Advice to New Students

If I could give new students one piece of advice for this class it would be to pay attention because you will use this in the real world. The reason I took this class is because I learned in my internship that my computer skills needed some polishing and now I will be much better off for taking this class.

Websites

I thought everyone did a great job on their websites. I was able to learn a lot about the people in the class that I didn't know before. My favorites were Emmalee's website about the dire situations around the world. It was a great idea that really showed what she cared about. Another great website was Shelby's. I thought she had a good layout and was very thorough with her designing. My third favorite was Jon's. I learned a lot about him that I didn't know already. It was great to see what his life is like outside of Trinity. If you want to see my website visit http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~jpearce1

HTML

I think it's very important that all people who design or maintain webpages know HTML code. The code is not that difficult to use and with a little practice is easy to manipulate. Although newer software is much more user friendly and creates more aesthetically pleasing pages, you cannot forget the importance of HTML. By knowing HTML you could alter the page without having to open any type of software. If the software is malfunctioning, HTML is an easy way to correct any problems that are on the page. HTML, although much more complicated and labor intensive, is still a necessity.

PowerPoint Presentations

I thought everyone did really well during the presentations but two did stand out to me. First, I thought Emmalee's presentation about Carhutha was very entertaining. She had great pictures and graphics to go along with her presentation and it was a great way to combine the art of storytelling and factual events. It was well prepared and she kept the classes attention.

The second presentation that I thought stood out was Raelle's about the Alamo Drafthouse. It was pretty obvious that she was very interested in her topic and knew a great deal on the topic. She did a great job of finding pictures and knew the history of the owner as well as the business.

Google Search

I had no idea that google had created so many different functions within their searches. I am definitely going to use Google Scholar now that I know about it. It seems so much easier than the schools old system to search articles. I also learned that you can define words through Google. That's so much easier than going to dictionary.com.

Learning all the different ways to define my searches will definitely save me time next time I'm researching a topic. Being able to search on certain domains will greatly improve my productivity. I was really surprised that google rates their searches based on how many times a particular site is linked to. It seems like that would cause there to be a lot of misinformation if a site is popular, but so far it has worked.

What ruins a PowerPoint Presentation

Through my years at Trinity I've seen a lot of presentations. Using these as a guide I've been able to discover what makes a presentation appealing to an audience and what puts them to sleep.

1) Be brief. Adding too much information onto one slide makes it seem as though you are reading aloud what the class could read on their own. Keep you bullets as minimal as possible so you can elaborate on your own and keep you audience engaged.

2) Don't use too many animations. Animations may seem like they would keep your audiences attention but they actually detract from you overall message. The content of you presentation is what's important not how it appears on the screen or how the slides transition.

3) Use a professional quality template. Nothing shows that your a novice as much as a poor template and design. It is worth the extra time to design a high quality template that is appealing and goes with your overall message. Using one of the pre-made templates is acceptable over creating mismatched color schemes that tell the audience you didn't take the time to work it.

4) Not every slide needs a visual. This was the most important thing I learned during my internship. Not every slide needs to have a photograph or design. People learn differently so mixing up the styles from visual to audible will help the group as a whole understand your message.

5) Be consistent. Do not change your formatting for each slide. It will confuse your audience and they will have to adjust to each different slide. Choose a format and stick with it.

Excel

I've had quite a bit of experience with Exel before taking this class. I used it all summer during my internship as an anaylst and created many spreadsheets that the new intern is currently using. But during this section of the class, I have learned a lot of shortcuts that will allow me to create spreadsheets quicker and more efficiently.

I didn't have any hands-on experience with the new version of Excel so now the layout is much easier for me to understand and manipulate. I hadn't used conditional formatting before so this will allow me to format my spreadsheets without slowly chaning each cell. This is going to be useful in the future because as a finance and accounting major I will be looking at spreadsheets. Being able to quickly understand and formulate ways to manipulate the data will be a great advantage I will have over others who may not be as familiar with the program.

The Truth of a Photograph?

I choose to analyze the pictore of "Goodnight Moon" illustrator Clement Hurd. This picture is from the dust jacket of their famous childrens book. The picture was manipulated by deleting a cigarette that the subject was holding in his hand. The publisher did this because during the time of the photograph, smoking was a socially accepted norm. Smoking was acceptable in almost all locations including doctor's offices. However, since the harmful side-effects of smoking have been exposed mainstream America has become overwhelmingly repulsed by smoking. Smoking is now banned in many public areas and is now regulated in movies and television by causing the show or movie to have a higher rating. The publisher (and likely many anti-smoking groups) did not want children to see pictures of people smoking in the books they read. I don't believe this editing was harmful since the idea of the picture has not be altered in any way. If the illustrator had intended to promote smoking with his picture and book then it may be construed as wrong to edit the picture. But since societal norms have changed since the taking of this picture, I do not believe that the publisher has done any wrong.

CLT

I've actually used the CLT before while I was taking Quantitative Management. A business owner called in and the class was able to have a two way discussion with him while he was in Dallas. Having the technology to be able to learn in such a way is a huge advantage for Trinity. I wish that more professors knew that the school had this technology.

The CLT seems really cool. I just wish I took more design classes where I could utilize everything that is there. It's great that Trinity has a place where people can add creative ideas to their presentations. But since I'm a senior, I probably won't be able to use it.

Copyright laws

I had no idea copyrights lasted so long. However, it's easy to see why they need to be that way when a corporate icon like Mickey Mouse will soon be in the public domain. I believe that people should be able to profit from their creations without worrying that someone will either steal or manipulate their idea and take some market share. Our economy would be much different if copyright laws didn't exist.

Downloading music or movies has become very prevalent in society lately. I don't know anyone who hasn't downloaded a song or at least owned a song someone else downloaded. I was shocked that the RIAA predominately targets college students while they only constitute 4% of the total file sharing network. CDs have become increasingly expensive, and many people have decided that it is not worth $20 to buy a CD that is mostly filler songs. While I believe that file sharing has become accepted among society as more of a norm, it doesn' t make it ethical.

Essentially when you download a song, you're taking someone elses creation without paying for it. Although many musicians are rich it doesn't validate the fact that stealing is ok. Just because Apple makes millions of dollars selling iPods doesn't make it ok to steal one. Many alternatives have been created such as iTunes or Rhapsody which allow a used to download songs for only $1. Wal-Mart even has a website where certain songs cost 88 cents each. With these cheap alternatives, there is no reason to illegally download music.

Trinity's Wireless Network

Throughout my time at Trinity I have greatly appreciated the time and finances the University has invested into creating one of the best wireless nations in the country. I've been able to study while sitting in Coates eating a slice of pizza or check on the score of my favorite team, the Dallas Mavericks. In fact, it is estimated that wireless networks will drastically increase on college campuses across the nation.
http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2961/wireless-access-predicted-to-surge-on-college-campuses

First Day of Class

Hello,


I'm Matt Pearce from Fort Worth, Texas. My first name is actually James but I have been called Matt as long as I can remember. I'm currently a senior at Trinity University and will graduate in May with a B.S. in Business Administration with concentrations in Accounting & Finance. In my spare time I enjoy playing sports such as basketball or football. I have also competed in a professional wakeboarding tournament.

I'm taking this class because over the summer I interned with Valero Energy Corporation and realized how important computer skills are in the corporate world. I decided that it wouldn't hurt to practice my skills and see where I can improve.