Author: Ashley Apostol

Ashley Apostol is a sophomore at the University of Michigan - Dearborn majoring in Instructional Technology. She has always had an interest in using and learning about technology and knew that it was something she wanted to do in her life.

The Oscoda Press uses Facebook to reach out to locals

I chose to write about the Oscoda Press. Oscoda is a small town located in northern Michigan near the Au Sable River, that enters Lake Huron. The Oscoda Press writes articles on what’s happening locally. It includes the Oscoda Press in newspaper form or e-Edition.

press

The only social media that the Oscoda Press uses is Facebook. The publication posts the articles that it writes on to Facebook for people that use Facebook more often, rather than going on to the official website. It makes it easier for people to read on what’s going on in town.

facebook

The world and U.S population

On the census website, there are tons of infographics and visualizations that anyone can have access to. I choose to write about two images that I wanted to compare. The images relate to the population of the world and in the U.S in 2016 and 2017.

I wanted to see how much the world and U.S population increased, so I took the respective populations and subtracted it to find the difference.

In a year, the world’s population increased by 82,093,713. For the U.S, the population increased by 2,661,396.

This data set enhances my reporting because it is a simple report on the world and U.S population. It shows the population right next to an image of the world or the U.S.

U.S Census 2016 population estimate
U.S Census 2017 population estimate

 

Peachy skincare

peach and lily

The blog that I chose to write about is a blog called “Peach & Lily”. Lately, I have been trying to keep my skin clear and acne free. The way I do that is through a skin care routine. I always feel less confident about myself when my face has a pimple or if it has acne scars.

The thing that I like about “Peach & Lily” is that the author struggled with the same exact thing I have, dry, itchy, and acne-prone skin. “Peach & Lily” promotes skincare products that can be used for all types of skin concerns, such as dryness, oiliness, redness, and sensitive skin. The blog is a great resource to use to suggest products for someone with troubling skin.

 

Amara, captioning videos for free

While reading “Ten tools to learn, more to explore”, there were many tools that I liked, such as Timeline.js and Title Mill/Map Box. But, the tool that I found interesting was Amara. Amara is a site where anyone can caption, subtitle, and translate videos.

I played around with it by using a video that I made in a previous course by adding captions to my voiceover. It was rather easy to use. First, you type what you hear in a text box. Then, you would sync the captions with the voiceover. Lastly, you review the video to make sure that all captions are synced on time.

The syncing of the captions did take some time, but overall I liked this tool because anyone can translate my video into a different language. Amara’s mission is “Working to Build a More Open, Collaborative World”. I like the message that they are trying to send. Through videos, we can all connect with each other no matter what language one speaks.

Here is the link to my subtitled video.