Favorite Websites

My two favorite websites were Marilou's and Jordan's. I thought Marilou's was the most professional of the bunch and Jordan had the best photographs. Marilou kept it simple but the layout of the website coordinated excellently. I thought it was cool how she changed the picture in the upper left corner every webpage in relation to the page. I didn't even think to use a template for the background on my slide, but it was definitely a great idea. What I liked about Jordan's website was how she described all of the pictures she had on her site. She definitely used pictures to tell her story but explained them for us. The pictures were also high quality and sized well enough that you could see everything clearly. Overall, I liked most of the websites but these two stood out to me.

Words of Wisdom

In once sentence, you can do your best in this class as long as you go to class and pay attention. If you can do that, the homework is very clear and will not be stressful. Two times a week for an hour and 15 minutes...you should be able to attend everytime.

PowerPoint Presentations

My two favorite presentations were Roxi's and Brandon's. I liked their presentations mainly because both of them are good speakers. The actual speaking part is more important to me than what is on the slides. A good speaker can make a bad presentation good and bad speaker can make a good one bad. The information on the slides and the overall layout of the slides was excellent in each of these presentations. The topics, vesicles and planetary geology, were interesting and quite original. These ones stood out to me the most, but the every other presenation had its strength. I would like to say that I remember each presentation in detail, but when you hear 13 of them in an hour, it's hard to remember the specifics. I think this adds to the strenght of these two presenations, considering the way they presented and not what they presented stood out to me. When I did the evalution form, I said that each presentaion was simple yet effective. I think people get in trouble when they have too much going on in their presentations. Brandon and Roxi definately used a good balance of clear facts and animation.

Power Point Advice

I truly am tired of power point presentations. When the person just reads the slides it's hard to stay awake. The articles discussing power point presentations had some really interesting things to say. A main theme was to keep the presentation as simple as possible. When a person puts ten points on a slide, I might remember one of them. However, if there is one point on a slide with a graph or chart to go along with it, I will probably learn the facts. The links also talked alot about using the right color schemes. Choosing "cool" and "warm" colors is important depending on what kind of information is being presented. I really liked the link that discussed the importance of going beyond the words in the power point. One of the tips was to turn off the presentation for a little and just talk to the audience. That way the people are more likely to listen because they can't just copy the slide. I think Power Point is a good tool, but it is highly overused. If a presentation is required, people will use it because it is the easiest thing, but it is not always the best. Here's a list what I find most important...

1. Memorize the information. Don't ever read the slides because I can read too.

2. Keep the information simple and clear. Clarify everything on the presentation and a good way to do that is to put small amounts of info per slide.

3. Be enthusiastic. If you aren't, I don't care what you have to say.

4. Add some special effects. Anyone can make a simple power point. Go above and beyond.

5. Use color to your advantage. Don't make every slide the same background or color.

Excel Experience

We definately spent a lot of time with Excel. I have always known that Excel is very useful, however I didn't know how to use it. I have gained a lot of confidence and now I'll try to do as much as I can with my new knowledge. The excel goes along well my business statistics class because there are some important excel projects. I would have never known about the color cordination tools or the "If" function. The "If" function would have helped alot in my previous stats assignment. I can now use Excel for future presentations because it is a great way to organize information. I am glad for this class because Excel skills are important to have. Basically, everything we did in class was new too me so I can't really say one application imparticular was more interesting. I know I can learn more about excel and the background I now have will make that easier.

CLT Lab

I was amazed at how extensive the lab was and how much space is down there. Too be honest, I haven't had any classes yet that would I could use the lab for. The most interesting part of the lab was definatly the recording studio. There is so much technology in that room. I think its cool that anyone can go down there and get help on there project. If I take any sort of film or music class that area will definatly come in handy.

Pictures That Lie

I chose the picture of the British solider among the Iraqi civilians. I think this topic is very relative to what is going on in the world as of now. The picture originated in the Los Angeles Times and was "improved" by veteran photographer Brian Walski. Mr. Walski combined one of his previous pictures with a current one. He took a picture of a British soldier and stuck it into a picture of Iraqi civilians. It clearly shows the soldier helping out the civilians which could sway public opinion on the war. I think this manipulation raises up a lot of suspicion about previous photos. The photo seems so real and I have seen many photos with soldiers assisting the civilians. I'm glad the photographer was fired because this kind of stuff is unacceptable. This newspaper is read by so many people and to lie like that is morally wrong. This is a sad thing in today's society that is very difficult to stop.