

Day 34 =D

Fifth period in communication technology class was spent on our graphics project. In contrast to the video project, I am finding the graphics project much less stressful. Our group decided to base our characters on an animal theme, with each animal starting with a certain letter of the English Alphabet. I am doing the letters A to F, which range from animals like the Arctic Hare, to the Blue-Footed Boobie (an endangered bird near the Galapagos islands). I actually got a lot of work done on my characters today. I managed to finish drwaing all of them, and have started colouring parts of the animals. I actually enjoy freehanding with the paint brush tool opposed to using the pen tool to "connect the dots". The rest of my group is well on their way with their characters too, and hopefully this project will not be as stressful as the last.

Day 3x11

Most of today's class was spent on learning about the specifics of graphics details. Mr. Tammik introduced us to Bitmap versus Vector images. We learnt that Bitmaps are the common image format (like the ones cameras capture), and are large in size, with rather low resolution. The editing tools used to edit Bitmaps include Photoshop amd paint. The code for a bitmap is very long and complicated because the code records the postition and colour code for ever single pixel in a bitmap image. In contrast, vector images are very small in size, because their codes are mathematical equations that show a program how to draw an image. Vector images are created on programs such as Illustrator, and have very high resolution due to the mathematical equation. The only draw back with vector images is that they cannot be very compliocated like a photo. Once we learnt about the differences between the image types, we were able to get some time to experiment with Illustrator. I was actually able to start a few of my characters. I found the program to be very easy to use.

Day 32

Although we still hadnt finished our video projects, our group had to switch onto our next assignmnet: graphics. Although Mr. Tammik says that the graphics project will be the hardest to finish on time, it seems to me that it will be easier than video, because we are simply creating images on Adobe Illustrator. The first bit of the class was spent on a basic introduction and tutorial to our project and Adobe Illustrator. The project itself requires each group member to create 5 or 6 characters in order to form an alphabet. These characters had to be made on Adobe Illustrator, and they had to be original. The program itself appears rather easy to use, because it is very similar to Photoshop.

Day Thirty one

Today was a largely disapointing day in communication technology. Our group had our quizes on the video project content, and most of us did rather well and above class average. (Above 70 percent). However, once we started on our shots and editing, we found many delays. Since the old camcorder we had used had stopped working, Mr. Tammik had gone out and bought new camcorders, which we had to figure out how to use, while scrambling to complete our shots. This was very annpying. The uploading part of the process was also very stressful. Many of the shots we took were scattered all over the place in the tape, and we wasted a lot of time trying to find the shots. We are still not done our project. Since we will no longer be given class time for the assignment, we will have to work afterschool from now on.

Day 30!

Our video group is really scrambling to get our shots done! Due to the various delays that we encountered, we still had almost half the shots still to do, many of them being the two shot techniques. Mr. Tammik taught us how to shoot many of the 2 shot techniques today (which unfortunately took valuable time away from our working time.)Tomorrow us supposed to be when our entire project is due, but thankfully, Mr. Tammik extended the deadline for submission to next week, Monday. Hopefully our group will be able to finish everything by then. We still have to upload many of the shots, and start editing them to fit the music. Our group my have to start staying after school.

Day 30-1

Today's communication technology class was not very productive. Our video group encountered many problems as we were shooting today. When we had initially set everything up, the camera stopped functioning properly, and kept turning off. We ended up wasting a good 20 minutes fixing the problem. The rest of the period was spent on our shots. We did not get many done, because many of the shots were two-shot ones that we were not sure how to do. The last part of the class was taken up with the capturing of our video. The capturing in my opinion is a large waste of time, becsue we are using a tape instead of a disc. As a result, we have to fast-forward to get get to a spot, instead of simply skippin over scenes.

Day 28:):)

Today was a very productive day. Our video project group got many of our shots done (over half )during the full classworking period. The shots were not as awkward as the day before, but being in front of the camera is still rather uncomfprtable for many of us. Partway through the shooting, Mr. Tammik came out and taught us how to use the dolly. It turns out, to our surprise, that the tripod actually goes ON the dolly (which is basically a frame with wheels). We had originally thought that the dolly was another tripod with wheels that you attached the camera onto. We spent the last bit of the class uploading (capturing) our footage onto Final Cut: the video editing program that we wouldbe using.

