NEW COMPY STUDENTS!

Welcome!

As you will find out, this clas will give you insight to many computer savy skills.
Excel, photoshop, expression web, and word!
It's all there, so next time your working on a group project you can show all your cool amigos,
how to rep it phat... formating style!

It's a lot of fun and enlightening... woot.

Welcome

Pictures that Lie P.2

What picture you chose and why? An election photograph of John McCain, to show how hurtful political smear campaigns can be.
Where did the picture originate? Interview
How was it manipulated? Hued red- Darkened - saturated- added horns
Why was it manipulated? To take the position of an anti-Republican. In comparison to the smear adds on Obama relating him to the anti-Christ.
Was the manipulation harmful? Yes
Why or why not? John McCain, most likely doesn't have devilish attributes.

Power Point Opinions

1) For me the winner in a PowerPoint is the correct amount of text. I tend to stick by the rule 5:5... meaning five lines with no more than five words per line; but then again even that can be entirely too much. Remember that it is a visual aid, not a script, there is nothing worse than looking at a slide filled with size 12 font.
2) Graphics is number two, utilizing all aspects of the program besides its ability to show words. These aids being graphs, pictures, animations, and clips. It's a necessity that these are used to eas the eyes from the busy text. These elements can help you display numeric data, specifically more aesthetically pleasing.
3) Color & Font, with the assistance of graphics, this element can completely change the feel of your presentation. The readability of the slides, and the importance of certain parts over others.
4) The presenter's presence in the presentation would be next. It's very important to remember it's an aid not a presentation on its own. Make yourself evident in the display of information, people need to hear you go in depth with the bits and pieces of information given on each slide. Tone of voice, vocalizing your passion, and expansion on the PP lines.
5) Organization of the PowerPoint, make sure the slides are in the right order, and that it flows. To keep the audience's attention the presentation must not have any subject breaks, make sure you lead each topic to the next with a smooth transition.

CLT Lab

Oh Deary,
The CLT lab is a great resource in my opinion. It's not some difficult thing to utilize, the lab is there for whenever you need it, with plenty of above the curve computers and a variety of software. Besides the 5,000 dollar computers, the staff who operate the lab are extremely knowledgeable and there to help. I enjoyed our time spent there, and exploring the labs potential for the last 30 minutes of class was no issue.

Excel...In my opinion of course

Excel was maybe not the most interesting of programs, but in reality I can see it coming in handy. The positives are what I like to focus on, such as it's finance applications to help people manage and organize their money. As well as the sophisticated fiscal element to excel, they also have a large bank of other applications that I can easily see being applied to "real life" scenarios. As for the negatives, it may seem a tad nieve but the program in it self is rather boring...coping numbers and messing with the formulas, even with the obvious positives of the program, can't help but recognize the lack of "funzies." Don't get me wrong it's rightfully in the course and in summary, a useful tool that most likely will benefit me in the long run.

Chris Nolan's Mysterious Words of Infinite Wisdom

This speech was particularly interesting solely due to its relevance in accordance with us, the students. We covered many different subjects going over the general Internet, the one subject that I was drawn into more so though was the infamous action of Google searching and the things we have to watch out for but also why it is so popular. Google spends a good amount of time and money making sure that they have the best search engine, from inflation of a website to not taking bribes that would allow curtain sites pop up above others ha-ha. As Chris mentioned, Google is great for everyday searching basic information, it's weakness also lays with the genius behind the operation, the search formula. Google does its searching order based on title hits, and how many sites recommend the site. Due to this type of search formula, like I said earlier everyday information would most likely be on the first site that popped up, the problem lays with when the information is a bit more serious. When doing a project for a class, if you're using Google you're going to have a very hard time finding "scholarly" work, as with most searches with Google those types of information banks, will sink to the bottom of the results. Have no fear though, as their is a Google Search completely devoted to scholarly works, Google Scholar. Mr. Nolan went over a daring fact that most student's information is not entirely credible due to their lack in understanding of the way many search engines or databases work, with presentations like his and classes like Mrs. Belisle's we can change that.

Pictures That Lie

What picture did you choose and why? A picture that shows two rival ice skaters, practicing together for the Olympics.

Where did the picture originate? February 1994, practice rink. The picture cannot be real, as just a few days ago there was an assault on one of the skaters due to acts of the other.

How was it manipulated? Placed Tonya and Nancy on the same rink, by a digital composite.

Why was it manipulated? To make it appear the girls were getting along fine, and that both these skaters were "bigger" than a rivalry.

Was the manipulation harmful? I believe so, as it doesn't show the true emotions and environment that these two individuals are going through; as I can infer that after such an attack I don't believe they would be shrugging it off in such a manner.