Advice

Make sure you come to class and do all the in class examples. Try to to keep up in class and don't be afraid to ask questions.

My Picture That Lied

I altered a picture of waves from Stock Exchange to make warning sign. I altered it by adding the two children from other photographs from Stock Exchange to make it look like they were playing on dangerous rocks. To make them appear normal I adjusted the color and made shadows where appropriate. I then altered the sky using the stamp tool to make it look dark and stormy. I don't think that my picture was harmful overall because it is meant to be used as an informational warning ad. It could be used to inform people of the dangers of the ocean. I think that in this situation it is better that the picture was created instead of real. That would be a very dangerous situation for children to be in.

Presentations

I really liked Lukas's presentation. The topic was really interesting. He really narrowed it down to the things he thought were important. That made the presentation very smooth. The best part was the movie. It was impressive, inserted correctly, and made the presentation even more interesting. It was a nice change of pace. The design was strengthened with his pictures. I really enjoyed the x-ray of the torn ACL.
I also thought Danielle had a great topic. She did a great job narrowing it down. The design was strengthened with the simple and clean template she used. Her drawings were appropriate and effective at getting her point across. There were not too many words on each slide, which was nice. Her references were very impressive. She mainly used a reliable scientific source. Great speaking skills!

Power Point Advice

I found the article, "Top Ten Slide Tips" very helpful in creating power points. This article explains that simplicity, high quality graphics, color, font, and video/ audio are all key aspects to a presentation. I agree with them that the power point should be complimentary to your presentation. Too much text on each slide is never good. I don't think I agree with the statement that the best slides are ones that have NO text. I think this may be true for some disciplines, but in my Biology classes I find that the text is important (not too much of course). For example in my Vertebrate Physiology class we receive an information overload. There is a lot to learn about each subject and small details are extremely important. Because of this fast pase, information rich presentation I feel that having the main points in bullets is important.
The article, "Recommendations for Faculty on Power Point" explained many do's and don'ts on power point. They noted to stay away from transitions and spins. I agree with this because I find them distracting. They also noted that reading off of your slides is the "kiss of death." I completely agree with them. I find this very annoying in presentations.
The article, "Really bad Power Point and How to Avoid It" also has some useful tips. They emphasized making cue cards for yourself so you can keep on track when presenting. They also stress that handouts are always good to distribute, but only after the presentation. I think this is a very useful strategy. The audience can keep the points made on their mind and review them later. If you take these tips in to consideration when creating a power point presentation, it will be more successful.

CLT Visit

Today we went to CLT. This center has many available resources and is used to manage TLearn, TriniTV, and the new capture system. Some of the resources include a training lab and many computers with new advanced software. The computers are divided into two sections: video/audio editing and web design. The computers in the video/audio editing section have software such as final cut pro. This section is very useful for schoolwork as well as personal work. Last summer I spent a great deal of time on the computers using the video editing software. I edited videos and made DVDs for my research and also converted many of my childhood home video to DVDs. This section could also easily be used for the Photoshop section of this course.
The web design computers are equipped with new scanners. In the back there are several conference/ training rooms. There is also a sound room for audio recording. All of the facilities can be used by anyone, student or public. The only equipment that requires permission are the digital cameras and video cameras. A teacher needs to add your name to a list for you to receive access to this equipment. Access to this equipment would be useful for students in this class who do not have a digital video camera.
Overall CLT is a great center with many resources. Taking advantage of it would be wise because many of the resources can be used for personal as well as class projects. It is a must use!

Excel Evaluation

I learned a lot during the Excel portion of this course. I initially thought that I knew quite a bit about the program, but soon found that I was far from correct. I learned the most about formatting. I had no idea that you could make an excel sheet look so pretty! I used to copy the Excel graphs and paste them into a word document, but now I don't have to. Excel has all the tools I need. Conditional formatting and the IF function were probably the most interesting to me. I had no idea that such functions existed. I think that the most useful part of this section was learning how to create a running balance and grade sheet. I have already made a grade sheet for my other classes. I found it very useful that Excel provides you with templates... and even better you can create your own. I did previously know how to calculate many of the functions we reviewed (with exception to the IF and CHOOSE), and the graphs we made. Even though I knew this, I still feel that it is essential to the course. I had learned many of these functions in my science classes, as I am a senior. Many freshman have not had this exposure to Excel. Overall this was a very positive experience and I learned many new things.

Chris Nolan

Chris Nolan came to talk to our class about search engines. There are several different search engines available including Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Google is the most widely used search engine in America. This is due to the fact that people usually like the serach results. Chris Nolan used an application to show us the simmilarities and differences between the results of the two sites. It was surprising to me that something that comes up first with Google may come up last with Yahoo. I learned that it is important to browse several search engines. Google has several criteria for defining a search. Google often refers to the number of times other sites link to a keyword. This is a good way to determine which sites are the most relevant. They also look at the word order or phases. The main search results are not influenced by payment. Companies can pay for sponsored links to have the right for their site to show with certain keywords. These links appear on the right of the page. When searching for something in Google, you can be very specific. In this way Google is different from many of the databases that Trinity subscribes to.