What To Do For This Class

In order to do well in this class, you need to show up and pay attention. I know that's kind of a dumb observation, but it's the truth. We go over everything in class that you need to know, so not paying attention causes problems when you are on your own trying to do the homework. Keep up with the homework. Once you get behind you are constantly playing catch up, which is just stressful. So in order to save yourself the "finals headache" just keep up, you won't have to do them later when you have stuff to do from every other class.

My Picture That Lies

I manipulated this picture for fun. When I was going through my pictures in search of one that I could use for this project, I found one of my suitemate, Emily, and I at the botanical gardens. We are poking our heads through a hole in a picture of a giant dinosaur that was used for a bean bag toss game. This inspired the more realistic dinosaur. I used the picture of us, a picture of a dinosaur from Jurassic Park, and a picture of a wall with a hole in it. I positioned the picture of the wall on a gray background and, using the smudge tool, I blended the wall and the background. Then I put the picture of the dinosaur on top of the wall picture, then the picture of me and Emily on the dinosaur. This picture is not harmful. It is to ridiculous to be real and is obviously just for fun.

In class presentations

I really like Trevor’s and Ellee’s presentations. I liked how Trevor’s backgrounds went perfectly with the presentation, especially the wave picture. Also it was a very narrowly focused and interesting subject. It was also very easy to follow. It also fully explained the causes and effects of tsunami. Ellee’s presentation was similarly interesting and focused. It fully explained the situation of the honeybees and the negative effects that it would have on our economy. The transitions and gifs worked well with these presentations.

power points

A good power point can be a very useful tool when giving a presentation. However, if the presentation is dull and boring it doesn’t help the presentation at all. In fact, I automatically zone out if the power point is boring. Repeating bullet points from the slide is one of the most boring things anyone can do during a presentation. I would much rather see pictures or charts and have the presenter explain them to me. The backgrounds also sever as a way to keep the attention of the audience. Grey, solid backgrounds are uninteresting. Changing to brighter colors or using the themes on power point makes the slides more exciting. The font used makes an impression on the audience. Times new roman font makes the power point more businesslike and official. Other fonts, like comic sans, are less formal, giving it a more fun appearance.

My ideas for an awesome power point:
1. Use interesting backgrounds (themes, bright colors, etc.)
2. Use pictures or graphs.
3. Do NOT just go over bullet points.
4. Use videos.
5. Use a font that fits the theme of the power point.

CLT

CLT is located in the library, a remote part of the library that no one seems to know anything about. This is unfortunate because it is a very useful resource. The lab is filled with the most advance computers on campus. These computers have the most memory of any computer and are the fastest computers. They are fully upgraded and have all of the programs any student could ever need. This includes Photoshop and audio/video editing programs. Also a mini recording studio is located in the CLT. There are machines in the CLT that allow students to transfer videos from VHS to DVDs. There are also people working there who know how to work all of the equipment, so if you are even slightly confused, they can help.

This was not my first visit to CLT. I went to the lab last year to work on a group presentation for my Intro to Archaeology. The upper-classmen in my group decided it was the best place to meet since it was quiet (even more so on a Saturday morning). The computers were very fast and we were able to attach several links to our power point presentation, including a video, very quickly. The only problem we ran into was the transfer from Mac to PC. But luckily the staff there was able to help us. Overall this is one of the best places on campus to work on a group project.

Excel

I have learned that excel is a very useful tool for any kind of presentation and record keeping. As a geology major (and hopefully a future archaeologist) it is very important to keep records of all the data that is collected in the field and to keep it organized. Excel does that very well. Also excel makes it easy to find any data that I might be looking for and classifying it correctly since I can sort and filter the data. Conditional formatting would be useful for looking for any patterns in the data since I can highlight certain data categories. The best part of excel though is the graphs and charts. I’m a very visual person so putting the data into charts really helps me sort through it. Plus I like putting a little color on the presentation. Excel spread sheets are perfect for putting data on PowerPoint presentations for classes. Overall I think that this is a very useful program and plan on using it often.

Chris Nolan presentation

Unfortunately I was not present for the Chris Nolan presentation. Thanks to reading my classmates’ blogs I know the basics of his presentation. Google is one of the most popular sites on the internet. I go there several times a day to look up information that to many would seem meaningless. Other days I use it to research for papers or presentations of my own. I like Google because it has so many settings. I can find a popularized website and a video to link in my presentation, but I can also go to scholar and look up articles written by an academic source. Google brings up the most relevant sites first for a search. It takes into account the title of the site, the number of links, and the number of hits to come up with the most complete search possible. I did not know that Yahoo sorts their sites differently. This is helpful for when Google is struggling to bring up something relevant. Switching between the sites is an excellent idea. The ending of a website can give clues as to how trustworthy the website is. The endings .edu and .gov are more likely to be helpful than websites ending in .com. This seems to have been a very informative presentation and I am sorry to have missed it.