Day Vingt-Sept :)

Today was the first official shooting day for our video projects in communication technology class. Since our group managed the equipment rather easily, we were able to quickly set up in the hallway, and start shooting. Mr. Tammik mentioned that we would be individually tested on setting up the equipment. I am a little nervous with this, because although we set the stuff up quickly together, doing it alone sounds difficult. The shooting for today was rather awkward, because many of the shots included close-ups, and strange angles of our group members.

Day 26!!!

Today's communication technology class was very fun because we started working with the video equipment for our projects. Mr. Tammik taught both the video groups how to operate the camera, and how to the set the tripod up. I found the equipment to be rather heavy-duty, and a bit complicated looking. However, we found them to be quite easy to use. Once we learnt the basics of the equipment, we went out into the hallway and set up our things to begin shooting. We ended up not getting any shots done, but we did experiment with the zoom functions, which were quite impressive.

Day Twenty FIVE

MOst of today's working period for our video projects was spent on our shot list, which is a chart defining the 20 shots that would be included in the video. Our group had decided to finish our own definitions the night before, and then to merge them in class. Most of us had finisnhed our definitions, however, a few of the group members had problems with Internet connection at home, and ended up having to do the definitions in class (thus wasting valueble time). I learnt some interesting things about some types of shots. For example, I did not know that arcing involved swiveling a tripod around a subject. We spent the last bit of class working on our worksheets for the project.

Day 22 +2

Today in communication technology class was the first full class that we got to work on our video projects. We spent most of the class planning out out video. As mentioned before, our group had decided to include background music onto our video to liven it up. The song we chose to do was "Teardrops on My Guitar" by taylor swift. The various shot techniques we would shoot would be based off our lyrics. I was surprised that the song fit the number of shots rather well, which was lucky. Once we had planned out the video, we randomely split up the shots and definitions that each group member would be responsible for.

Day 22 + 1

The fifth period class of communication technology spent the most of today's class time commencing our media projects. As mentioned before, my group was to do the video project, in which we were responsible for doing a tutorial of 20 types of shot techniques. I was elected as the group leader, which gave me the (small) responsibility of looking after our task sheet. One we were briefed on our assignment, we congregated in the control room to start planning out our project. We decided to do our video tutorial to the theme of the song "Teardrops on my guitar" by Taylor Swift. It was decided that many of the videos were boring because the either the original audio was kept, or all audio was completely cut out. 

Day 2 X 11

Monday in communication technology class was spent again on our self-portrait assignments. Mr. Tammik had extended the due date to next friday, leaving us a generous amount of time in which to complete the assignment. I had finished most of the liquifying on my picture, and was now preoccupied with the colour editing, and the addition of various alien body parts. The last bit of class was spent organizing group details for the next three projects. We were able to look at the project guidelines, and some exemplars on the class website. My group is to start off with the video project, followed by the graphics project, and finally the audio. Hopefully, we will be able to do a good job on all three assignments.  

DAY XX1 (21)

The beginning of today's communication technology class was taken up by a short quiz on our previous presentations on the history of communication technologies. Our class was rather fortunate, as we managed to compile most of each other's questions into a study sheet for the quiz. The quiz was administered on a computer exam software, which I found quite fascinating and much more environmentally friendly.  I managed to finish the quiz rather early. The software allows for instant grading, was I was able to get my mark instantly. It turns out that I only got one question wrong on the quiz, which left me with a 96%. 

DAY 20!!!

I was absent for communication technology class today, as I had a field trip to watch "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Stratford with my English class. 

Day NINETEEN

Our fifth period communication technology class was spent for the third day, on our self-portrait assignments. I have decided to transform my photo into an alien-esque version of myself. This will make great use of the liquify filter, and blending modes. Mr. Tammik had decided to give us a lot of time for the project (until Friday), which I find id very helpful. The last bit of the class was preoccupied with my next few group projects. We were to put ourselves in groups of four or five, in order to rotate through three communication media projects (audio, video, and graphics). We were able to make our groups by the end of class, and were able to have a brief look at the project outline and schedule. 

