Tag Archives: PC

Hightail

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Hightail

taken from http://www1.pcmag.com/media/images/395413-hightail-for-iphone.png?thumb=y

ABOUT:

Hightail is a both a storage and a sharing application. You do not need to be signed up for Higtail to receive files, but you must in order to share them, or contribute to them. Hightail works on the cloud and can store all your files for you, allowing you to share a high volume of files like film footage, music files, or videos. It is more for business than for school, but if you are making large multimedia projects in groups, this might be the right storage and sharing application for you.

Supported

PC, Mac, Mobile

Pros

  • Allows you to share large files without a need for email
  • You do not need to sign up for Hightail to receive files
  • Since it operates on a cloud system, even when your computer crashes, your files are still stored.

Cons

  • Since you have to download Hightail onto your device, you cannot use it from a school or borrowed computer.
  • Unless you password protect your files, they may not be private to you and your colleague.

EXAMPLES

Because Hightail is a sharing/storage application, it would be invasive to show a student example. Instead, here is a video about how it works:

Uses

You could use Hightail for any class that asks you to share or store large files. Hightail may be most useful to film production students, but you need not be working with that much content for it to be useful.

Adobe Photoshop

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Adobe Photoshop

logo-photoshop

ABOUT:

Adobe Photoshop  is the industry standard for photo editing and manipulation. It is by far the most featured out of all the Adobe products, and contains tools to do just about everything with any type of image. Adobe provides wide-span use of Photoshop in mobile, tablet, and desktop PCs and Macs. A wide variety of tutorials can be found anywhere on the Internet to make presentation media seem professional, creative, and expressive.

Supported

PC, Mac, tablet, and smartphones

Pros

  • Edit any image of any type to produce quality images
  • Variety of features
  • Industry Standard
  • Integration with the rest of the Adobe Suite

Cons

  • Advanced techniques are somewhat hard to use
  • Pixels (Photoshop is raster software) are difficult to work with sometimes
  • There is a learning curve – you will likely need tutorials to learn Photoshop.

Examples

Tablet to PC integration is a very useful Photoshop feature for any inspiration to follow your way.

Uses

Most uses of Photoshop include assets for web design, image manipulation for flyers, posters, and other types of paper media, and fixing up images in post-processing for photography. Note that Adobe Lightroom is commonly used with Photoshop to achieve dynamic lighting situations, and is included in the purchase of the CC version of Photoshop from Adobe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tiki-Toki

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Tiki-Toki

taken from http://www.tiki-toki.com/

ABOUT:

Tiki-Toki is a sleak, easy-to-use, presentation friendly timeline software. It allows embedded photos and videos. Each panel is clickable, and enlarges to the screen, which makes this good for presentations as well. The application exists on the cloud, is visually driven, and is easy to use.

Supported

Mac, PC

Pros

  • Visually beautiful
  • Great for linear thinkers
  • Embeds a variety of media
  • Allows groups to edit one timeline together

Cons

  • You cannot store presentations. The free version only allows you to make one presentation – though you can erase that and create another, endlessly.
  • Unless you upgrade, you cannot embed content, or share with anything other than a link.
  • Easily invites over-design

EXAMPLES

Below is an example of a news story that was a current event at the time it was built. This tiki-toki was used as a short presentation. Click the image below to visit the example:

Tiki-Toki-example

 

Uses

Tiki-Toki can be used to present, or record events. You would likely use this in a History course, or any course where you need to create a historical record that features video, audio, or images.

YouTube

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YouTube

Taken from: http://xmorbid.blogspot.com/2014/10/logo-youtube.html

ABOUT:

YouTube is a video viewing, editing, and hosting platform. Many of us already use YouTube to watch music videos, commercials, and even whole television shows, but you can also use this great tool to host your own videos. What many people don’t know is that you can upload raw footage and use YouTube as an editing tool, which is pretty simple. YouTube also has a lot of social distribution features like tagging, labeling, and creating channels for specific topics.

Supported

Mac, PC, Tablet, Mobile

Pros

  • Extremely wide user base
  • lots of features
  • Editing tool availability

Cons

  • uploading takes a lot of time
  • storing footage to upload takes up a lot of space on your hard drive
  • student videos tend to be longer than most people want to watch (be careful of this)

EXAMPLES

The video below was created by 200 students at Kansas State University in 2007. It features real concerns by real students.

Uses

YouTube has a nearly endless set of uses: presentations, documentation, illustrations — pretty much any creative process that you could film.

Dreamweaver

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Dreamweaver

ABOUT:

Dreamweaver is a unique website building suite with all of the new web-building technologies like HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, SQL, and many more. Dreamweaver also provides tools for porting to mobile and tablet design. It provides starter templates so websites don’t have to built from scratch. No coding experience is required for using Dreamweaver, but options are available if you wish to take the next step. Dreamweaver is part of the Adobe Suite.

Supported

Supported on Mac and PC. Due to intensive memory usage, it is not recommend for using on tablets or phones.

Pros

  • Great tools for easy website building
  • Advanced steps for coding are there if you ever want to drop in
  • Integration with the entire Adobe Suite for easy file transfer between programs
  • Live View features create easy workflow

Cons

  • No edit in Live View
  • Cannot include reactive web templates without CSS
  • Steep learning curve

Examples

A screenshot of Dreamweaver at work.

Uses

Dreamweaver’s main uses are for web development, but it is easy to use for anyone interested in creating dynamic and responsive web design very quickly. It’s wide base for integration with other technologies other than HTML/CSS/JS make it one of the best hybridization tools for computers today. Use Dreamweaver for any project that includes web integration and stop by CURVE for consultation services or visit the Digital Aquarium website for Dreamweaver classes.

