Brittni's Computer Skills

Preparing for Computer Skills

2008-04-29T08:33:00.004-05:00

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

2008-04-23T22:55:00.003-05:00

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

2008-04-14T21:55:00.002-05:00

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

2008-04-03T14:58:00.002-05:00

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

2008-03-26T18:26:00.010-05:00

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

2008-03-15T07:52:00.003-05:00

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

2008-03-12T23:04:00.003-05:00

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.

Excel Experience and Further Applications

2008-03-08T16:00:00.007-06:00

Excel 2007 is drastically different than that of the older version. I was proficient at using Excel and figured that the transition to Excel 2007 would be a breeze. I quickly found that there were many aspects of this new version that I had no idea how to use, and I discovered that I never knew certain functions and tools were available to me due to absence of a convenient ribbon in the older version. Specifically, I did not know about conditional formatting, a tool that has many promising applications in sales, research, and business transactions. As treasurer of the chemistry club, I have already implemented this new tool into the spreadsheets I use for organizing the club's debits and credits.

Another neat trick that Excel has been hiding from me is the "If" function. Using this function, a lot of time can be saved when determining whether or not a cell contains a value less or greater than a certain value. I used this function in the grades spreadsheet to determine which of my grades were below the class average. In addition, I had never used the sort tool, and I anticipate using this in the future when making rosters and lists of items. I love the new layouts that Excel 2007 has made available, for one can make a spreadsheet look very professional without designing new templates or dealing with color schemes. Lastly, the mail merger tool could be convenient when sending an email that needs to be personalized to each person on the sending list.

Overall, Excel is a useful tool in academia and in the business world because data can be compiled and analyzed quickly. Excel applications to science are endless, for all fields involve graphically representing data in a useful manner. Making calculations, especially concerning financial data, is also made easy in Excel. I look forward to using the new tools of Excel 2007 when I enter medical school, where any time saved on preparing a spreadsheet is more time to study anatomy.

Pictures that Lie

2008-02-27T11:26:00.005-06:00

The ability to edit and manipulate pictures is convenient when one wants to get rid of red eye or make the photo brighter. However, with these tools in the hands of the media, there has been much controversy as to what is acceptable when editing a photo. As provided by CNet's Pictures that Lie Website, there are many controversial photographs that have been manipulated for publication. One photograph, in particular, caught my attention and can seen by clicking here. This photograph of Clement Hurd, the illustrator of "Goodnight Moon," was originally taken for an older copy of this children's book. As one of my favorite books growing up, "Goodnight Moon" meant a lot to me and my parents. I chose this photo because I am interested in the manipulation of the dust jacket picture, which I saw countless times as a child.

The manipulation seems harmless, unlike many other edits seen on this website. Specifically, the original photograph showed Mr. Hurd holding a cigarette, and when HarperCollins took over, the cigarette was eliminated from the dust jacket picture. Of course, it is obvious as to why HarperCollins was apprehensive about such a picture, but could one cigarette in a children's book really affect the child? I believe the answer is Yes. If my parents had opened the book to see right away a picture of a smiling man with a cigarette, they probably would have thought twice about buying it for me. No "Goodnight Moon" means no memories of "Goodnight Moon" for the child and definitely less profit for the publisher and author of the book.

I believe the picture was manipulated in order to increase sales of the book and to avoid having people judge a children's book based on the cover photo. I feel that it was a necessary change that was not harmful to the book, author, illustrator, or children readers. When the picture was originally taken, cigarettes were popular and not linked to health problems. However, cigarettes are now associated with harmful habits and debilitating diseases, and just as the times have changed, book covers must also be edited.

The Convenience of the Trinity Wireless Network

2008-01-31T22:06:00.000-06:00

The options of sitting outside with a laptop on a beautiful day or having class outside with computer access can make learning fun and enrich our lives as students. However, I do not think that such a convenience should be heavily weighed when choosing a college, for most colleges have several computer labs designed for students to use on their time.

