Power Point

After reading the articles on the class web page, I've learnt a great deal about what it takes to make a great power point presentation. When making a power point, it is important to keep in mind that their purpose is to add to the speaker's presentation and should keep the audience engaged. Thus, the powerpoint should be simple, with pictures and not much text. Youtube videos and audio clips are also another way to make the power point more engaging. I didn't like that two of the articles said to never use animations; I don't agree at all. Here are my top five essential elements of a good power point presentation.

1. Be original. The templates on powerpoint are great, but most people have seen the more popular ones. If possible, create your own template that is engaging and eye catching. 

2. Use Pictures that relate to what you are talking about. Try not to use too many though, as they can distract the audience from what you are trying to say. 

3. Never have plain text as a slide. The power point is not meant to be a word to word replica of your presentation. Slides like this will be very boring, and everyone in the audience will fall asleep. 

4. If using text, use bullets and keep it simple. Don't make the audience read too much on the power point. Use pictures instead. 

5. Design the slides well. This includes color combinations and slide layout. The better designed the slide show, the more engaging it will be.

A bad powerpoint presentation will not engage the audience and have no relation to what the speaker is saying. Remember to keep it simple and engaging and it should be a great presentation. 

Excel

I have learnt many new things about excel over the last few weeks in class. I now feel alot more proficient on excel, alot more than before the class started. One area that I never knew how to work was the formula bar (probably the easiest thing to do on excel!). Now I know that you can pretty much calculate anything on excel using the formula bar. I also used to have difficulty with keeping the same formula flowing down a line of cells. I would drag down the cells to calculate for cells under the original calculation but it would always be wrong. Now I know to use the absolute cell reference, which is where you press F4 to keep the subject cell of the formula constant throughout the cell range. An interesting, but very useful tool.

I've also realized how useful excel will be throughout my career, whatever avenue I choose. Any career involves money, and excel is the best way to formulate balance sheets and spreadsheets of data. Also, any business will need to keep its expenses recorded, and excel is the best way to keep the books of a business up to date. Any job now days asks the employee to be self sufficient in excel and Microsoft word. I feel that after the class and I well on my way to be sufficient.

CLT

On Tuesday we went to the CLT center in Coates Library. Hidden near the library's depths, CLT is a great resource for students who wish to make movies, record music, play with digital photographs and to increase their technological skills generally. When I first went down there, I had no idea it existed and was very impressed. Robert Chapman showed us that there are computers with XP, Vista and Mac operating systems to suit whatever skill set students may have on computers. Each computer has a scanner; and various computers have photoshop which allows students to create and manipulate photographs of professional quality. The CLT centre will be very useful for me personally as I can go there to complete projects and presentations. Mr Chapman said that we can go down there and ask any technological question and the CLT operatives will help. I have a video to make over the next few weeks for a friend's birthday back in Australia and I will definitely go into CLT and ask if they can help me out -- a great resource at Trinity. 

Manipulated Photograph

The picture I chose is the one that depicts the bombings in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. I chose the image because it has been deliberately manipulated to depict two bomb sites instead of one. The photographer copied the original smoke stack, and pasted it again nearby to present the illusion of two bombs hitting the city in clase vicinity. The picture was published on the Reuters news agency website in August 2006. The picture was manipulated to emphasize the devastation that occured in Beirut and greater lebanon during the bombings of 2006. With such a large amount of smoke covering the majority of the upper half of the picture, it gives the viewer the impression that many bombs hit the city, rather than the one bomb that the original, undoctered picture represents. The doctored picture is harmful as it could act as false propoganda during the warfare. Although the Israeli's bombed lebanon extensively, the false picture shows that many bombs have hit the city, when really only one had hit when this photo was taken. This false image could cause a negative response from the lebanese authorites and greater populace, and increase the severity of the warfare that took place. It was lucky that Reuters realized that the photo was doctored and took it down from its website. The photo provides a lesson that photos should never be doctored, especially during warfare as it could cause dire consequences.

Chris Nolan's Presentation

Mr Nolan's lecture taught me a great deal about search engines on the internet. I learnt that Google uses a different searching system to find relevant hits to a search term. Google uses a links and reference system to determine relevancy. They look at the amount of links and relevancy of the links that go to the particular sites that relate to the search term. The more highly cited websites get more relvance 'points' and therefore are higher on the list of hits. I was also surprised to learn about Google's advanced search system; you were able to limit the search to a particular website, whether that be a government site (.gov), and educational website (.edu), or a not-for-profit organizational website (.org). Google also has another search engine named Google scholar, which lists peer reviewed journal articles. The lecture gave me many new skills that will help me in my research projects.

Mr Hardin's Copyright Lecture

Yesterday in class Mr. Hardin discussed that the seriousness of uploading and downloading copyrighted material to and from the internet. In a college environment, such as at Trinity, audio and video files are constantly being circulated through the network and he advised us of the dangers of taking material from the wrong websites. He said that programs such as Limewire and Bittorrent can be easily tracked by the RIAA (Recording industry of America), the MPA or the ESA and that they can spring unexpected legal action against the perpetrator. This is a scary thought considering that amount of downloading people undertake, and the cost that it could possibly accrue. Thus, the school has a takedown notice system that warns students that they are being monitored by the recording industries and tells them to stop downloading. Mr. Hardin also voiced his opinion on the state of YouTube, which he argued was full of copyright violations. It is interesting that organizations such as the RIAA heavily monitor Limewire yet no action is really taken against copyright perpetrators on YouTube. I feel that if the RIAA is going to monitor the copyright issues of the general populace they should remain consistent and focus on YouTube as well as Limewire, even though this is probably and arduous task. Nevertheless, the lecture highlighted the importance of being aware that free downloading is illegal.

Facebook

Facebook is a useful tool for students at University, whether that be socially or academically. It allows students to keep in touch with friends that may not be studying at the same institution, or to discuss projects or any homework with their friends from college. Although many think of it as a distraction, if used correctly, facebook can be very effective.

I personally like to use facebook because it allows me to keep in touch with my friends back in Australia. I can write on the walls of my friends and look at their photos to see what they've been doing. Without facebook it would be difficult to keep in contact with the same amount of friends that I can at the moment.

Here is a relevant article: http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html