Slide Show Guidlines

The most important thing I learned from reading about powerpoint presentations is that the most important thing about a presentation is not the slides, but rather the message you are trying to communicate to the audience. With this said, a simple, well-planned slide show is probably more effective that a complicated, overly detailed show. A powerpoint is an easy and efficient way to communicate ideas to a large group, but the message can be easily lost in a presentation that has too much going on. Here are 5 guidelines you should keep in mind when you are making a powerpoint:
1. Don't use too many graphics
2. Don't write more words than you need.
3. Don't repeat ideas that have already been established.
4.Don't use too many animations or transitions.
5. Don't use too many different fonts or a font that is hard to read.

Excel Experience

I learned a lot from our unit on Microsoft Excel! Probably the most important thing that I learned was that instead of repeating the same formula over and over again for a function, you can simply drag down on the box of the formula you wish to duplicate to obtain the same results. I also learned about absolute and relative cell references. Excel might be useful for me in the future in that is makes it easier to keep a running budget of my expenses.

Academically, Microsoft Excel is very useful for keeping up with your grades. With conditional formatting on Excel, it is easy to format the cells to make things such as failing grades for noticeable. Excel can be used in business for recording a budget, so that a business can see if their profit outweighs their expenditures.

Pictures That Lie

The picture that I decided to look at was the one of students at the University of Wisconsin- Madison football game. I chose this picture because I thought it was interesting to see what the students, and the student population looked like back in 1993 at a major university. The picture originated in the university's 2001-2002 undergraduate application. The picture was manipulated in the sense that a black student was added into the picture that originally only featured white students. It was manipulated to reflect the diversity on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. I think that this manipulation was harmful because it is not really representing diversity. Students applying at this university may be lead to beleive that there is more ethnic diversity at this university than reality shows. If the university really has become more diverse in recent years, then they should use a more up to date picture for their application.

CLT Tour

The At&T Center of Learning and Technology (abbreviated CLT) is located on the first floor of Coates Library. The CLT has many useful resources for both the students and staff here at Trinity. The CLT includes many facilities such as The Studios @ CLT, which is a computer lab with workstations that allow students to work with different types of media technologies for video, audio, and graphic projects. These workstations also include creation software from Adobe, Apple, Macromedia, Roxio, and many others. The CLT also has an Audio Lab, which is available only by request by professors on behalf of their students. Another facility here is the Video Conference Center, which includes and electronic classroom. The CLT also operates TriniTV and is in charge of distributing the films shown on Tiger TV.

I learned that there are many things you can do at CLT. You can transfer your videos from VHS to DVD, as well as take advantage of the video dubbing decks. Digital still cameras, video cameras, and video cassettes are also available for students to check out. I might use the CLT for this class by taking advantage of media software in The Studios for possible projects. I also think that the electronic classroom would be very useful for a study group in subjects such as math. There is so much high-end technology at CLT, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it.

Copyright

I learned many things from Diane Grave's presentation on copyright. I learned that copyrights have been around a long time, beginning in 1790 in the U.S. I also learned that the RIAA, MPAA, and ESA are especially interested in campus-based file sharing, and that the Higher Education act states that colleges and universities must take steps to prevent students from file sharing or they will lose federal aid money. But I also learned that in some cases, a person can use another's copyrighted work, like when it is being used for news reporting, as a parody, or if it is being taken for nonprofit educational uses. The length of time documents are protected by copyrighting has advantages and disadvantages. A good thing about the length of time fro copyrighting is that it helps keep the music industry alive. Without copyright laws in placed specifying a great length of time, musicians would not make very much money because their music would be given out for free a while after they produced it, and therefore they would no longer be able to support themselves and could no longer make new music. Another good about the length of time for copyrighting is that people who have worked really hard on making some sort of break through will be given credit for their idea for a very long time and will not have to worry about other people making money off of their written idea. A disadvantage for the length of time for copyrighting is that people who want to use a work positively to spread the word about one subject or another, or inform the public about an issue, must either wait 75 or more years, or go through a lengthy and sometimes costly process just to obtain permission to reproduce that work. We could use so many documents in a positive way if they were not protected for such a long time by copyright. Although I believe that copyrighting is a good thing, I think the length of time that a work is protected is way too long.