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.