Preparing for Computer Skills

I was a little concerned when entering computer skills (CS1300) that I would not be challenged. However, this class has been quite beneficial, and many very important skills were taught. I did not know how to create a website, start a mail merger, or use Microsoft Access before taking this class. I am now confident to use any program that we covered in class, and I will be able to use these skills in any job. Microsoft Office has changed drastically in the last year, and this course highlights the new features/options of the programs. I found this course extremely helpful for writing papers, making presentable graphs, and designing banners/posters. Remember: The website assignment should be done in advance and viewed on various computers after publication. Good luck in this class, and make sure that you do all your homework and blogs!

Student Websites

I was genuinely impressed by all the websites yesterday. It is so exciting that we are now capable of building and organizing websites. The website that impressed me the most was created by Brittany Flores. The design was simple, and it was easy to navigate. The navigation bar was nicely done. In addition, I REALLY liked the translation page! Well done, Brittany. Other pages that I enjoyed looking at were those of Emily Howard and Andrew Gill. In Emily's site, her personality definitely came through every page with the text, pictures, captions, and color schemes. I loved the "email me" dog, and it was obvious that she put a great deal of work into the layout of her pictures with specific captions for each picture. Andrew's website was sophisticated because all the pages were the same and the theme was Trinity. I thought the background was great and the writing on every page was appropriately placed and well written. My personal website can be viewed here.

HTML is Key

A website designer would need to be proficient in HTML code even if programs are available mainly because HTML can be used to incorporate advanced website designs and layout. In addition, a designer will need to read HTML code to borrow ideas from other pages. The main advantage, I believe, is that HTML is convenient. It can be written in any writing program without fancy software and the codes can be customized based on what the designer wants not on what a website-creating program provides. It is even evident in this blog that HTML is important, for one can edit post entries using HTML code, allowing a student to have more control over what is displayed in the blog page!

Impressive PowerPoint Presentations

The presentation that I thought looked the most professional was Ashley Wright's PowerPoint presentation. Her slides were aesthetically pleasing, with a nice color scheme, excellent (and appropriate) animation, and everything was easy to read. I specifically enjoyed the slide that incorporated people who had been communiations majors; the pictures were organized well and they looked great. It was also interesting to see how many options a communications major has in terms of the type of career one can choose. Overall, it was a great presentation.

I also enjoyed the presentation given by Maria Tariq. Specifically, Maria used the custom animation option to bring in her arrows and pictures to draw attention to different regions. I also liked the font and the animation sun, which was placed appropriately in the sky of the picture. I thought the topic was excellent and interesting. I had never heard of Rosario Castellanos, and Maria's presentation was informative and made me interested in the topic.

PowerPoint: Changing the way we communicate

PowerPoint can contribute significantly to a talk; in fact, a PowerPoint presentation can improve the quality of a talk by allowing the audience to see visual aids or take away from the talk if organized poorly. Many articles and websites have been created to help presenters make the best of this program; improving the quality of the presentation and increasing the aesthetics to evoke emotion have been keys points discussed in such articles. Two articles, Really Bad Power Point - and How to Avoid It and Top Ten Slide Tips, both discuss the ability of a PowerPoint presentation to evoke emotion from the audience by using certain color schemes and powerful pictures. For example, one suggestion provided in the first article was to include a picture that provides the same message as using multiple bullets. These articles were great reminders for me that when making a presentation, it is the audience who I should be thinking about. The presentation has to help convey to the audience why a topic is important, and these articles help everyday people succeed in doing so.

I have seen many PowerPoint presentations that were anything but effective. Five guidelines that I have learned from being in different audiences and from making my own presentations are:

1. Do not have complete sentences on slides. Paragraphs should not be included unless the presenter gives the audience time to read a specific quote or excerpt that is relevant to the talk. Words clutter the slide and usually confuses the audience, who cannot listen completely if they are trying to read.

2. Do not distract the audience with animations. Animations can ruin a presentation if used excessively. However, it is important to note that some animation is very effective if used to hide a section of text or a picture while the presenter is talking.

3. Make sure the presentation is a supplement to your talk. The audience should not get bored because the slides are being read to them.

4. The slide order and organization is key. One must arrange the slides so that there is a logical flow. The purpose of a presentation is to communicate, and illogical flow will likely confuse the audience, who normally will not have as much knowledge about the subject matter.

5. Be aware of the aethetics of the slides and how these factors relate to the message trying to be conveyed. Color and sounds evoke emotion, and such things are not trivial.

Disregard of any of these guidelines would result in a presentation that could possibly annoy or bore an audience. I know that I will be more careful when making future presentations so that this will not happen. In addition, a nice presentation that is well organized and looks great will most likely help the presenter be more confident in his/her ability to deliver an excellent talk.

Google Exploration

I use Google daily, and I am definitely the type of person who searches quickly, scrolls down, and then searches elsewhere due to frustration. The presentation by Chris Nolan was informative concerning that of website browsing. In particular, I was pleased to understand more of Google's features that will help me search more efficiently. These features included using the "-" symbol to exclude certain types of websites or key words. The advanced search features were new to me, and I expect that they will be quite convenient in the future. The meanings behind .com, .net, .gov, and .org were interesting and such knowledge is necessary for performing a smart search. Other than learning how to search better, this presentation also reminded me to be cautious of what sites I look on for information. Overall, I was surprised to find that even with the experience I have with Google and the internet I continue to learn useful tools to browse these sites more efficiently.

Copyright Laws and the Internet

Rarely do students sit down to make a PowerPoint presentation and think twice about using the Google Image tool. In addition, it seems unlikely that students are debating the consequences of their action or contemplating whether this action is considered "fair use". However, the Internet is not exempt from the Copyright Law Act, for almost all information on the Internet is protected by copyright. According to the informative site, Friends of Active Copyright Education (FACE), the permission of the author or owner of a website must be granted in order for anyone to use the words, images, or music found at a particular site.

A common defense of people accused of copyright infringement is that of fair use, which allows certain activity of copying a work to be legal. The U.S. code collection provides that fair use applies to the use of a copyrighted work in the situations of teaching, researching, reporting, and critiquing. However, stipulations apply in order to utilize fair use, including the nature of the copyrighted work and amount of content used as compared to the whole. For example, the faculty members at Trinity University are charged to use certain e-reserve articles even though the purpose is educational.

A large source of frustration in the Internet world is the distributing of music (e.g MP3s), for many people believe that doing this without charging a fee is allowed under fair use. However, as FACE clarifies, there is significant damage done when this occurs; the artist loses money to sales and copyright laws are ignored. In many cases the author of a website will claim exclusive rights to their original work by indicating their rights on each page of their website. This ensures that people are not abusing the fair use policy and claiming that they were not aware of their infringing actions.

It is clear that there are two sides of the fair use issue. Many people abuse this privilege by using Internet material for various purposes without permission, and many Internet myths exist (provided in FACE) that include the multiple misconceptions that the Internet is open to the public, no laws apply, and citations of copied works are sufficient. On the contrary, many people, including the artists and owners of these mentioned websites, are adamantly against the abuse of fair use and advocate respecting Internet property through the public adherence to copyright laws.

Now that I am informed of the copyright laws of the Internet, I will be more conscious of respecting the author's property. I feel that the use of material is circumstantial and it will depend on the type and amount of material I use whether or not I will ask permission. Overall, I agree that the fair use policy is convenient and necessary in many cases to provide quick access to information in educational settings. However, the abusing of this action is not acceptable and it will be a goal of mine to help inform others of what their rights are concerning this issue.