Websites

Here are my three favorite websites:

*I liked Zach's website about his life. He showed different pictures to illustrate different aspects in his life. It had a good organization and was consistent with the colors.

*Emmalee's website about different organizations was very interesting. The colors she chose for the website supported the message she wanted to transmit. I liked the organization of the tables, how she combined text and images.

*Drew's website looked really professional. The colors and information were appropiate. It was interesting to see the sports page.


If you want to visit my website, go to http://cs.trinity.edu/~kartolag

For the new students!

The semester is almost over, and looking back I see that we've learned a lot in class. For the new students, here's my advice that hopefully will help you in this class:

*Take this class with a right attitude. That's the only way you'll get something out of this course. Ms. Belisle teaches a lot of useful information, and if you are not with the right attitude, you will not learn anything.

HTML

We have just started a new topic in class, HTML. HTML is the language to create websites. Now there are programs, such as Expression Web and Dreamweaver, where you can design a website without writing the codes because the program does that for you. Even though you don't write the codes with these programs, it is important to know how to do a website "by hand" and without the help of a program in case there is a problem that the program can't fix or if you want to add something else to the website. Also, it's not good to be dependable on a program because you won't be able to do anything in case the program stops working.

PPT Presentations!

From all of the presentations, the two that I liked best were Cristina's and Kat's.
Cristina's presentation about The Lion King musical was well designed. The color scheme and the slides were appropiate, they weren't too crowded. Her presentation was informative, and it made me feel more interested in musicals and theatre. I particularly liked how she explained all of the work that actors have to go through to portray animals on stage.
I also liked Kat's presentation about Annie Leibovitz.The design was nice and it wasn't boring. I like photography, so I enjoyed this presentation because I like to learn about famous photographers and ther work. I think it was really cool how Leibovitz was the last person to photograph John Lennon, and that cover from the Rolling Stone is just amazing. Kat's presentation had enough information about Leibovitz, and her slides complimented what she was explaining.

Chris Nolan

Chris Nolan, the assistant librarian, came to our class to talk about finding high-quality information on the web. Before his presentation, I had no idea that Google Scholar existed, which I think it's pretty helpful and a nice option to have(Thanks Google!).Google Scholar searches info that’s also in the main database, but attempts to prioritize websites that might be scholarly. You can also use the advanced search with Google Scholar. With the advanced search, you can limit the search to look for a specific language, sites or domains, or dates.
Another thing mentioned that caught my attention is the Cached page. A cached website is a copy of a page saved on the google server that can be accessed even if the website crashes. This cached page can be a great solution if too many people are trying to access the same website at the same time, or if the page has technical problems. It also highlights the keywords that you used in your search, making it easy to skim an article to see if it's relevant or not.

I think the information he gave us was very informative because I learned of many options that google has that I wasn't aware of.

PowerPoint Presentations

After reading the articles about what to do and not to do in a PowerPoint presentation, here are my five favorite points:
*Choose your fonts well: I honestly didn't know that there are serif and sans serif fonts, which I thought it was interesting. It's also important to choose the right font or otherwise the font can be distracting or make the presentation dull.
*Spend time in the slide sorter: Definitely something I never do, but now I will! While making the presentation, you can get off topic, repeat yourself or have slides that don't flow. If you take a couple of minutes in the slide sorter, it will make a big difference.
*PowerPoint is not a teleprompter: it's not hard to understand- STOP READING FROM THE PRESENTATION!
*No cheesy images: Thank you Microsoft for providing a clip art gallery, but we don't need it..
*No more than six words on a slide: No need to explain this.

In addition, here's a video that my seminar Professor showed in class because we have to make a PP. presentation next week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cagxPlVqrtM

Good luck with your presentations!

Excel

During this first part of the semester we learned about spreadsheets.Before taking this course, I didn't know how to make a running balance sheet, which I think it's very useful so I can at least try to organize my own budget, and I had no idea that there was such thing as an "IF function". I think it’s going to be helpful to know how to use excel in the future, mainly for my math and maybe science classes. So far, I’ve only used it once for one of my photography assignments, where I had to do a chart and a graph, but it was rewarding to see how easily I could make it while other students where struggling with it. Another thing that I found useful is that I can use my information from excel in my power point presentations to show graphs and charts about data that I might collect for a certain project.
What I liked most from learning how to use excel is that I used to think that it could only be used to create inventories or budgets in companies. I was definitely wrong. I know that I won't use excel for every single class in the next four years, but I can definitely see myself using it and making my life easier.

