Choices of IT used
Screencast O’matic
I used the Screencast O’matic tool to create a presentation which showed anyone who viewed it how to create a folder, rename it and save a document into it. To use this online utility I had to navigate my way through the Screencast O’matic website and download and run the programme. Once the programme was up and running all I had to do was drag a box around the capture area of the video to be recorded on the activity of the screen. I chose this piece of software as it was free, quick to download and was easy to use.
The Screencast O’matic however is a simple piece of software which doesn’t let you also edit the video you record which isn’t exactly ideal for the user who then has to use a separate piece of software to edit the video; should they need to.
The file format of the video is MP4 which is the most widely recognised video format and is compatible with all computers, mobile devices and their software’s respectively.
Alternatives
FRAPS
FRAPS is an alternative programme to Screencast O’matic, it accomplishes the same task, so I could have also used this to accomplish the task.
BENEFIT: FRAPS offers a large amount of modification tools to edit the video which is produced from use of the programme, making it a dream for any user as they can adapt it to their format preferences and their workflow. The program also allows the user to edit the clip by editing the speed and content to help the users of the video further and to make it more effective, this helps the target audience of the video gain a better understanding of the topics described in the video through use of the video editing tools in FRAPS.
DRAWBACK: FRAPS requires a lengthy installation process which many networks may struggle with, there is therefore a possibility of a virus being installed into your computer alongside the software. Another drawback of this software is that when the user is finished editing the video the file is saved in the program as a RAR file, which many standard players installed on different peoples computers such as Windows Media Player and Apple’s Quick-time player will not be able to open the file.

NVIDIA SHADOW PLAY
NVIDIDA shadow play is another alternative to Screencast O’matic, a more complete piece of software which requires different hardware to operate. The advanced editing tools available to the user mean that a varied range of changes can be applied to the video.
BENEFIT: a benefit of using this programme is that it doesn’t tax the hardware greatly when you are operating it meaning that there won’t be any reduced computer performance in any other aspects which are likely to be found with other programmes like it.
DRAWBACK: a huge drawback of using this program is that it requires a NVIDIA 600 series or newer graphics card to be able to run it, these are often quite expensive to be bought and won’t necessarily be used again by the user.
To summarise, out of the three pieces of software here I made the decision to use the Screencast O’matic because I decided that it was the simplest piece of software available to me, it wouldn’t require much installation and hassle, like Shawowplay and FRAPS would have done when I wanted to perform a quick and simple task.
SMS Message
I used an SMS message to notify a friend that school was closed as the boiler had broken down; I chose to use this method of communication due to the fact that I could communicate with a friend on a personal level, rather than on a professional level. I have also chosen this method as my phone is always with me so I could receive the recipients reply wherever I was.
The drawback of using an SMS service is that the service of the mobile phone you are using could be faulty, or you could go out of range, also there are roaming charges if you stray to areas that aren’t covered by your tariff.
A benefit of using an SMS service however is that people have been using these services for quite some time now, so the