Jessica's IDM Blog

 Media Compression Week 9, Video Task In this week’s video task, we learned a lot about media compression. Media compression is essentially the discarding of information from an image, video, or audio file to reduce its size. The higher the compression, the lower the quality. All videos are a combination of images and audio. An individual image in a video is called a frame. There can be up to 25 to 30 frames displayed in a single second of a video, this can also be called frame-rate. The more frames or higher frame-rate, the higher the quality of the video but it becomes a bigger file size. [Reference: “Video Compression as Fast As Possible” - Techquickie Video Compression as Fast As Possible ] In this first video, Taran explains the importance of video compression and how it works.  Video compression is an important aspect of how streaming websites work, such as Youtube. Without compression, the file size is significantly larger. For example, a five-minute video can be up to ...

 Technological Evolution Week 8, Video Task This week’s blog required us to watch 5 different videos in relation to the evolution of technology, the history, and the future of the media and digital world. Living in the 21st Century is a privilege to have so much technology at our hands in our day-to-day life.   [Reference: “Technology Evolution | 100,000 BC - 2020” - WatchMedia Technology Evolution | 100,000 BC - 2020 ] In this video, we are shown the discoveries of many different things throughout the years from something as simple as fire to supercomputers. It is really fascinating to see when things were discovered as the ages also changed. I find it very impressive how humanity has developed in the time that we have been given.  [Reference: “History of Media Literacy, Part 1: Crash Course Media Literacy #2” - CrashCourse History of Media Literacy, Part 1: Crash Course Media Literacy #2 ] In this video, Jay spoke a lot about where media literacy was rooted from. I...

  Media Ethics Week 6, Video Task In the first video I watched, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OseOb_wBsi4 ) “The Medium is the Message”, Dan Olsen gave us a better understanding of what the phrase “the medium is the message” actually means.  Dan firstly starts off by referencing McLuhan’s own words “This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves…”. Initially to me, this meant that we don’t actually look at the real meaning of a medium, we use a projectile of ourselves to form a message for the medium. Dan explains that the mediums have a far greater impact on the fundamental shape and nature of society than any message that is delivered through that medium. Dan then gives us plenty of examples and I can see understand what he means. For example, Dan states that trains, cars, and airplanes build and structure ...

Production Process Week 5, Video Task To me, design thinking is the process of generating ideas for a design concept.  In the first video (https://youtu.be/gHGN6hs2gZY), ‘What is Design Thinking? An Overview’, Jonathan explains that design thinking is a philosophy and a set of tools to help us solve problems creatively. This can be used if a company is trying to create something new or when a company or team is trying to solve a complex problem.  I had learned that there are 5 steps to this process. The first step is empathising. This is about knowing and understanding the people or business we are trying to design the product for. In the video we are asked what is their problem?’ and ‘what do these people do?’. These questions allow us to build a persona and fully understand who we are designing for. Step two talks about defining. This breaks down everything in step one where we have to ask ‘what are the users needs’ and ‘what are the insights we use’. This shows us what sort...

Digital Media Week 4, Video task  Before I had watched the three videos, my idea of Digital Media was any form of media such as video, audio, or software that is in a digital form. There are many things that separate traditional media and digital media. The main thing I think is that traditional is a very one-way communication while digital has such a broad platform to communicate to others. Digital media can also be changed and make an original piece look almost just as authentic. From the first video, I had learned that digital media is not only media that is in a digital form, it is also a way of connecting and interacting with people all around the world. The video explains that we are all part of an infinite network and that we can connect to anyone as easily as they can connect to us. This allows us to find people with common interests and I have experience with that through the social network Twitter. My experience with connecting with people online has been so interesting. ...

  Study Skills Week 3, Video tasks In the series of videos that I watched, I learned many study skills from them to set myself up for success and make my college life a little bit easier. In the first video, 'The 3 Best science-based study tips' uses many different resources from universities and professional studies. Mike states that he is a doctor working in California. He shows evidence-based learning strategies about how to study for exams and how to train our brains effectively while backing everything up by science.  What I learned is that the more brainpower and effort one uses, the more retention one will get. This is because you can learn more under difficult conditions since it would be harder to forget. This had made me realise why many people in my life had told me that trying to study lying down or on your bed won't work as well, this now makes sense as to why.  There is a study by Kornell that states ultimately quizzing yourself is a great strategy for study...

  Jessica's Introduction [IDM] Week 2, video tasks Hello my name is Jessica. I was born and have lived in Ireland my whole life although my ethnicity is Chinese.  I chose to do this course because there was a lot of stuff I had really wanted to do such as photography, designing websites, coding, film and so much more and this course seemed like the perfect one. I wanted to fulfil all of those wants and this course is so broad and included everything I want to do.  I would say that I am most interested in coding and learning about how apps, websites and different software work.  Before I found this passion, I was very intrigued in photography. I always knew I wanted to pursue photography as something to do on the side.  Not too long ago, I found a deep interest in creating content for entertainment. I found myself quite invested in film, acting and directing.   I had come to realise that I could accomplish all of that through Creative Digital Media once I re...