How to Power Point

Being as I am not very experienced when it comes to making Power Point presentations, I found the articles about good presentations interesting and helpful.  I was not aware of the fact that less is more when it comes to a Power Point but the concept definitely makes sense.  i would much rather listen to someone speak about a topic that read long lists of print from a Power Point slide.  I found it interesting to learn about the types of images taht are best for Power Points as well.  Actual photos of people on slides can help the audience connect better with the presentation versus putting cartoon images on the slides.  Also, I was not aware of the difference between a Serif font and a Sans Serif font.  It is helpful to know that Sans Serif fonts such as Arial are easier to read and intended for things such as Power Point presentations.  Slide sorter is another aspect of Power Point that I was not aware of that would certainly be useful in preparing your presentations.  

Five guidelines I think are important when it comes to making a presenting a Power Point presentation are:

1. Do not read directly off your slides.  The audience can do that without you, you are there to elaborate on what is already there. 

2.  Do Not used too many visuals on one slide, they can distract the audience and keep them from listening to what you have to say.

3.  Include just enough information on your slides, too much bores the audience, while too little may leave you forgetting your points.

4.  Choose appropriate color schemes for your presentations, make sure colors fit with the tone and mood of your topic. 

5.  Speak clearly when you present, there is nothing worse than listening to a presentations where the speaker mumbles or talks too quietly.  

Good luck on your Power Points! 

Excel

Learning about all of the features Excel has to offer was really interesting. I had no idea that Excel was capable of so many neat things! I had taken a class in high school on basic computer skills and we learned some about Excel but we did not go into all of the features we did in this class. I had no idea there were so many different formula options. Also, making a fixed cell reference is extremely helpful and I did not know that you could do that before taking this class. I'm certain that if my major requires any type of Excel skills I will be much more prepared to handle it. Also, if I were to ever do an internship for a business, especially in one where I needed to keep track of financial information or data records, the skills I learned in Excel would be very helpful. Excel would be helpful for business or accounting majors because it has so many different formula options that make solving problems with a lot of data much more easy. I am very glad that I learned everything I did about Excel, it has been my favorite part of the class so far because I feel it is the most useful thing I have learned, and the most interesting.

Pictures That Lie

I chose the picture of Katie Couric because I think it is very interesting that they would change the picture to make her appear more thin and even in a different color outfit. The picture was originally released by CBS in May and then they slimmed her appearance down for rerelease. I feel that this manipulation is harmful because there is already a body image problem among women in the United States and doing things such as slimming a picture of such a well known public figure down can be hurtful. Also, it cannot be good for Katie Couric's self esteem to have her image made to look thinner. Manipulating images can be helpful in some cases but in this case I do not feel it is necessary and it does more harm than good.

AT&T Center for Learning and Technology

I was shocked when I visited the Center for Learning and Technology and saw all that it had to offer.  I did not know that the CLT existed and I never expected to see so much high-end, advanced technology in our library.  The room was genuinely like nothing I had ever seen before in person.  I was especially impressed by the Digital Audio Lab, it is really cool that we have somewhere with features that advanced on our campus.  It is neat that you can record music or any other audio to incorporate into your projects.  Also, the many computers available in the CLT are very useful.  I was not aware of the fact that there were so many other computers in the library outside of the third floor.  There have been many times when there aren't enough computers on the third floor to work in comfort there, especially in group situations, and now that I know that there are more located on the first floor I will most likely utilize them.  Since I am not that knowledgeable in the ways of technology, I feel that it would take me a long time to figure everything out in the CLT but if I did understand how to use the equipment the room would certainly come in handy.  When we start to learn about photography and computer editing technology in that area I think that things in that room would be more helpful to me.  

Copyright Entry

On Tuesday during class Diane Graves, the University Librarian came and spoke to us about Copyright. I learned a lot of interesting things such as the information about "Public Domain" and "Orphan Works." Public domain works are materials that can be used with out requesting copyright permission, also just because an author is dead or the work is out of print does not make it public domain. Orphan works are publications for which no author, publisher, or other copyright holder can be located, and in Canada if a work is researched for 6 months and during that time an owner cannot be located, then the work automatically becomes public domain, that is not the case in the United States however. We also discussed a lot about file sharing, especially in the University setting. I for one have never used an illegal software program to download music, nor have I done any other type of illegal file sharing, mostly because I have no idea how to. I found it very interesting to learn about how much more time associations such as the RIAA, MPAA, and the ESA spend locating college file sharers than people doing illegal file sharing in their own homes. I understand that they do this because it is much easier to catch people on a college wide wireless network than on one in a private home setting, however, I am not sure I feel this is fare. But as long as this is the case, I am glad that I have been educated on the punishments that can result from illegal file sharing and I will make sure to stay away from it.