I have the following advice for next semester's students:
1) Start early on projects, especially those that involve photoshop and powerpoint. Projects involving these programs can take a long time, so start early in case you run into any problems.
2) When in doubt about anything, ask Ms. Belisle or the teacher assistant! They are willing to help you.
3) Don't get behind, especially with excel!!!
Thank you Ms. Belisle for a great semester!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Thursday, November 12, 2009
My Picture that Lies
This (right) is an original picture of a beach in Ireland. It came off of flikr.com, and I selected it to give an example of how a travel agancy could manipulate it and post it on their site in order to advertize vacations in Ireland.
Now the travel agency manipulates the picture (left) in an attempt to make this particular beach look more appealing and "people friendly."There appears to be a little more room to walk on the beach. I manipulated this pic by using the clone tool to get rid of some of the grass, and used the hue and saturation adjustments to make the water appear more blue. I also used the gradient tool to harmonize the colors.This manipulation could be considered harmful, as the original picture was altered for advertising purposes in order to convince people to visit this particular part of Ireland. If people do choose to visit this particular place, they might notice that the water is not as "blue"and that there is more grass in real life.
Class Presentations
My two favorite presentations were those of Josh Friedman and Kyle Trella.
Josh Friedman's presentation was over philosophy. He even chose to focus on a particular philosopher, which made the presentation more interesting. The animation he used really helped explain his story, and further drew the audience in. He also integrated several animated gifs, which showed that he really took on a challenge.
Kyle Trella's presentation over climate change was also very fascinating. His use of animated gifs was also very impressive, and really helped to convey his message. I especially enjoyed the gif in which the car was moving across the slide with pollution coming out of the tailpipe.
Great job guys!
***Note: I was out of class November 3rd, so I was asked to complete this blog after I saw presentations on November 10th.***
Josh Friedman's presentation was over philosophy. He even chose to focus on a particular philosopher, which made the presentation more interesting. The animation he used really helped explain his story, and further drew the audience in. He also integrated several animated gifs, which showed that he really took on a challenge.
Kyle Trella's presentation over climate change was also very fascinating. His use of animated gifs was also very impressive, and really helped to convey his message. I especially enjoyed the gif in which the car was moving across the slide with pollution coming out of the tailpipe.
Great job guys!
***Note: I was out of class November 3rd, so I was asked to complete this blog after I saw presentations on November 10th.***
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
PowerPoint Presentations
I thought that all three of the articles gave very good advice on giving a professional PowerPoint presentation. There were many things I never realized about slide design that could really help draw more attention to the speaker instead of the slides themselves. PowerPoint should be used to reinforce what you are saying, and should not be the star of the presentation!
Here are five guidelines that I would like to give to my classmates about creating a good PowerPoint presentation:
1) If you are going to put words on your slides, please limit yourself to only a few. Don't put a ton of text on your slides. It's really annoying when people just deliver their whole presentation by reading the text on the slides!
2) Be careful with the use of color on the slides. Of course, use a few complimentary colors on the slides to make it interesting, but don't go crazy. You don't want the audience getting headaches just by glancing at your slides. On the other hand, you don't want your slides to be too dull.
3) Try to avoid using clip art, unless it is absolutely necessary. Use more professional pictures instead. Clip art can make the slides look very elementary and very unprofessional. Plus, actual photographs are more interesting!
4) Use little or no animation in your presentation. Sometimes, animation is necessary, but most of the time, it is horribly distracting. It's especially frustrating when the speaker doesn't even know how to control the animation when giving the actual presentation.
5) Avoid using Microsoft templates if at all possible. They're boring, and almost everyone uses them. Be unique; maybe use a photograph on the background of all your slides to act as the templete. But make sure any text can still be seen. You can do this by making the photograph more transparent.
I hope this helps! Best of luck with your presentations!
Here are five guidelines that I would like to give to my classmates about creating a good PowerPoint presentation:
1) If you are going to put words on your slides, please limit yourself to only a few. Don't put a ton of text on your slides. It's really annoying when people just deliver their whole presentation by reading the text on the slides!
2) Be careful with the use of color on the slides. Of course, use a few complimentary colors on the slides to make it interesting, but don't go crazy. You don't want the audience getting headaches just by glancing at your slides. On the other hand, you don't want your slides to be too dull.
