PowerPoint Presentations

All those articles on PowerPoint and what not to do basically defined every PowerPoint presentation I have ever seen, including teachers' work as well as students'. Everyone always does exactly what you're not supposed to do for a presentation--slap a bunch of words onto a slide and let the audience read it or read it to them. I find PowerPoint presentations extremely annoying because I know how to read and do not particularly enjoy being read to. I have never thought of PowerPoint presentations as a way to emotionally connect to your audience, but it is a good concept. I like that the articles said not to use clip art or pre-packaged style themes--we should pass the word along to my previous teachers.

My five guidelines for Powerpoint Presentations are:
1) Do not use too much text. Talk instead.
2) Make sure you know your material well so you can engage the audience rather than reading off the slide or a note card.
3) Use basic fonts, slide transitions, design, ect. Too much going on distracts the audience from your message and causes them to focus on the presentation instead of you.
4) Have a consistent theme for your presentation--it makes it more visually appealing.
5) Keep the progression of your presentation in mind. It should flow and be easy to follow.

CLT (AT&T Center for Learning and Technology)

I knew about the CLT lab because on my second day on campus my suite mate and I explored the library. We went down to the bottom floor because it looked dark and ominous, then lo and behold--the CLT lab with a friendly staff! One of the people who worked there briefly explained what the lab was for and its capabilities, but of course with all the new information I was getting about everything on the Trinity University campus, I sort of forgot most of what he said. I have used the CLT once this year for a Drama project. I had to show how I would make the design set for a stage, so I used the CLT's Windows systems to utilize Photoshop so I could manipulate pictures I found on the Internet. CLT has an area with Windows and Macs, digital audio lab, media presentation lab, video conference center, and an innovation studio. All of these facilities are available to students either on a walk-in basis or by appointment. If you need help with anything the CLT staff is there to assist you, and will even do some things for you for a small fee. There is also equipment to rent out, such as cameras, video recorders, and even external storage units. I will probably use the CLT lab for a study area because it is quiet. I could use the digital audio lab if I wanted to record myself playing the cello for an audition tape. The media presentation lab would be nice to use to run through a presentation in a classroom setting. I will probably use the computers down in CLT for our class because I don’t really want to download Photoshop on my computer and I am always in the library anyways.

Excel

When we started Excel Spreadsheets I thought it would be really boring and useless. I did not know all the practical things you can do with Excel. I learned how to enter many different formulas, extend those formulas, use absolute cell references, format data, conditionally format data, make extensive charts, sort data, and many other things. I also learned how to use dynamic links to put Excel spreadsheets into word documents. Spreadsheets are practical for many settings, especially business settings. I have seen that the library uses an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of the hours the student workers put in every week. They use a lot of conditional formatting to make sure our hours are within the acceptable range. Excel is also useful for personal uses, such as keeping track of payments, loans, fundraising, and other things which use a lot of data that is hard to keep track of. I will probably use some of the spreadsheets we made in class, such as the ones about loans and car payments. I know that if I need to use excel for something I can create my own spreadsheet and use it effectively.

Chris Nolan Presentation

I learned a lot about Google from Chris Nolan's presentation. I use Google multiple times per day, yet I never really knew much about it other than it got me results pertinent to my search request. I found out how Google prioritizes its search results—it searches for key words in the title, counts the number of links which lead to a certain site (noting the importance of the site which links to the site in question), and also notes the frequency of words and the proximity of words to one another (if a compound key word search). I also found out that you can put limitations on your searches such as searching for exact words/phrases, excluding certain words or phrases, types of websites (.gov, .org, .edu, country codes, ect.), language, file type, dates, and usage rights. Google also offers Google Cached, which highlights key words you used in your search, allows you to see previous versions of web pages (as long as Google has not updated their data base), and allows you to view a website if it is down. I always use Google for projects; however, I always had to sift through a bunch of non-academic things. Chris Nolan taught us that Google Scholar limits search results to academic information while using the same ranking system as the regular Google page. The thing that surprised me was that Stephen Colbert made “Elephant” on Wikipedia a controversial article. I knew that Wikipedia could be altered by anyone and that the information may not be reliable, but that was a funny use of the website.

Pictures That Lie

I chose a picture depicting the Great Pyramids of Giza taken by Hany Farid of Dartmouth College for a 1982 National Geographic Magazine. I chose this picture because I found it visually appealing and I've always found pyramids fascinating. I also chose it because I like to read National Geographic if I find one lying around. Well, I do not really like to read it so much as I enjoy looking at the pictures. This particular picture was changed from its original format to squeeze the pyramids closer together to fit the magazine's format for the front cover. In my opinion, the manipulation was not harmful. The editors did it for a practical reason—to include both of the pyramids on the cover to make it more visually appealing. The manipulation did not defame anyone or present anything falsely for the purpose of deceiving as some of the other pictures on the CNet website. Basically, if a photo is changed simply for design reasons I believe it is okay, but one should still be aware that pictures are not always what they seem to be, even if they are in a creditable magazine such as National Geographic.

Photo taken from: CNet