 

 

 

Windows Live Movie Maker

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Windows Live Movie Maker

 taken from http://windows-live-movie-maker.en.softonic.com/

ABOUT:

Windows Live Movie Maker is the most recent version of Movie Maker for you PC – in fact – it comes pre-installed on all factory built non-Macintosh computers. It is easy to use, requiring minimal training. It comes with simple transitions, effects, and labeling to enhance your footage. You can film right from your computer, import your own footage, stills or music to create a video for whatever your needs might be. Once your movie is created, you can export it in several ways, in a variety of qualities.

Supported

PC only

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Manageable amount of choices for beginner users
  • Export to anywhere

Cons

  • May be too simple for advanced users
  • Users must be careful about organizing and saving footage. If you move your footage after you begin creating your movie, you must either move it back, or start over in order to edit.
  • Videos take up a lot of space on your hard drive

EXAMPLES

Because it is impossible to link to an example of a work in progress – or a dashboard, as Movie Maker actually is – the link above is a short tutorial put out by Windows that you can watch to see how someone might build a simple video.

Uses

Videos can be used for a variety of assignments, or to enhance a digital assignment. You can embed them into larger projects or use them all on their own. You can pretty much make a video for anything you might imagine.

Blogger

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Blogger

ABOUT:

Blogger is one of the most popular platforms of blogging on the Internet. Blogger is owned by Google and therefore integrates many of Google’s tools like Adsense and Google+. Microsoft Word documents can be directly added into Blogger posts, making it easy to format posts and share them through a Blogger account. Customized templates as well as CSS integration are available as well.

 

Supported

Mac, PC, mobile, tablet

 

Pros

  • Can gather lots of followers with a wide community
  • Easy integration with many of Google’s other services
  • For use on mobile devices

Cons

  • Very specific limitations (No html markup, 500 characters max…)
  • Limits on picture sizes and resolutions
  • New post editor is somewhat unreliable

Examples

Below is an example of a blog hosted on blogger for nerds who want to get into shape. Notice the design choices this blogger has made. He targets a specific audience, uses a fitting font and template, and matches his pictures to the content. Click on the image below to visit the site.

from http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/

 

Uses

You can use a blogger blog in any class. You might use it to respond to reading, to organize thoughts, or to just let the world know how your course is going. Alternatively, your instructor may assign you to run a blog, and blogger is a fine place to start when choosing a place for the blog you want to create.

 

Adobe Premiere Pro

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Adobe Premiere Pro

 

ABOUT:

Adobe Premiere is the main video editing tool used in the Adobe CS6 Suite. It features a unique workflow experience to the Adobe Suite. You can add anything from almost any document format–image PNGs, video MOVs or WMVs, Photoshop .PSDs, and many more. Take any video and apply a wide variety of effects, compositions, or animations like image stabilization, lens flares, and audio voice-overs. Premiere is the industry-standard for video editing and is a primary skill for anyone working in the film industry.

Supported

Premiere Pro is supported on Mac, PC, and even on Tablets and phones in the new 2014.1 version.

Pros

  • Industry standard of video editing
  • Integration with the rest of the Adobe Suite
  • Features unique tools for editing workflow

Cons

  • Steep learning curve – you will need to use tutorials or classes to learn this application.
  • Tedious editing process
  • No “live edit” function where edits can be applied in real time

Examples

Adobe’s masking tools can be used to track any object through its timeline.

A video showing Premiere’s new tablet and phone app to export videos and share them

 Uses

Premiere Pro is used for editing video only, unlike Adobe After Effects which is primarily used for adding elements to video. Premiere Pro can be used for video analysis frame by frame, enhancing video, or making informative videos.

 

 

 

 

 

tumblr

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tumblr

taken from http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/tumblr/ffa2fb4f-61b2-4075-ac7b-488846998b72

ABOUT:

tumblr is a social media that can be used in a variety of ways. It not only has blogging capabilities, but can be made to look a lot like an instagram feed, or on the opposite spectrum, a text-heavy informational feed. tumblr allows you to embed video, and images of all types. It also allows you to favorite posts, comment, and reblog other posts you want to share with others.

Supported

Mac, PC, phones and tablets

Pros

  • widely shareable
  • intuitive, easy to create platforms
  • variety of uses

Cons

  • social media aspect can be distracting
  • some themes can be too busy and can become distracting from a design aspect

EXAMPLES

In the example below, you can see how the authors used their tumblr page to both present and archive information that could be useful both in a presentation, or for people to visit like they would an informational website. Click the image to visit the full site:

Taken from http://america-underwater.tumblr.com

Uses

tumblr can be used as a presentation tool, an archival tool, a blogging tool, or in many other ways. One of the beauties of tumblr is its versatility.

Weebly

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Weebly

WeeblyScreenShot

ABOUT:

Weebly is a surprisingly easy way to create a unique website, blog or online store. It is a drag-and-drop system that allows you to chose from many templates, and plugins that will help you create your page. You can import images, video, and text to help you create your project and capture your audience. It’s so easy, you can even do it on your phone.

Supported

PC, Mac, Mobile

Pros

  • The drag and drop dashboard is so easy, even a first time web builder can do it, with no tutorial
  • The templates are versatile enough to create lots of types of sites
  • No coding needed. Ever.

Cons

  • Because of the ease of Weebly, it has less of a professional feel than many other site builders.
  • Because there is no coding involved, you are stuck with the offerings on Weebly

EXAMPLES

There are several examples of Weebly website online. Click on the image below to see a page where you can click on a bunch of different student examples:

taken from http://wefed.weebly.com/student-sites.html

Uses

You can use Weebly to complete several kinds of projects. It is a great place to keep a class blog, or to create a website for a presentation, or a digital portfolio.