This week I thought it would be a good idea to include the objectives for the other things I am doing whilst completing this project. At the same time as the project I am doing a research paper on Interactive Software suitability for eBooks and an eBusiness paper. Although I have written about these in past blogs I haven't really discussed them but as they are both to do with Information Technology they should also be included within this blog.
OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES
Start making and set up a sixteen page document for the second interactive eBook, Wise Up, the choice is yours using Adobe InDesign.
Complete another section on eBusiness assignment.
Write up some of the literature review for Special Topic paper.
PROJECT
The project I have been tasked to do is for New Zealand Fire Service, in this part I shall be making an interactive eBook from the Wise up, the choice is yours booklet which the Fire Service has given me.
TASKS
Create a sixteen page document using Adobe InDesign
Set margins
DAILY LOG
Monday
This morning I had to go the physio man about my fingers and this took up most of the morning which was good in a way as the exercises I have to do (broke my finger in March and damaged it) are being monitored to see if I can move my finger more as it could only bend slightly thus making typing and lots of other things hard. I am pleased to say that the exercises are slowly working and I have more movement thus making several things a lot easier to do.
When I finally got home I set up my home desktop ready for study - turned it on, made a cup of tea, got a biscuit and shut the door so I was not disturbed too much by other family members still at home. T then got out the printed version of Wise Up, the choice is yours and made sure that it was indeed 16 pages as it would be annoying to create the document with too few pages. I selected the icon Adobe InDesign CC on my screen (got a new touchscreen which feels odd to work with at times).
These are the steps I took to set up the document:
- Select File
- Select New
- Select Document
- Make sure that the Facing Pages is clicked On (double page spread)
- Change margins to zero (if you do the first one then tab the rest will automatically change to zero)
- Select Number of Pages, change to 16
- Select Gutter and change to zero
- Select the Rectangle Frame Tool and draw the frame to fit the page
- Select Black Selection Tool (click and move frame) to center of page
- Save and name
Tuesday
I did not attend the eBusiness lecture this morning as I had a meeting with my client at 10am. When Mark and I spoke last week he thought that it might be a good idea if he got a recording of his wife (an English teacher) reading the poem which is on the Be Fire Safe activity book (page 10). He did this and next week I hope to be able to insert the reading onto page ten of the interactive eBook by adding a sound button (I will need to watch a tutorial on how to do this as I have not done it with this software before. The files he gave me were in MP3 and MP4A format and Mark also included a digital signature as he wished that to be included on the last page of the interactive eBook Be Fire Safe activity book.
Wednesday
Came into college and sat in on a class which I had previously seen on a timetable for one of the computer rooms and was called Understanding Research. I thought that this might help with my research paper. I spoke to Sue Chapman (tutor for the day) and asked if I could sit in and why I wanted to sit in (research paper). She explained that she would be talking about Qualitative Approach to Research in the lesson and that I could stay if I wished to (she didn't think that it would help much as the course was being run for students on a Sports Degree). The lesson was interesting and it got me thinking, although most of my research is based on literature reviews and testing software could there be scope for some qualitative data. The more I thought about it the more I thought I could set some questions and send them to those tutors who have used interactive methods within the classes I have attended. I will have to discuss this with Michael when we have the general internship meeting tomorrow lunchtime.
Thursday
This morning we had a meeting with Emre in regards to our Special Topic. This was in one of the interview rooms in C block at 9am this morning. Early start for me as there has been a lot of rain (still is) these last few days and I knew from friends that there had been a couple of minor landslips on the way and I wanted to arrive at college safely (did this without any incidents). The small group (5 of us) and Emre discussed where we were up to in regards to our Special Topic (mine is to do with interactive software for eBooks whilst the rest of the group are doing different aspects of Cloud Computing). I feel pleased that I have completed my literature review and written up some of the notes (rest will be written next week as it is the start of two weeks holiday). I have some notes in regards to software which I have tried but I need to write up my learning experience testing this software before I misplace my notes.
eBusiness - there was no class today but as I was in college I did some work on my eBusiness assignment. I took screen shots of my 'Handmade hats by GJ' pages and placed them into my assignment and wrote something about each of them. Considering that this was something I had to do for an assignment (clearly written on each of the pages) I have already had three orders and two sales - MORE work....
I wanted to add a screen shot of one of the pages (still needs some work on it but completed the criteria for the assessment - 10 followers) but I couldn't as it was not in a format which would allow me to do this so instead here is the link to the page.
https://www.facebook.com/Handmade-hats-by-GJ-932720670137515/timeline/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel
I also wrote up this weeks blog so the time was not wasted by being in college today.
Attended the lunchtime meeting for those doing an internship or a project. I was surprised that there were not many students in attendance. Kim (tutor) talked about the final part - poster report etc. It was scary to know that the course ending is coming up so fast and I feel that there is still so much to learn and do. Michael nor Katheryn (tutors) were available for the meeting so I hope to catch up with them when they are better.
Friday
Last day of the week before we all start a two week holiday. Today I wrote up some of the things I read about for my Special Topic. The books I read were Research on Enhancing the Interactivity of Online Learning and Graphic Design Essentials: Skills, Software and Creative Solutions. The first book I learnt a bit about WebQuest, an inquiry oriented lesson format where most of the information learners work with comes from the internet (web). The book also talks about other collaborative learning programs such as epals, jasonproject and gsn. The second book included Adobe InDesign (the software I am using to make my eBooks), Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. These three are known as Adobe Creative Suite and the book talks about the different tools of each application and has some tasks which you can complete. I was interested in Adobe InDesign (it is similar to Adobe Illustrator) but allows for multiple pages to be used. It was good to read which icons were used for which function. On Monday, when I take the book back to college I shall photocopy the page this is on for future reference. I wish this book had been available earlier on but somebody else had it out from EIT Library.
PROBLEMS
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
I learnt that it was good to go and sit in a class that was not meant for a BcS student. By sitting in on a class for students who are in their second year of studying sport I listened to their comments on qualitative research and their understanding of some of the key meanings. This jogged my memory to previous lectures I had attended and helped me to redefine the research methods I am using for my Special Topic paper.
STATUS OF PROJECT
The objectives for this week (for my project) was to create the sixteen page document using Adobe InDesign to enable me to start making Wise Up, the choice is yours interactive eBook. The objectives were completed and I managed to format each page accordingly to the requirements stated by the client.
I managed to complete another section of the eBusiness assignment by capturing all three created pages and include them within the assignment document annotating them once they were correctly placed.
Written up some of the literature review. I didn't realise that I had written so many notes in my exercise book from books and blogs and papers.
I managed to complete another section of the eBusiness assignment by capturing all three created pages and include them within the assignment document annotating them once they were correctly placed.
Written up some of the literature review. I didn't realise that I had written so many notes in my exercise book from books and blogs and papers.
This week I did a lot of reading in regards to interactive software, even a thesis on The virtualMe: A knowledge acquisition framework. Although this book was not on interactive software for eBooks it was about an interactive framework which I have used during a lesson. It was interesting to read how the process evolved and what was involved and I brought several things from the thesis. For example I learnt what a metadata was (data about data), divergent data types (phrase used to identify many media types from unstructured data elements). This means text, images, sound and video. From unstructured data elements to structured elements - these are things like PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Flash files and PDF's. Not all books I have read whilst I have been researching have been helpful but from each book I have been able to take something from it and understand it - even if it was only the meaning of the word.