Day eighteen :)

Today's communication technology class was the second work period for our self-protrait projects. We started the class off with a few more tutorials on some techniques that were useful on Photoshop CS3. The first two were the burn and blur tool. which allowed an image to be darkened and lightened respectively. I found these quite useful, as many parts of an image could use adjustments in brightness. The tool I found the most interesting was the Liquify filter, which allowed for the image to be distorted according to the persons preferences. These distortions include bloating, puckering, and forward warp. I feel that this tool will be very useful in making my after photo more interesting. 

Day 17!!!

Today's communication technology class was the third day to work on our self-portrait assignments. Most of the class had taken a few pictures already, which they uploaded to their USB's. Because of this, our teacher decided to start showing us how to use Adobe Photoshop CS3. Most of the beginning of this tutorial was common sense, but as the lesson progressed, I learnt a few valueble tips on editing a picture ( for example, fxing blemishes ). The rest of the class after the lesson, was spent on taking more pictures, and experimenting with Photoshop. I am eager to start learning more editing techniques in tomorrow's class.

Day 16:P

The second day of October in Communication technology class was mostly spent on the Self-Portrait assignment that had been assigned yesterday. I spent most of the class experimenting with the light board, and the different angles and zooms on the digital camera. Mr. Tammik took part of the class time explaining some lighting techniques, as well as some photography tips in order to enhance our photo. I found it extremely useful how the photographer would use telephoto zoom instead of wide angle, in order to decrease discomfort of the subject, and to reduce the disproportions that occur with wide angle capture. AT the end of class today, we found out our marks for the History of Communication technology projects. My friend and I did quite well in my opinion, and I think our mark reflected that :).

Day 15:)

Communication technology class on the first day of October signalled the official beginning of a new (and more exciting) project to begin in class. The second project this semestre was a self-portrait assignment, in which one took a digital photo of oneself, and used Adobe Photoshop to alter the image until the person in the image was unrecognizable. I found the entire project to be really interesting. I had always been looking to start honing my skills on Photoshop, although I never got the chance to. I had also been hoping to experiment with lighting in a rather professional studio. I am eager to get a good start on my project.

Day XIIII

Today was thee FINAl day to present our history of communication technology Power Points. There was only 2 groups left to present (the history of video games, and of motion pictures). The presentations were quite well done overall, although I wish that some of the groups would speak louder during their presentations. Tomorrow, will be starting on our next project: a self-portrait photoshop assignment. I am pretty excited for this project because we will be able to practice our photo editing skills.

Day XIII

Today was the second last day for presenting out history of Communication Technology Power Points. My friend andf I were finally able to present our slides on the history of photography. :) The presentation generally went quite well. We did not take as much time stalling as the other groups ( I hope). One mistake we made during the presentation was when I accidentally said my friends line in the script, and we ended up having to alternate lines. I also hoped that the video part of the presentation went more smoothy, as we were not able to embed the video into the Power Point. Hopefully, we got a good mark. :)

Day 12!!!

Today in Communication technology was spent (yet again) on presenting out history of communication technology Power Points. My friend and I were actually supposed to go today (we were scheduled to go third), but since many of the presentations dragged on for a very long time, we were only able to get through 2 presentations. I found it really annoying how so many groups had so many technical difficulties. About 50% of the time was spent trying to access videos or accessing USBs.

Day 999999999

Monday in Communication Technology class was the second last day to work on our history of communication technology projects. (It was actually supposed to be the last, but Mr. Tammik said he was going to be absent the day after). Today was spent on fixing up the layout of our Power Point, as well as adding pictures. My friend and I had found four good videos with explaniations about photography technologies. We're hoping to embed them into out Power Point that Mr. Tammik weill show us to use. This may be rather difficult, as my friend attempted to embed them herself, but had numeroud problems with the uploading. We are not done fixing up the Power Point yet, but we will do so tomorrow.

