iMovie Reflection

As a project throughout Thanksgiving break, I was supposed to make a short trailer. For this assignment, I chose to use iMovie because it is a fairly powerful program and also because it was free. After filming my trailer, I was very happy with the product because iMovie is setup to be used very easily. There were a variety of templates I could apply to my trailer like horror and adrenaline. Adding the footage and text was also very simple since you can upload it from iTunes or your photo app. However, with iMovie being so simple to use, it also didn't allow much room for me to switch some of its features. For example, the time between transitions and footage were preset and could not be changed. In addition, the text box's features such as color and size couldn't also be changed. Lastly, the music is set accordingly to the template; I could only use a specific song from iTunes. As a result, my trailer was very easy to make but I couldn't change much of its preset features. In the end, iMovie is a good program to get start on video-making programs. Otherwise, it is not the best tool if you want something more complex.

Wix Sites Reflection

For the last couple of weeks, I had an opportunity to test out Wix, a site creator that is similar to Google Sites. However, after having a chance to use Wix, it is evidently much more powerful than Google Sites due to its ability to select thousands of preset templates and create everything from scratch. The templates that Wix had to offer was very diverse and it does a nice job of setting features for new users to try. With Wix being such a powerful program, everything in the site was editable and the possibilities are endless. However, there were also a few things that had a negative affect on the Wix overall. For example, the web editor page was sometimes glitchy; some of the features would change automatically. In addition, the text box's size does not always correspond to its settings. Otherwise, Wix is an amazing tool for everyone that is interested in making a website. In my opinion, Wix would definitely be my 1st option when choosing a tool to create for work later on because it allows much more customization than Google Sites does.

Google Sites Reflection

Positives

During the recent project that my group did in computer class, we used Google Sites as the main tool to display our topic. Despite being my first time creating a website, Google Sites was relatively easy to use and adapt; most options were organized logically into different sections. There were also many options to chose from regarding the site's color scheme and background. In order to receive full credit for our project, Huan, Lavin, and I were supposed to add a variety of pictures and videos. Therefore, it was very convenient for us to be able to embed videos and images straight from the options bar.

Negatives  

Despite the many helpful features included in Google Sites, there were also many that should be more thought out and improved. For example, it was fairly difficult to include images into the page because the text would often times move when I try to change the image's position. In addition, there were only certain types of images that Google Sites allowed; some did not show at all when the page was saved. Despite not being the owner of the site, I still think that editors should be allowed to more privileges such as changing the background. Furthermore, if the editor would like to make some big changes, he/she wouldn't still be able to do it since there is no option that gives the editor more power.

Application to Real Life

Personally, Google Sites is a fairly useful tool that I would definitely use in the future. The features that it offer can help to present many topics further on to college and even work. Even with the confusing layouts between images and text, the many positives that Google Sites have would surely outweigh the negatives. In my opinion, Google Sites is a slightly altered version of PowerPoint due to the many similarities that they share. For example, both programs can be used to present during a speech as a visual aid. However, PowerPoint would fit better because there are more variety of animations that could be included. In conclusion, I really enjoyed using Google Sites during this project and it can surely be used for work-related purposes in the future.