Advice

The following is an advice for students taking CS1300 next semester:

Never miss class, do all your homework, practice and study hard!

Web Site and Stumper commentaries

The web sites that my classmates created and published are awesome! My favorite were Ryleigh’s, Crispin’s and Danielle’s. Ryleigh used appealing photos of her family and dogs which I enjoyed a lot. The links on her home page of the things she likes (Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Trinity, OSU and OU football among others) was a great idea to include. Crispin’s home page had a really cool layout. I like the original topic he chose in a page that describes his “Thoughts on the Upcoming Semester”. The background in the “Hobbies” is amazing. Finally, I enjoyed reading Danielle’s “Summer Trip” page! I can’t believe she went to Greece, which is one country I definitely want to visit someday! I also like her color choices on the “Friends” page.

From the Stumper assignment the ones that I liked the most were Clarissa’s, Mary’s and Chelsea’s. It was amazing how Clarissa managed to perfectly match the background and text colors with the ones in the photograph. Mary’s stumper was really creative because of the riddle and the couple of hints that she included. The last but not least stumper I enjoyed was Chelsea’s, the photograph she took looks professional, I think she took it behind the Murchison Lounge.

Comments on:

Web Site: Gaby, Clarissa, Christian
Stumper: Austin, Kate, Madeline

Trinity's Photo Stumper

Trinity's Photo Stumper consists in a collection of photos that every student in CS1300 class took of different corners at Trinity University. The task is to guess where the place for every particular photograph is located. Take a look at my Stumper Website and make your best guess!

My Website

The Website Development Project consisted in creating and publishing a website about us. It contains three different pages, the homepage about myself, the second one about my country and the third one about my Trinity experience so far. Take a look at My Website. I hope you like it!

A Bad PowerPoint Presentation

The bad PowerPoint presentations my classmates presented were great accomplishing their purpose. My three favorite presentations were Ryleigh's, Crispin's and Christian's. I liked how Ryleigh brought up new interesting points like listing the facts out of order and about pasting images directly linked to a web page in your bad PowerPoint presentation. I liked how Crispin pointed out the importance of checking spelling and grammar, the overloading of information in one slide, and how the text can blend with the background and be completely illegible. From Christian's presentation I liked how he inserted random funny pictures to emphasize that we don't need to do that in a PowerPoint presentation, and also the fact that he included general tips at the end.

Things to do in a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Break major points into separate slides, no more than 3 to 5 points per slide.
2. Use visuals wisely
3. Use an adequate backround or template for the whole presentation.
4. Choose a legible font and keep it through all the presentation.
5. Always check spelling and grammar.
6. Remember: keep it simple and be consistent!
   

Things not to do in a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Load an slide with information.
2. Overuse PowerPoint features (charts, clipart, animations, movies, sounds, pictures).
3. Use electrifying colors for the backround and text on each slide (red and green).
4. Use different kinds of fonts.
5. Ignore spelling and grammar.
6. Make the font blend in with the backround.
   

The following is a link to an example of a bad PowerPoint presentation:

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~mvinuez1/bad/badpp_files/frame.htm

Copyright: Issues regarding Internet images

The last class, Mr. Jason Hardin, explained us about a really important topic which is copyright. He defined it as a governmental recognition of anyone’s rights as a creator to be the exclusive proprietor of their own intellectual work. As long as the work is fixed in a tangible form, it gives the person who created it an automatic copyright in them.

It is clear that almost everything is copyrighted; the only exception is when the work is available in the public domain. Going to a specific example, let’s suppose that I want to put an image from the Internet on a Web Page I am going to make for my Computer Skills class and that I am planning to publish, should I cite the source? The answer is yes! The fact that the image is available on line does not mean that it can be copied and used by anyone without an appropriate agreement. Words, images, videos or music integrated into a web page have their own copyright and as a result, no one can possess them without the author or owner's consent.

Without appropriate permission, the use of the image I want to put on my Web Page, may result in infringement unless it is in the public domain or falls within recognized defenses to copyright infringement, such as “fair use”.

The medium doesn’t make a difference; we should always cite our source and ask for permission! (with few exceptions)

Web 2.0

The article “Time’s Person of the Year: You” by Lev Grossman, made me realize about a time of revolution we are living right now because of Web 2.0. It is amazing how people around the world, including myself, are connected and able to interact and share ideas by just sitting behind a simple computer screen. As Grossman affirms, “The new Web is a very different thing. It’s a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter.” This tool is the one that can let people “drowned in obscurity” to express themselves by either having a blog, a Facebook account or contributing with their knowledge in the so famous Wikipedia. Web 2.0 is the new era revolution for all of us.

Another interesting article is “What to Know about Web 2.0”; published in BizEd’s 6th volume, which also enhances the topic of how the “Internet has become a prominent medium for personal interaction.” The article describes how Andrew McAfee, an associate professor at Harvard, conducted an study about the Web 2.0 phenomena and the impact it has on students. McAfee affirms that “younger students have become reflexive users of social networking sites and will expect to use these tools to facilitate their interaction with faculty and employers.” Schools that don’t prohibit or don’t embrace this technology, make students feel isolated from technology and the world. Web 2.0 is an important tool that binds people together and can be even useful in educational institutions.

Personally I believe that this new social revolution caused by Web 2.0 is positively influencing the world. People can learn about different cultures and societies and teach also about their own. They are able to interact and contribute with ideas and knowledge to create wider concepts and information. But, maybe in the future, Web 2.0 can become a problem because people may exceed their limits by invading privacy or posting erroneous ideas. We must conduce this important revolution in a straight path in order to avoid future problems with this useful tool.

Belen Vinueza