I have found that the wireless network has been convenient for me as a researcher, because I can use the internet while performing experiments and easily save my data to the Y: drive via the Briefcase option in Tiger's Lair. In addition, I love to be outside, and studying outside with my laptop makes life a little more enjoyable for me. Although having the internet at my fingertips has not been a problem for me, I probably do check my email more than I should. More email time merely means less sleep; I am O.K. with that.

Making wireless available everywhere on campus allows students to constantly be online throughout the day. In an article from USA Today, wireless campuses and their effects on students' lives and expectations are examined. Specifically, the statistics regarding college students and use of computers were interesting, for college students were amongst the "most avid technology users."

Experience with Microsoft Word and Expectations

2008-01-27T16:28:00.000-06:00

When looking through my Y: Drive, it is apparent that I have used Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel quite frequently throughout my career as a student at Trinity. Specifically, I have become proficient at using the previous Microsoft Office Word 2003 edition to write papers, add tables, insert clip art and pictures, add comments, and manipulate text. I am capable of including footnotes, changing page and paragraph settings, viewing the document in various ways, and using the proofing tools to improve my work. It was ironic, however, that as soon as I became comfortable with Microsoft Word, it was changed drastically for the 2007 version of Microsoft Office Word. I have worked hard to become familiar with the new Word 2007, but it is still evident that I am not as comfortable with the tabs and new options. In fact, I am positive that I have not yet learned many of the new, available features. I would like to review the new options of Microsoft Word and learn techniques to make my documents look more professional.

The first three chapters of the Microsoft Office 2007 Guide were informative concerning the various document formatting options for Microsoft Word. I discovered that I did not know about formatting marks, clear formatting button, or special characters. I would like to become more comfortable with the tab alignment and tab stop options. It is expected that there will be much more information and techniques to learn!

Computer Crash!

2008-01-22T09:29:00.000-06:00

After losing a twenty page lab report a year ago, I started saving my work often on the Y: drive. If my computer crashed the night before an assignment was due, then I would use my roommate's computer; I could access my Y: drive from her computer using the Briefcase option in Tiger's Lair. Unfortunately, we have very different schedules, so I would most likely have to use a computer in one of the labs around campus. Specifically, I like to go to the Murchison Computer Lab to work on papers and projects. It has nice computers, and it is open 24 hours! I also enjoy going to the library; the coffee is good, the computers are excellent, and my friends are always there. I would have many options to complete my assignment.

About Me

2008-01-17T09:21:00.000-06:00

Hello! My name is Brittni Scruggs, and I am a biochemistry and molecular biology major and a mathematics minor. I am a senior from Shreveport, Louisiana; a nice map of downtown Shreveport can be seen by clicking on the following link: Shreveport Downtown. Born and raised in Louisiana, I love jazz and all things Cajun. Living off campus has provided the opportunity for me to cook some of the famous dishes I have missed. I have a tortoise, Noelle, and a dwarf bunny, Snowflake. A lover of music, I have been a cellist for 13 years. In fact, I have played around the world at concert halls such as the Opera House in Sydney, where I lived for a summer. I am quite active on Trinity's campus. I am involved with the symphonic orchestra, the swing dance team ("Swing Bums"), the lacrosse team, and chemistry research. Below are a few pictures of me doing a few of my favorite things.

I will be starting medical school this upcoming summer, and I plan to enter a MD/Ph.D program. Such a program will allow me to receive a doctorate degree in Biochemistry while in medical school. This path will ultimately lead me to conduct translational research, where I will be able to work in an academic hospital as a physician with protected time to conduct research.

In regard to my computer skills, I am excited about becoming better acquainted with computer programming and website design before I graduate. Specifically, I have had significant experience with computational chemistry and modeling using Spartan as a student here at Trinity. In addition, I have had the opportunity to present my research using Microsoft PowerPoint at various conferences, and I have worked with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word to organize my data and write scientific papers, respectively. This will be a great last semester!

Please feel free to email me at Brittni.Scruggs@trinity.edu.