Tips for Successful PowerPointing

I found the various articles on PowerPoint very interesting because PowerPoint has become such an important tool in many careers today, as well as a prominent teaching tool in the modern classroom. As a result, we as student have come in contact with—and will continue to come into contact with—PowerPoint throughout our lives.
In reading the links, I especially enjoyed the discussion of audience involvement. I can remember so many times when I have simply read a presenter’s slide and lost focus of his or her words because it was all repetition. In the article titled Really Bad PowerPoint (And How to Avoid It), author Seth Godin discusses the importance of emotion in presentation. This really resonated with me: a boring presentation just makes the audience automatically assume, boring presenter. I will really try to incorporate more emotion in addition to the information and logic on future presentation slides!
As the student who complains about the boring, wordy presentations I have seen both in the school and work settings, I feel the need to better my own PowerPoint ways as well as sharing what I have learned with the world. Do us all a favor when you write your next PowerPoint slide and,
· Avoid excessive bullet points and information on slides
· Do not be afraid of blank space! Do not feel the need to fill the entire slide with stuff.
· Avoid repeating exactly what is on the slide. We can read it, and we know you can too, so add something to it by elaborating or explaining.
· Avoid excessive animation or sounds. Some fancy animation can contribute to the attractiveness of your presentation, but don’t confuse the audience with tons of animation.
· Double check your formatting: a presentation with lots of colors, fonts, and pictures that don’t really relate seems confusing. Maintain a theme throughout the presentation; it looks more professional and is easier to follow.
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Opportunities in the CLT!

Prior to our field trip to CLT, I had only walked by the room. I had heard on my Trinity tour and read about the school’s incredible equipment available to students interested in editing video, recording music, or using professional grade broadcasting equipment, but had never learned either where this equipment was located nor how to access it as a student. I learned on our visit about the different opportunities available to all students who visit the CLT, including programs like GarageBand, video editing software, and a recording studio. I have really enjoyed learning about Photoshop thus far, and I was excited to learn that there is a classroom on campus dedicated to these kinds of programs. I plan to visit the CLT in the future as we delve further into the Photoshop program and continue with interesting photography projects. It will be interesting to compare the program we use in class—Photoshop Elements—to the full Photoshop program, and to evaluate the different aspects of each. This will be especially useful should I decide to purchase a Photoshop program in the future. Once I become comfortable with Photoshop, I hope to work with my own photos using the tools available to me in the CLT, even beyond this class
I hope to take some classes based on media and communication while here at Trinity. Video and sound recording are important aspects of such fields. It is extremely useful that Trinity provides the equipment in the CLT for students studying different forms of media. I think that I would use the programs we learned about on our visit on projects for such classes, and I think I will be glad to have learned about the opportunities at the CLT because I will have the knowledge and ability to use them!

Exploring Excel!

I have used excel in the past, but have never fully understood how to use functions or format formulas correctly. I knew how to use the sum function, but any other formulas were long and contained more information than was necessary for that particular action. Now, I know how to use a variety of functions and how to use only the aspects of a formula that are necessary. One example is the “IF” function, which I can use now instead of going through an entire data set to label various values. I am currently considering majoring in Biology, and think that excel would be useful for this field of study, especially when it comes to experiments. Excel provides an easy, organized way to enter, save, and analyze data, which is a crucial aspect of any science experiment. In addition to the benefits of using excel in a work setting, I now feel comfortable enough with the program to use excel in my daily life. The templates we explored for recording personal finances or calculating car payments are just a few examples of the ways I could use excel to help record and organize things in my daily life. Excel used to seem confusing and complicated, but now that I know how to use formulas and properly format in the program, I can see that it will be a useful tool!

Mr. Nolan's Presentation

I think I use Google every single day of my life, but have never understood why the particular results magically appear when I Google. In Mr. Nolan’s presentation, I learned about the criteria that Google has established for sources and why certain sources appear more frequently or higher on the list. I learned that the more times a site is referenced online, the higher its popularity “appears” to Google. Sites that are referenced more often, or are considered more popular, appear earlier in the pages of results that appear when I Google!

One thing that really surprised me in the presentation was Mr. Nolan’s point that not all sites are reliable, even if they are from the government (or .gov) or an institution of higher education (.edu). Sources from these types of establishments can also be biased or contain faulty information. He used the example of a student. This student could create a website here at Trinity about his science experiment, and there may not be anyone to edit or double check his information. If I do a search and his experiment results pop up and, thinking that any site with a .edu is reliable, use the content, I may be using bad information and not even be aware! His message: almost anyone can put information on the internet, so we should always be aware, even from sites that say there are from a university or the government.

War Time Propaganda

I chose to look at this photo created by Brian Walski and discussed by Harry Fanid. I chose it because I think photographs of war and conflict are altered frequently, and that such alterations often exaggerate events, are not completely true, and are harmful. This photograph was created from two different photos, one of the British soldier, and the other of Iraqi citizens. It appeared soon after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The British soldier is advising the Iraqi citizens, and a man and his child stand immediately to follow the soldier’s instructions. Walski claims that the photograph was enhanced in order to alter the “composition,” as though the composition of the photograph is altered so that it depicts exactly what he wants to discuss. I think it was altered in order to make a more striking image, depicting the authority of soldiers among civilians. In the altered image, the soldier has control of the situation, indicated by his gesture, posture, and possession of a weapon, while the citizens appear subdued. I think this alteration is harmful because it is completely fabricated: this situation may have never occurred! It is propaganda intended to depict the role of soldiers in the Iraq War, illustrating complete control and a good relationship between citizens and soldiers, which may not have been the case at the time of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This kind of alteration is harmful because it doesn’t just change aspects of an image, but creates a completely new situation!

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