Advice

Hi New Class,
Here are a few words of advice about doing well in this class:
1) Go to class - this class moves at a good pace and if you fall behind, it is hard to catch up.
2) Keep up on the assignments
3) Ask questions if you do not understand something as soon as you figure out you need help. Ms. Belisle is wonderful and loves to answer questions.

Have a good semester!

My Own Picture that Lies

I chose to alter this picture in order to make a social statement about how parents need to protect their daughters from sexual abuse. The original picture, which is on the bottom, originated from a website that raises money to help orphans and needy children. I manipulated the picture with the use of the clone stamp to remove her hand and to gray and blur the background. I also adjusted the saturation and flipped the picture horizontally in order to fix the child's eyes on the viewer. I manipulated it the way I did in order to invoke a more emotional response. The less saturated colors and gray background make the girl in the picture appear more in need. I also added text to provoke emotional action from parents or guardians. This manipulation is still harmful even though the purpose behind altering the image is for a good cause. This picture can cause viewers to feel sad about the abuse of children. Altering images for public statements is wrong because it can cause unnecessary and exaggerated responses from others.

Original Website: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.budimas.org.my/image/littleGirlYelloLeft.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.budimas.org.my/&usg=__t-Iw1QF0lq8D-PXOSG3MC6FPsjQ=&h=300&w=311&sz=18&hl=en&start=251&um=1&tbnid=HYia6w0CEUGaIM:&tbnh=113&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dlittle%2Bgirl%26ndsp%3D21%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26start%3D231%26um%3D1

False Images

After looking at the "Brief History of Photo Fakery" website and reading the article in the "Chronicle of Higher Education", I think that altering photos that are to be used in mass media or academic contexts is wrong. Altering photos that the general public will see is not good because the image will deceive them. They will not know that the photo had been altered and it might cause them to think differently of the situation that the picture is representing. Deceiving the public is wrong. As Ms. Miller in the article said, "Beautification is not necessary. If your data is solid, it shines through." Even altering an image to make it clearer is not a good thing. If your data is legitimate, other researchers will be able to see that. I love how they have software's that can identify if an image has been tampered with.

My Favorite PowerPoint Presentations

I loved seeing Lizzy Lyon's presentation on optometry. I loved her graphics and design of the presentation. She used images of her own eyes, which I thought added a very nice personal aspect to this otherwise professional presentation. I could clearly see that she was passionate about this field of study. She explained terms and specific things within this scientific field well and I loved that I could follow her presentation even though I am not an expert in this field. She did a fantastic job.

I also loved Baylie Bunn's presentation. I was so impressed with the unique and creative background and graphics that she used. Her presentation was very informative and she explained her topic and ideas related to it well. She layered slides beautifully as well. I also loved getting the see her passion for this subject, which added a nice personal touch to her professional presentation.

PowerPoint Tips

After looking at the websites about PowerPoint, here are my guidelines for creating a good PowerPoint and hopefully avoiding a bad one.
1) Use professional graphics: The cheesy clip art selections provided by PowerPoint are childish and should not be used in an academic or professional field. I find the cheesy clip arts to be belittling and annoying.
2) Keep the slides simple: Too much information on one slide can be overwhelming to the audience.
3) Use color well: Colors can be used to convey emotions and can help you get your point across by using visual stimulants.
4) Use animation wisely: A little bit of animation is good, but too much can be distracting.
5) Vary the way you present the information: Use a mix of text, video, charts, or audio.

CLT

I loved getting to visit the CLT area in the library. I had been there a few times before for viewing films for classes, but I loved getting to learn about all the technology down there. I loved that it has both Mac and PC computers so that students have the ability to work with whatever they are most comfortable with or they can branch out and learn another computer's system. The technology that the computers have amazed me. If I ever have a project that involves some sort of media, sound, photoshop, or imaging, I will definitely use this multi-million dollar area. Thank you for taking us on that tour!

Excel

I loved learning about Excel. I had very little knowledge about how to work it and I greatly benefitted from learning about it in this class. I only wish I had known how to work in Excel earlier in my college career because I have had to use it in other classes. I loved learning how to put formulas in the cells and then use cell references to do the math for the rest of the spreadsheet. I also loved learning about charts and tables. Being able to analyze data and add color or a design was a great learning experience for me. I will definitely use Excel in the future for keeping track of my grades and expenses. I will also use it to analyze data for other classes or research. Excel is a key component for academic use and in the business world. Students can use Excel in an infinite amount of ways such as research, analyzing data, or keeping track of personal things. Businesses can use Excel to keep track of the financial aspects of the firm and to prepare presentations with data. Overall, my experience about Excel was extremely helpful and beneficial.

