Today I created an online blog using blogger in order to keep a record of the planning process for my project. This was successful as I was able to record all of my thoughts about my project onto the blog, keeping everything in the same place. Initially I could not work out how to change the background image of my blog to something that was more relevant to my project title. To overcome this problem I researched about how to change the image and soon the problem was rectified. I altered the background so that the image was repeated in an checked manner, to make it more aesthetically pleasing. By completing my diary on an online blog as opposed to simply writing in a book or a word document I was able to develop another I.T. skill which improved my confidence. The presentation of the blog also made it more engaging for me to work on completing it, which was a strength of my project. After updating my diary I plan on starting to write the introduction for my dissertation.

I decided to give my timelines on timetoast a cover photo to enhance the topic of my timelines to viewers. I searched for images of vegetables on google. After choosing a photo I saved the image to my computer then opened it up in a word document. I cropped the image to make it more centred on the vegetable basket - this was appropriate as the image space given on timetoast is very small, so it was a beneficial process. I used the image on my timeline, thus I developed a new skill. Next I will create a blog to record the planning process of my project.


Timeline Photo

Above is a screenshot of a photograph that is going to form the front cover image of my timeline. Below is the cropped version that will be used.

Here is a screenshot of my timelines on timetoast:

Taking a screenshot of my timetoast dashboard for use in my blog meant that I was developing a new skill.

Several resources from the internet were found that were relevant to my project. Deciding which resources were suitable to keep for use in my dissertation was difficult as I found it challenging to determine whether they were reliable and unbiased, particularly as it is easy to be biased on the topic of vegetarianism/meat production, especially if the source was written by a vegetarian/omnivore. Eventually I was confident that my resources were reliable and I gained the skill of being able to distinguish between reliable and unreliable resources and to evaluate their content. Another problem I encountered was realising that by addressing so many issues, for example, sporting performance, health benefits and impacts on the environment, my dissertation would begin to lose focus. I was faced with the issue of analysing all the gathered information and deciding which topic was of the most interest. By solving this problem I gained the skill of being able to assess and envisage which topic would be the most fitting and would lend itself to be a more successful project. After reading through all the relevant sources I had collected so far I came to the conclusion that a dissertation relating the impacts on the environment of meat production would be the most engaging as it is a current issue that does not appear to be widely known. I then had to alter the title of my dissertation to make it more specific. Next I will create a blog to record the planning process for my extended project in order to develop my I.T. skills. This will be where I will keep a record of all my diary entries.

To develop my I.T. skills I decided to create an timeline for my project electronically. I did this using a website called timetoast. Initially it was a problem working out how to add events to the timeline as it was a site I had never used before. Trying to think through how my project will develop right up until I finish the project was also difficult as I wasn't familiar with how to plan such an extensive task. However, by doing so it enabled me to think through how my project would unfold which improved my planning and organisation skills and enabled me to evaluate the issues I was going to address in my dissertation. Originally I was intending to create my timeline using gantt chart as this was another website that can be used to document timelines. It was more difficult to use so I decided to ask my peers if they were having similar problems. They were and so I chose to use timetoast as it was more reliable and straightforward to use. This however could have been a weakness of my project as I did not persevere with the gantt chart site in order to understand how to utilize it. My next step will be to find some resources to form my bibliography.