Pictures that lie

For "Pictures that lie" we had to pick one picture from several others that have been doctored for different reasons. I chose the picture by Adnan Hajj originated in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid because it was a picture published in the Reuters, which I consider a good source of information and it shocked me that they posted an altered picture related to serious news.
The picture shows the Lebanese capital with smoke coming out of a building. Hajj altered the picture by adding more smoke and making it look darker. He said that "he was trying to remove dust marks and that he made mistakes due to the bad lighting conditions he was working under."
I believe the manipulation was somehow harmful because it might have overreacted the story and made the attack more powerful than what it really was. Also, because Reuters published it, it makes them lose credibility and professionalism. This assignment made me realize that we need to be critical thinkers and not let ourselves be fooled by images, even if the come from a "reliable" source. We need to check more than one source, it's better to have too much information than not enough information.

AT&T Center

The AT&T Center for Learning & Technology is located on the first floor of the library. It has several stations, such as Studios @CLT, Digital Audio Lab, Media Presentation Lab, Video COnference Center, and Innovation Studio.From all of these, I think I would use the Studios @CLT and the Media Presentation Lab.
Studios @CLT has computers, printers, scanners, and different types of multimedia software that could be helpful for my classes, whenever I have to make a presentation, a report, or any project. Some of the softwares that are available are Adobe, Macromedia, Sony/Vegas, Roxio, Apple, etc.
The Media Presentation Lab is a room where you can view presentations that you created on the Studio. I could use this facility whenever I have a presentation in class, like a PowerPoint presentation or more complex assignments. Also, the Digital Audio Lab would be very helpful if I have the need to incorporate audio to my presentations, but I am not very familiar with that, so I wouldn't use the Digital Audio Lab very often, unless someone can help me!!
One nice thing that I found on the AT&T Center was that they have equipment available for project presentations. Some of the things that are available for checkout are laptops, data projectors, slide projector, projection screen, DVD and VHS, and CD player, microphone, lectern, and flipcharts.
With all of the resources available on the first floor, I am definitely going to improve the quality and presentation of my projects.

Copyright

Diane Graves, the librarian, came to our last class to talk about copyright. I learned many things that are going to help me in Trinity and generally, in life.
It was very interesting to learn about the "Fair Use" Rule. There are certain situations when it's ok to use another person's work. From the website that was provided in class, the third rule was the one that I liked best:"Giving the Author Credit Doesn't Let You Off the Hook". I thought that if you give credit to someone else's work, then you are not plagiarizing or infringing copyright laws, but that's not the case. It is important to get authorization from the author, if not, then there's a copyright violation. "Fair Use" doesn't mean that one can use someone else's work freely.

Another thing that was very helpful to know is the legal point of view of file-sharing. I knew it was illegal to download music of files in general through programs like LimeWire, Kazaa, etc. but I didn't know that a student can get sued for sharing files. I think it's a good thing to do because the music industry is losing a great amount of money due to illegal file sharing. Even though now I have to buy my music, I think it's better because it's a good way to support the artists you like. I'd rather spend $0.99 + tax for a song on Itunes than get sued because of file sharing.

The Wireless Campus

Having a wireless network on campus is very helpful and it definitely makes communication easier. I wouldn't like to receive excesive amounts of letters in my mailbox regarding classes or comments from Professors. About the wireless connection, I like to be able to get online everywhere on campus, and not have to be carrying cables around to get online outside my dorm. I haven't used a cable to connect to the internet since I moved in because it's too complicated to be handling with ethernet cables.

Also, with a wireless network, it is easier to share information with Professors and other students. I don't believe that having a wireless campus is a distraction because a person can surf social websites regardless of the connection available.


Here's a link for College wireless campuses

See ya!

Karen's CS1300 Blog

Hi!
My name is Karen Artola and I am from El Salvador. Even though I moved to Houston only two years ago, I miss my country and my culture. Many people don't know where El Salvador is (it's in Central America) and it's a wonderful place with beautiful mountains and surf beaches.

On my free time, I like to watch movies, listen to music and I also learn about different cultures. I don't play any sports because I've had too many bad experiences, but I like soccer, hockey, and baseball.

During my time in Trinity, I want to get involved in religious, international and volunteering organizations. One of the things that I like most about Trinity is the study abroad program. I can speak three languages -Spanish, English, and Italian- and I am currently learning Chinese. On my sophomore year, I am planning to study abroad in Italy or China.

About my knowledge in computers, I took a computer class for two years in high school, but I forgot most of the material covered because I didn't practice what I learned. I hope that in this course I can learn the necessary skills to write my papers for my other courses and that I will gain knowledge that I will not forget easily.