Chris Nolan's Presentation

I really enjoyed Chris Nolan's presentation. One thing that I learned was about what the website addresses and domains meant. I learned that .com is typically a company that is trying to sell something and that .org is an organization that could be a non-profit, church, political action committee, big corporation, or just a group of people in a basement. The legitimacy of the information on .com and .org websites needs to be checked and not fully trusted. Also I learned about .gov and .edu domains. The .gov websites mean that they are from the United States government. The information on these websites are very accurate, however they may be tainted by the bias of the current political party. The .edu websites are wonderful for scholarly or academic purposes because many of these websites are from colleges and universities. One thing that surprised me was that Google could make search engines in strange languages. They have themes such as Pig Latin and pirate. I loved what I learned from this presentation and I know that it will benefit my use of search engines such as Google.

Pictures that Lie

The picture that I chose was of a Great White Shark jumping out of the water apparently to attack the U.S. Air Force helicopter that seems to be in the middle of a rescue. I chose this picture because I have actually seen it somewhere before and thought it was real. When I first saw it, my fear of sharks grew and it made me sad to think that the U.S. Air Force soldier might not have lived through that kind of attack. The picture originated in 2001. It was manipulated by pasting a huge shark in the picture and the whole picture was turned around. It may have been manipulated to show how intense the work of the U.S. Air Force is or to convince people that sharks have naturally aggressive behavior toward humans. I do believe that the manipulation of this picture is harmful because it can strike fear in people's minds and gives a false view of the U.S. Air Force.

http://news.cnet.com/2300-1026_3-6033210-18.html?tag=mncol

Own Your Creativity - Copyright Blog

I learned several things from Mr. Hardin about copyright issues. His insight and information opened my eyes to many things. One thing that specifically interested me was the Creative Commons website. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide an alternative method of getting a copyright than the traditional Title 17 method. Creative Commons came up with a series of licenses that are strongly protected and defensible in court. The creator, author, choreographer, or musician can easily get any type of licence for their work that they desire. This organization has the most affect on the copyright culture today.

One issue that I found intriguing regarding Creative Commons is how to handle copyright issues from a research or academic viewpoint. This is a tough situation because it deals with the reproduction of someone's work. To try and discern whether it is acceptable to use something for academic purposes of research, reading, or writing, one has to look at the four factors of determining Fair Use. These are looking at the nature of the work, purpose of reproduction, amount reproduced, and the affect the reproduction will have on the right holders' monetary profit. I personally would be fine with a student using large portions of a book I had written in my field of expertise for academic reasons, only if they cited that the original work was from me. This topic is very sensitive and I am very grateful that I got to learn about my rights and about the laws of copyright from Mr. Hardin.

My Network Diagram

Tips from Joe Hatch

Joe Hatch's speech about computer survival skills was incredibly helpful and informative. My favorite tip was about Defragmentation. This process fixes slow performance on computers. You can access it by clicking start, accessories, system tools and disk defragmentation. It may take some time, but it is very helpful in improving speed and performance. The program does this by taking all the scattered files on your computer and organizing them. I really appreciated that Joe Hatch came to talk to our class.

Live, Laugh, Love

My name is Brianna Swisher and I am from Dallas, Tx. Some of my close friends call me Bri. I have a twin sister and a little sister. I love both of them with all of my heart. Nicole is in the middle in the photo and my twin, Christina, is on the right.

I love to listen to music, play sports, organize and clean my room, hang out with people, meet new people, have deep conversations, and go to Sonic Happy Hour to get a half-priced Lemon Berry Slush. Also, my secret fact is that I am secretly obsessed with the TV show "So You Think You Can Dance." The reason this is so secret is because I have absolutely no dance ability whatsoever. I am really clumsy when it comes to dancing so it is fairly odd that I love to watch that show. Yet, on Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm my eyes are glued to the screen as I watch beautiful dancers show off their incredible talent. On campus I am very involved in my sorority, Sigma Theta Tau. I am the Corresponding Secretary and an active member in the club. I also lead a Bible Study for First Year Girls through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I enjoy being able to love on my freshmen girls and pour into their lives.

My computer skills are quite limited thus far, which is why this class is going to be so wonderful for me. I took the required computer classes for my high school, but I do not remember very much.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions: bswisher@trinity.edu