3) Try to avoid using clip art, unless it is absolutely necessary. Use more professional pictures instead. Clip art can make the slides look very elementary and very unprofessional. Plus, actual photographs are more interesting!
4) Use little or no animation in your presentation. Sometimes, animation is necessary, but most of the time, it is horribly distracting. It's especially frustrating when the speaker doesn't even know how to control the animation when giving the actual presentation.
5) Avoid using Microsoft templates if at all possible. They're boring, and almost everyone uses them. Be unique; maybe use a photograph on the background of all your slides to act as the templete. But make sure any text can still be seen. You can do this by making the photograph more transparent.
I hope this helps! Best of luck with your presentations!
Monday, October 26, 2009
The Visit to CLT
The visit to CLT was very fascinating! I already knew that the library had a ton of resources for the students to use, but I didn't realize that there was video and recording equipment that students could use, as well as photoshop programs, Mac computers, and many other things!
For information technology class, I can use CLT for editing photos. Since I am somewhat new to photoshop elements, not only could I use the technology provided in CLT to edit photos, but I could also ask the staff for instructions and tips.
CLT could be useful for some of my other classes as well. For example, my Spanish class requires me to record dialogues for certain projects. I could use equipment provided by CLT to record, then edit if necessary. For public speaking class, I could use equipment in CLT to create videos as visual aids if necessary.
For personal projects, CLT could be very handy as well. Maybe I would like to gain more experience using a Mac, as I am thinking about purchasing one next summer. I could get the staff at CLT to show me the benefits of using a Mac instead of a PC. I might also want to edit photos and possibly videos I recorded on my iPhone.
For information technology class, I can use CLT for editing photos. Since I am somewhat new to photoshop elements, not only could I use the technology provided in CLT to edit photos, but I could also ask the staff for instructions and tips.
CLT could be useful for some of my other classes as well. For example, my Spanish class requires me to record dialogues for certain projects. I could use equipment provided by CLT to record, then edit if necessary. For public speaking class, I could use equipment in CLT to create videos as visual aids if necessary.
For personal projects, CLT could be very handy as well. Maybe I would like to gain more experience using a Mac, as I am thinking about purchasing one next summer. I could get the staff at CLT to show me the benefits of using a Mac instead of a PC. I might also want to edit photos and possibly videos I recorded on my iPhone.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
My Experience with Excel
I have learned a lot about Excel this semester. Before taking this class, I had no idea how to use equations in a spreadsheet. I also did not know how to insert clip art and format in Excel.
Excel will be very useful in the future. It can help keep track of the balance of my bank account, and be used for many other purposes where data is involved.
It is an extremely useful tool for academic fields and businesses, as Excel can be used to calculate and organize data. Templates can be created so that a certain spreadsheet can be used multiple times! Excel is an awesome program!
Excel will be very useful in the future. It can help keep track of the balance of my bank account, and be used for many other purposes where data is involved.
It is an extremely useful tool for academic fields and businesses, as Excel can be used to calculate and organize data. Templates can be created so that a certain spreadsheet can be used multiple times! Excel is an awesome program!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Searching the Internet
I never knew that Google could actually be a somewhat reliable search engine when conducting academic research. The “advanced search” option really helps with this task, as the search itself can be limited to more scholarly sources. In fact, an advanced search can be conducted on Google just to find only scholarly articles, and not necessarily websites. But in regard to finding reliable websites for academic research, the search can be limited to particular domains. For example, domains such as “.edu” and “.gov” are probably better to cite in academic research papers than “.org”, as the information is, most likely, less biased. On another note, the advanced search option can also be used to eliminate sites in a search with a particular domain. If the advanced search option is not being used, inserting quotation marks around text in the search bar helps filter results so that they contain that particular phrase.
I was surprised to find that Google, unlike many other search engines, monitors how sites link to other sites, allowing for the most linked sites to appear first in the search results list. Also, Google separates the advertising sites from the non-advertising sites, making an academic search easier to conduct. Although Google does separate these two types of sites in the search results, the company does make a lot of money on small text ads.
I was surprised to find that Google, unlike many other search engines, monitors how sites link to other sites, allowing for the most linked sites to appear first in the search results list. Also, Google separates the advertising sites from the non-advertising sites, making an academic search easier to conduct. Although Google does separate these two types of sites in the search results, the company does make a lot of money on small text ads.
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