PowerPoint

The articles we had to read were very helpful. I agree with the points they make about good PowerPoint presentations being concise, uncluttered, stimulating, and direct. It is important not to use graphics, colors, fonts, or backdrops that are too distraction. They take away from the PowerPoint and make it harder to focus on the information. I also agree that graphs should be easy to read. Information should be presented in a clear and concise manner.

My 5 tips for the class would be
1) Do not put everything you are going to say about your slide on the slide. It makes it very boring when you know what the person is going to say already. Why should you listen to them when you can read everything they are going to say anyway?

2) Make your PowerPoint's emotionally connected. If you are trying to prove a fact or state a claim, do not simply list data facts. Show a picture of what you are describing or give an example that people can relate to. This helps involve the audience instead of bore them.

3) Do not clutter your slides. Make sure you use appropriate font, graphics, animations, and sound. If your slide is too distracting, people will not focus on the information you are trying to give them. I get annoyed when people have slides with so much going on, that by the time I figure out the point of the slide, they have already moved on and I didn't hear what they had to say.

4) Don't use too many transitions or animations. This can make your PowerPoint's look less professional and sometimes even cheesy. Again, it can detract from the over-all message you are trying to convey.

5) Lastly, limit how many words are on each slide. Even if you don't have everything you are going to say typed out on the slide, there can still be too many words. You should just have a few bullets as a reference for yourself and the audience, while using cue cards to give them the rest of the information. Make your slides clean, minimal, and to the point.

Excel

I had never really used Excel bofore this class. I was always scared by it, becuase it seemed so overwhelming. As a result, everything I learned was something I hadnt known before. MOst simply (and importantly), I leanred how to type formulas so the computer understans what im trying to tell it. I learned where the "SUM, AVERAGE,IF" ect...keys are located and how to apply them to the spread sheet.

I think Excel will come very much in hand when I start having to manage my own finances. This makes the task of keeping track of the days, the income, the debt, and everything else seem easier to handle. Im happy i learned how to use Excel. I think it is probably a tool that buisnesses such as banks, independent store owners, and schools use to help them keep track of things and do math in an easy and orginized manner.

Photo Manipulation

The photo that interested me most was the one of Katie Couric. I chose this photo because I think it is indicative of our media manipulation today. In so many magazines, women are photo shopped to look better. Their complexions are smoothed, their waists are whittled, their breasts can be enhanced, and they can even put someones head on someone elses body.
the photo of Katie Couric is an example of how the media plays in to the "ideal" look of a woman. She is successful and respected in her own right, yet in a photo she must be changed, edited, and enhanced? In this photo, Katie Couric is about 2 dress sizes smaller, her complexion is brighter, and her dress is darker (making it appear less dowdy). I think this was done to make her look more attractive: younger, skinnier, more fun.
I do think the manipulation is harmful, because it just perpetuates the idea of a perfect looking woman. Girls see all these images and try to emulate them. If what they are looking at is not even real, then how can they ever achieve it? I believe that alot of the warped view girls have of themselves spring from the photo shopped images media bombards us with.
This image originated on CBS and is in the September issue of Watch Magazine.

CLT

I had only been to the CLT, or at&t Center for Learning & Technology once before for a group project. I did not really understand what it was there for and I had not gone back since this assignment. Now i have learned to many advantages to having this center right in our library!

Firstly, what is the CLT? Well, it is a computer lab located on the first floor of the library that uses a mix of Windows and Mac computers. There are workstations designed to help people interact with digital media, such as audio, video, and graphic works. CLT also provides scanners and digital cameras (which is good to know, because I always drive to Office Max to take care of my media needs).

There are three separate rooms within the CLT. They are the Media Presentation room (equipped with DVD players, cameras, projectors, and computers and is open to both students and faculty), the Technology Classroom (which has all of the above, plus allows the instructor to take control of any computer in the room), and the Seminar Room (which has a projection screen, chalk boards, and lights that dim).

If you ever need help using any of the things CLT provides, you are in luck. The staff at CLT are extremely knowledgeable and will help assist you either in groups or one-on-one. Also, if you enjoy the great cable we get here at Trinity, you also have CLT to thank. They are the reason we have our 79 channels and the reason TigerTV runs successfully.

I had no idea CLT was such a big part of the way certain aspects of Trinity is run. Now I am more appreciative of that area on the first floor that I had no idea what was for. I will be able to use this area now for when I have digital based projects. I have a media interpratiation class this semster and we do a a lot of video and image based projects. Now i know I have a place to work on those with people that will help me if I need explinations about equipment. It is also nice to know that if I have any questions about how to work something media or computer based, I know i can go to CLT for help.

Copyright

I will admit that at first, i really did not know much about copyright, the rules, or even exactly what it meant. I know that i see the copyright symbol on books and logos and it meant they could not be copied, but any knowledge more extensive than that was lost to me.

Today, however, I learned many things about copyright. I learned when the first copyright law was passed (1760), I learned about the Fair Use policy, I learned about different acts passed in relation to copyright laws, and I learned about the legal consequences of violating copyright laws.

One of the acts i learned about was called the Sonny Bono Act, or the Mickey Mouse Act. This act was passed when the copyright that Disney had for their Mickey Mouse character was about to expire. If this had happened, Disney would have lost a lot of money, so they passed an act that extended copyright for 20 more years. Of course, this affected many things with copyright and the extension of these copyrights caused a lot of issues. The public was not ready for this Act at the time, but now that Disney's copyright is almost up, it seems almost inevitable that they will try and pass another act extending their copyright.

I think an extension of their copyright is fine, as long as they limit it to just their Disney products. I think it is wrong the extend non-related copyrights just so Disney can reap more money. That is not fair, but this time I think the public will be ready for this controversy, and the same thing hopefully will not happen twice! To summarize this controversy, the 2 sides are that Disney will try and extend their copyright and in doing so, they will extend the copyright of a huge number of other unrelated works which will create problems. The other side is that it is fine for Disney to affect their own products but that that is all they should have power over and that that mistake will not be made again. I agree with the second argument.