Advice

I've really enjoyed taking this class this semester. I have learned many new things that will be useful for my future use of computers. Some advice that I would give future students of this class would be to make sure that you do your homework. There is not an excessive amount of homework in this class, but it is easy to fall behind. I also found it useful to take a few notes in class. I was able to refer back to these notes when I was doing homework outside of class. Also, don't be afraid to e-mail Ms. Belisle or to ask questions. She is always willing to help!

My Own Picture That Lies

"Doctored images are troubling because they can mislead scientists and even derail a search for the causes and cures of disease." As this quote from the article states, altered images can be very destructive, especially in the scientific community. Misrepresenting scientific images can lead to misinterpretations of data and studies therefore posing serious problems for research efforts. This article mentions that images are being more closely monitored in order to prevent the publishing of inaccurate information. I personally believe that this is a very important step to take. We live in a world full of misleading information, such as photo shopped images of celebrities in magazines. However, it is important that academic information, such as scientific data, is portrayed as accurately as possible.

In my altered photo found on Google images, I chose to replace the object which the boy is holding. He originally held an apple; however, as you can see, he now holds a rather unhealthy substitute: a hamburger. I then formatted the the picture of the boy as black and white in order to emphasize the negativity of the image and allowed the hamburger to remain colored in order to suggest it as the sole reason for the issue at hand. I chose this image in order to portray the negative effects of unhealthy foods upon children. A health magazine might perform similar actions on photos placed in its articles in order to support whatever issue it is addressing. In this particular case, fast food could be blamed for the current issue of childhood obesity; however, in actuality the boy was originally eating an apple. Altering photos for such reasons is wrong because it does not provide an accurate representation of actual circumstances and can therefore cause viewers to become misinformed about current health situations.

In-class PowerPoint Presentations

I thought that there were a lot of great presentations in class on Tuesday. Two PowerPoint presentations that particularly stood out in my mind were those of Ellee and Jessica. Elle specifically identified her topic in her presentation “Who killed the honey bee?” and provided accurate and concise information about the protection of the honey bee population. Her presentation did not contain an excess amount of words, but instead it included excellent photos and animations which she thoroughly discussed. It was clear that she had a full knowledge of the topic she was discussing, and therefore she provided a very informative and understandable presentation. It was also well formatted and organized. Over all, it was a job well done! Jessica also provided an excellent presentation. She, too, did not use many words in her presentation. As a substitute, she included a vast sum of photos that accurately portrayed her topic on the roles of a forensic psychologist in the court room. These photos were extremely well animated. She also used a specific template throughout her presentation that provided a consistently well-organized look. Like Ellee’s, Jessica’s presentation was very informative due to her preparation and appropriate knowledge of her topic. Both Ellee and Jessica did an excellent job!

PowerPoint

I thought that these articles provided a lot of useful information about the development of a good PowerPoint presentation. Although a few of the suggestions in the article “Really Bad PowerPoint” seemed a little extreme, such as each slide should contain no more than six words, overall these articles provided many helpful suggestions. One idea that I thought was especially useful was the suggestion to create cue cards. In the past my presentations have included a large amount of text simply because I did not want to forget to say something; however, cue cards present a solution to this problem. Another interesting fact that was mentioned was how PowerPoint presentations should connect with our emotions in order to be effective. I had never though of it in this way before, but this definitely makes sense. If you want your audience to truly be effected by your presentation, then it needs to visually appealing, not bogged down with text. Therefore you must carefully select animations, sounds, fonts, colors, etc. that will attract and hold the audience’s attention. Also your presentation should consist of a constant theme.

The following are a few more important things to keep in mind when developing a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Keep the information on your slides brief and precise. Slides with excess amounts of information are boring and can distract the audience from what you are trying to say.

2. Avoid the use of distracting slide animations and sounds. Animations and sounds should subtlety enhance your presentation, not serve as a distraction.

3. Be creative in your slide designs. Don’t simple used the pre-formatted templates.

4. Text should be easily read by the observer. This not only includes the actual font but also its color and size.

5. Adequately prepare yourself for your presentation. Fully comprehend the information that you are sharing and be able to respond to any questions from your audience.

CLT

Trinity’s Center for Learning and Technology (CLT) is located on the first floor of the library. I had never visited the CLT before today and obviously did not know anything about it. However I learned many interesting facts about the CLT from Robert Chapman’s lecture today. The CLT is the home of computers (mostly Macs and PCs), DVD and CD players, digital cameras, projectors, microphones, TVs, etc. All of which is made accessible to Trinity students. The CLT is divided into sections that specialize in areas such as audio/ video editing, podcasting, web and graphic design, media presentation, video conferencing, and many more. The CLT is also responsible for management of all classroom technology and campus cable TV. Now that I know more about this center, I am sure I will be able to use it in the future. It is a nice quiet place that provides all of the resources that I could possibly ever need in order to complete assignments for my Computer Skills class. Right now I am creating a report for my archaeology class. Our teacher informed us of CLT so that we could rent a digital camera if we did not personally own one in order to take pictures of our archaeological sites. In the future, I can rent other equipment that I may need in order to complete assignments for any of my other classes. I can also go to CLT for any of my production needs, such as duplicating DVDs, often free of charge. CLT is also beginning to record lectures from certain classes. This will allow me to watch a lecture of a class that I might miss due to sports or illness. At CLT I can also record personal presentations such as an audition for graduate school.

Excel

I have definitely learned a lot throughout our time working with Microsoft Excel. I had previously used Excel in some of my high school computer classes and therefore knew how to perform many of the common tasks in Excel. However, over the past couple weeks I have learned many more useful ways of working in Excel. I have become familiar with terms such as running balance, absolute cell references, and relative cell references. I have also learned how to use conditional formatting and new functions such as the IF, MODE, and STDEV functions, which I had never used before. Excel is a program that is useful for many purposes and settings. As a matter of fact, I am currently using it for a report for my archaeology class. Excel is not only useful in academic settings for creating tables of information or calculating totals, averages, and percentages, etc. it is also useful for everyday tasks. Excel provides a variety of templates that allow you to determine things such as your personal monthly budget, travel expense reports, and even the cost of your wedding! Now that I have learned more about Excel, I might use it for creating comparison tables, calculating my income and expenses, or determining a payment plan for a new car.

Chris Nolan - Searching the Internet

I learned many useful tools for searching the internet through Mr. Nolan’s presentation. In the past I guess I have gotten by knowing simply the basic steps for using search engines such as Google. However, Mr. Nolan shared several new methods for searching the internet that I am sure I will use in the future. One particularly useful tool that I found out about was the cached link (found below the URL and entry on the search page) which highlights specific search words throughout a document allowing you to identify them quicker. I also learned that you can include country codes in your search in order to limit your search within a particular country. Also you can place a minus sign before the word “site” if you don’t want to include particular sites within your search. For example, if Hurricanes and global warming -site:edu was entered into a search engine, your search concerning hurricanes and global warming would not include educational websites. One thing that surprised me was how easily an extremely unprofessional and fabricated webpage can appear among the top results for certain searches. I learned that the number of people who visit a webpage plays a large role in its placing within the lists of sites.