Advice for Students Next Year

Computer Skills is a class that you will learn a lot from and will be very useful in your life if you put the time into it! Make sure you keep up with all the homework, including the blogs. Put the time into the homework and make sure you do a good job, the little points taken off add up quickly! Go to class every day, because if you miss a day it's hard to learn what you miss, this is a hands on class. If you do miss, make sure you have a friend who is willing to pay attention and take notes for you so you're not completely in the dark. Before the midterm, make sure you go over your past assignments, it is a hands on test and if you don't go over what you've done you probably won't remember it. This class really isn't that hard and you can get a lot from it, but you have to be willing to put the time and effort into the assignments and going to class in order to be successful!

PS. DO NOT put your website off til the last minute. You have no idea how time consuming it will be until you sit down to do it.

My Favorite Web Sites!

This assignment was one of the most challenging for me. There were so many little, tedious steps that took a lot of patience and time. But in the end all my effort paid off and I am really happy with the end result. The time spent was defintely worth it. There were some really cool web sites done by people in the class, and it was hard to pick just three. One of the three I really liked was Dom's. I really liked his navigation bar and how it had a picture of him. It really personalized the site and showed how much time and effort he put in. The other web site I really liked was Sara Hansen's. Again, I really liked how her navigation bar had herself on it, and that she used photoshop tools really well (opacity, etc.) to make it unique and really cool! I also liked the use of color in her image map! My third favorite was Andrew Gill's. He clearly put a ton of time and effort and it really showed with his layout, pictures, and descriptions. I really loved how he took a completly unique and different approach to the web site. I put a lot of work in mine too, please check mine out at www.cs.trinity.edu/~ehatch.

Web Designers and HTML code!

HTML might seem archaic to some, but it is actually very useful! There are so many cool things you can do with the new up to date web designing services, but it is important to know the basics just in case something goes wrong! If your web designing program fails, then you have a back up that you can use. You can also retrace your steps manually if you need to fix something on your page. Knowing HTML is also useful because it gives you a good background on the basics and enhances your knowledge base.

Powerpoint presentations!

We had some really great presentations in class, everyone seemed really into their topic and there wasn't a bad example of a powerpoint in the entire class. I think it shows how good of a class we are, especially since we're an 8:30 and everyone was so enthusiastic! Although I think everyone had great presentations, I think two of my favorites were Leigh-Anne's and Andrew's. Both presentations were aesthetically pleasing, but the topics were what really caught my attention. Leigh-Anne did a great job of explaining her marketing interest, and it really showed with the work she did. The graphics were great and the animation used made them stand out and very effective. I also really liked that she put a video related to marketing on her slide; it actually showed us what marketing could do. I think she'll have a great career in marketing! Andrew's really impressed me because his topic was so close to home. He explained his area of interest, but it stood out to all of us because tuition is something that we all think about constantly. He brought all the math and finance stuff down to our level, and his color scheme and graphics worked well with the presentation. He was also very enthusiastic while presenting! Overall, everyone did a wonderful job and these were just two examples of great presentations.

Power points!

I'm so glad we're learning about power points now because they are something we use so often in school. I think people, including myself, make some mistakes when creating a PowerPoint and its important to go over some guidelines before giving a presentation. Here are my five guidelines for making a PowerPoint:
1. Don't write everything on the PowerPoint! Summarize!
2. Don't go overboard with clip art and animation, too much can be distracting.
3. Use colors that work well together and are readable. Do not use neon on neon, it'll give people headaches.
4. When using clip art, use things that work with your presentation, not that are just randomly pick for the sake of having clip art. And when possible, use images instead of clip art.
5. Go over your power point like a paper. Look for typos and spelling errors.

Searching for information

Chris Nolan's presentation was very helpful, especially considering I'm currently starting a research paper for my seminar paper. The information provided on the online databases was really helpful, and I'm so glad he talked about "key word" search, because I've tried using that before and wondered why it wasn't really that helpful. I'm currently researching for my seminar, and I'm using all of his tips about using the online databases and how to use Google responsibly, finding only the stuff you actually needed and reliable. I was really surprised to find out that Google only ranks the sites based on links, so that weird/bad sites can be on the top ten page (the only page I really ever look at). I'm definitely going to start being more careful, but still use Google, to help me find out stuff for projects and papers.

Copyright!

