PowerPoint Presentations

The presentations on Thursday were thoroughly entertaining and extremely interesting to listen to. I found myself wanting to know more about the topics each student discussed. Brandon Shaw's presentation was solid and well-done. I appreciated his enthusiasm in presenting and the humor he put into his slides. I learned a lot of interesting facts about craters, such as determining its age based on the amount of dents it had. I also liked Nick Lilly's presentation about the subtropical wetlands of Southern Florida. His presentation brought out environmental awareness, which I think is highly commendable. I think I found interesting but also devastating is that the Everglades have been tampered with for over 60 years and because of this intrusion, the Everglades is turning into an environmental ruin. Overall, I thought all of the presentations were enjoyable and entertaining.

Power Point - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

PowerPoint has been one of the first routes one takes when presenting a particular project or task. After all, the many features it provides is fast and helpful. Unfortunately, users have abused the program so much that its purpose is completely defeated. Frequently, presenters regurgitate the exact words the slides display and the presentation itself leaves much to be desired. Thus for the most part, I agree with the three articles with which Ms. Belisle provided. Each offered important information and tips that could both help the presenter and capture the audience.

I felt that the first link offered pointers that could aid those who were to give a professional presentation. Professional and innovative PowerPoint presentations that display concise information and high-quality pictures give a lasting impression.

Although short, the second article was succinct and down to the point. For someone who is not the greatest at public speaking, I wholeheartedly agree with practicing enough until one is prepared and confident. A lively and enthusiastic presenter will encourage the audience to connect and better understand what is being displayed.

I thought the author of the third article had exaggerated the negative aspects of PowerPoint. However, many of the points he made, such as reinforcing your words and selling your presentation, are extremely important. I also agree that the presenter should convey emotion in order to connect with the audience. I sometimes find it irritating when people give long, drawn out presentations that do not exhibit any enthusiasm.

After reading these three articles, I came up with 5 guidelines that I feel all users could benefit from:

1) Limit your words.
2) Incorporate professional, high-quality pictures.
3) Rather than using tables to display quantitative information, use graphs.
4) Practice your presentation and bring cue cards so that you do not have to rely on PowerPoint.
5) Show enthusiasm and liveliness when presenting your subject of interest!

Excel

Learning excel this semester has been extremely helpful. Initially, I did not believe there were that many beneficial things about Excel that I did not know already. Thanks to Ms. Belisle and this class, however, I have learned several aspects of Excel that could save me a lot of time and effort. The lesson about absolute and relative cell references, for instance, helped me calculate large data in a short amount of time. I also learned about several aspects of Excel that could make your spreadsheet more presentable, such as wrap text, merge and center, themes, and format painter. Excel can also organize your data by sorting them in a certain fashion or conditionally formatting information in order to highlight certain aspects of them.

Excel can be used for academic purposes or for even daily, routine reasons, such as grocery lists, etc. In regards to academic fields and businesses, Excel is extremely helpful in displaying data in spreadsheets or graphs. It is also a great way to organize and sort your data in a simple and easy way. Since I will be taking many science classes during my stay at Trinity, I will most likely be using Excel more than most of the other Microsoft Office programs.

I am thankful that I have learned many things about Excel from this class, and I am looking forward to learning more new material!

The Wonders of CLT

This past Tuesday, we visited CLT, also known as the Center for Learning and Teaching, and learned a variety of things that could benefit us at Trinity. Although I have often walked past this area of the library, I have never stepped foot in such a place. Believing before that CLT was only for specific courses and majors, I was surprised and excited that the technology there was readily accessible to anyone in need of it. The most interesting place of CLT was the recording studio. I paid particular attention to this aspect of the center because I had to create a project last semester, in which I recorded myself playing a self-composed song. I did not know of CLT then, so I went through all sorts of trouble trying to find a keyboard and a quiet place to play it.

CLT offers several equipments that can aid students in their classes. One can check out laptops, headphones, cameras, recorders, and many other useful technologies. Scanners are available, and students can also be able to convert VHS to DVD.

CLT offers many things that students can take advantage of , and I am thankful to have discovered such a place that is abundant of resources. I am sure that I will be visiting CLT more often, whether the reason is for a class or studying.

Pictures that Lie!

Manipulating pictures and photos have long been an issue, as it could easily affect the audience and change their perspectives on certain topics. The picture featured on the left originated Basra and was later placed on the Los Angeles Times. It presents a British soldier gesturing and urging Iraqi civilians to seek cover and shelter. It was later revealed, however, that Brian Walski, a veteran photographer at that time, had combined two previous photographs into one. As a result of the manipulation, the picture evoked sentimentality and compassion among the public.

This photo was probably manipulated in order to change the negative stigma of the war in Iraq. As sentimental as the photo was, I believe that manipulating the previous pictures was especially harmful to the public. With a highly controversial subject as the war in Iraq and with a newspaper that is as highly read as the Los Angeles Times, I thought it was wrong to trick the public into thinking a certain way. The revealing of the manipulated photos makes this issue even worse, since people will now become suspicious of other pictures depicting the Iraqi War. Brian Walski defended his picture by stating that he wanted to “improve” his composition. However, I beg to differ. Manipulating photos damages the situation these pictures represent.