Day EIGHT

Today's working period for our History of Communication technology projects was not as productive as yesterday's. My friend and I wasted a lot of time changing around the layout of the project, as well as trying to find information on how some photography technologies worked. This is not a major issue, as we still have plenty of time to get everything done. Our teavher has also given us an extra day of in-class time to work on out projects. This means that Monday will be spent on fixing up the Power Point, and writing out the script, and Tuesday will be spent rehearsing.

Day VII

Our third working period for our history of communication technology project took place today. My friend and I are finished the research, and have started to retrieve pictures and videos on the history of photography off the Internet. We have also put our points onto Power Point. When we first started using the Mac version of Power Point, I found the tool to be rather troublesome, as many of the prompts and buttons I used on a PC were not in their normal place on a Mac. However, as we continued working, I got more used to the lay-out of the Mac, and started to work more efficiently (although still less efficiently compared to working on a PC for me). Tomorrow's class will be spent working on the layout of the Power Point, and writing out the script.

Day Six

The 5th period communication technology class spent most of today working on our history of communication technology projects. My friend and I are mostly done our research points, which is right on schedule, and are starting to research socioeconomic conditions in various time periods, as well as retrieving videos and pictures off the Internet. Tomorrow we will finish off the research, and will start putting everything on Power Point by Thursday. We plan to spend Friday designing the presentation, and making a script to go with it. If things go as planned, we will hopefully start rehearsing out presentation on Monday, and finally, presenting some time around Tuesday.

Day Cinq

The majority of today's communication technology class was taken up by the second working period for our history of communication technology Power Points. As planned, my friend and I spent the working period gathering points for our slides. By the time half the class was over, we had finished most of our major events, and had started on narrowing down our research into the more important developments. I was responsible for the second half of the development (1920s-now), and my friend was responsible for the first half (1800's-1919). I noticed that as I did my research, that most of the developments in my era was of the digital camera. Tomorrow we will finish our development research, and start on the socioeconomic research.

Day IV

Today's communication technology class was a working period for our history of technology projects. My friend and I were able to plan out a schedule based on the tasks we had to complete for the assignment. We plan to finish our research points on Wednesday, which will hopefully give us plenty of time to find all the neccessary information. So far, we are on track and are working well. I am a little worried about explaining concepts on how various technologies work, but hopefully the research will aid in that. Mr. Tammik also mentioned that the use of videos as aids in explaining concepts was allowed. Tommorrow is another working period. Hopefully it will be as productive as today's.

Day THREE

The majority of today's communication tech class was spent learning about the Power Point project we would be completing on the history of communication technology. The project involved researching the developments throughout history of certain assigned technologies, and eventually presenting the information via Power Point. The class was split into groups of two for the project. I was paired with my friend, and we were assigned to present on the history of photography. After learning some do's and dont's about Power Point presentations, we headed off to start on our research. I hope that this project will go along smoothly!

Day 2

The second day in communication technology class was spent learning about the basics of communication. We learnt that communication involves a sender (who encodes the message), the message itself, and the reciever (who decodes the message). The various types of communication include speech, hand gestures, email...etc. I found it interesting to learn that things like an "o.k." hand gesture can be found offensive in foreign countries. I also found it interesting when Mr. Tammik showed us an online article, which talked about how messenger pigeons were faster than the internet in Africa. The last topic covered in class was how to make an effective power point presentation. We read about how the majority of power points were bad due to mistakes with the visual presentation. This knowledge will hopefully help us in our up-coming group projects on the history of communication.

Day One!

The first day of communication technology was quite the exciting one. Once the class entered the back of the communication technology class, I was surprised to see a studio filled with a blue computer graphics screen, mounted lighting, and numerous sound recording studios. The class was introduced to the tasks that we would be completing throughout the semester. I am personally very excited to start learning about digital photography, computer graphics, and movie editing. I am also looking forward to working with the Mac computers, as I have not had many opportunities to work with them before. The first day has left a good impression on me, and I hope to have a fulfilling semester with communication technology.