So we learned all about copyright issues and what we could and could not do. I never thought I really illegally violated the copyright law; I don't download software or copy stuff from the internet or other books, and I don't buy pirated movies. However, I learned today that I actually had been violating a big part of the copyright law, file sharing in the form of music. I used Limewire when I was at home to download songs, and I knew it wasn't totally ethical but I didn't think it was as serious as violating the copyright law. I didn't even know the copyright law applied to music. But, as we learned today, the copyright law has expanded to fit the growing technology, and that includes file sharing music. There are two sides to this. On the one hand, artists are making music and they have to sell songs and CDs to make a profit and make it worth their while to make music. Plus, its their art, and we shouldn't be able to just copy it whenever we feel like it. However, on the other hand, what about the radio? And music is a form of art, shouldn't art be free and open to the public to be enjoyed? I used to agree with the second opinion, but now, I'm leaning towards the first. If we let songs be downloaded for free by whoever for whatever, then where do we draw the line? We'd have to open so many more things up for free, that profits would be lost and the whole issues of copyright would be down the drain.

Excel

When we first started using Excel, I was really apprehensive. It was confusing for me and I really didn't see the point of learning all these different ways to make spreadsheets. But as we continued to learn new things, I began to see all the different ways you could use Excel for. I saw the ways it could be useful for someone who went into business, but more importantly how using a running balance sheet could help me create budgets later in life. Also, Excel could be extremely helpful in planning out schedules and keeping myself organized, which I really need. Although at first I was frustrated with the program and didn't see the point, now I am so glad we learned about Excel and I am positive it will come in handy later in life.

Photoediting

This site was really interesting, it showed a lot of different types of pictures throughout history that had been edited to tell/show a different story. I picked the picture of Katie Couric because I think this type of photo editing is a hot topic, especially for women my age. It was released by Watch Magazine, owned by CBS, and the original picture was first distributed unaltered by CBS. It was manipulated by cropping edges (of Katie) and lightening/shadowing certain areas. It was edited to make her appear younger and thinner, the more "ideal" body image for a T.V. personality. Personally, I think this kind of photo editing is harmful. It creates an ideal, unrealistic body images that people, especially young girls, are made to believe is real. This kind of photo editing is harmful to the self-esteems of many women.

Wireless Networks

Trinity's wireless network serves a lot of purposes for me. Yes, I mostly use the internet to facebook constantly. And I have used it to make the speed on my iphone faster, to again check facebook even on the go. But I also use the network for more school related things. My Trinity email allows me to communicate with my professors, see my grades and homework on blackboard, and research for a few of my papers, from my room, the library, my balcony, or wherever I choose to study. So although I do take advantage of Trinity's wireless capabilities for my own social needs, it goes a long way taking care of all my educational needs as well.

To read about a Dartmouth student's experience with his wireless campus, check out http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.10/dartmouth.html

Microsoft Word

I've been using Microsoft Word my whole life, even though I have a Mac, so I'm pretty familiar with the program. And since I've come to college, I've had to learn even more about it so I can format the document and change the margins, add headnotes, etc. While I was reading the chapters, I noticed they discussed a lot of simple skills I already know how to do, but what I need to review is formatting the document, the only things I was really familar with was margins and headnotes/footnotes.

Back-up Plan

If it was 9:00 the night before class and for some reason my computer crashed and I could not do my Computer Skills homework, I would go up to Murchison and do my homework there. If for some reason all of those computers were not working, I'd use my roommate's or hallmate's computer.

All About Me

Hi I'm Elizabeth! I'm a first year from Austin, Texas. Although I call Austin my hometown, I was born in Japan and have lived in three countries and five states! I don't participate in any sports currently, but in high school I cheered, was a part of the cross country team, and ran track. Because I'm not playing any sports here, I'm planning on getting involved with Greek life and possibly join more clubs in the future. I plan on majoring in English, but I'm not completely sure what I want to do. However, I'm pretty sure I won't be majoring in Computer Science. This class should be somewhat of a challenge, I own a Mac so my computer skills, what few I have, on a PC aren't fantastic. I took a typing class in middle school and in the process we learned a little bit about computers. So I haven't learned much about computers, and what I did learn I don't really remember. But I'm willing to learn and hopefully by the end of this class will be more computer literate. We'll see how this class goes and hopefully it'll be a fun semester!

Austin is the live music capital of the south, but the geography is pretty cool! We have two amazing man-made lakes and our part of hill country is breath taking! Check it out: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.268735,-97.745209&z=11&t=h&hl=en