Eva's Comp. Skills Blog

Advice

2009-04-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

For future students of this class, don't take computers for granted! No matter how much you think you know, there is always more to learn. This class has taught me so much and has been such fun! In all honesty, I was really shocked when I didn't test out of this class and thought this class would be easy and a little bit of a waste of time. I was COMPLETELY WRONG! I had soooo much to learn and I am really glad I took this class and you will be too!

- Eva Thompson

ethomps4@trinity.edu

Class Websites

2009-04-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Wow! We did an awesome job! All the websites we made were so professional looking and detailed. I was so impressed. I really think that we have learned so much from Prof. Belisle, Mattina, and all the guest speakers we have heard from this semester in our computer skills class. Having said that, there were three websites that I thought were especially great :)

Hye-Won Kim's website was the first website that I really liked. The purple background and great homepage picture were so eye catching! The whole website was clean and that is very important for a good website. And all those pictures! There were so many and they were beautiful! I especially liked that if you clicked on them you were led to an enlarged version of the photograph, that was a great touch!

I also loved Ellen Desmarais's website! Her job of creating those titles for the places she wants to visit out of photos of the place itself was such an awesome idea and it looks so beautiful! That must have taken her a lot of time and effort. I also enjoyed how thorough she was when giving information on the places she wants to go. She provided so much useful information, and her page layouts were great.

Robert Buckreis had the most interesting topic for a website to me. Making a website for martial arts was so original! I had always wondered about the different "colored belts" and what they meant and now I know! He also provided useful information, probably the most I saw, about martial arts. He must have spent a lot of time researching!

I would just like to say that although these three are my favorites, I thought everyone did a wonderful job on their websites! If you'd like to see mine, just visit http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~ethomps4/

Thanks everyone!
Eva Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

More Great Powerpoints!!!

2009-04-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

So our class is pretty awesome as far as these powerpoint presentations go! Everyone else who presented today did a fabulous job. Another thing that really interests me about our class is how different our interests are! I don't think any two people presented on the same topic.

My favorite presentation this time was the one done by Robert Buckreis on Epilepsy, seizures etc. I have a cousin who suffers from seizures and I never understood much about what causes them or how to stop them, but this presentation taught me so much! I know that these mental conditions are popular topics, but Robert did a wonderful job of bringing them into a calmer light and explaining them. Not only was his information great, but his presentation format was simple yet eye-catching. He also knew his subject very well and did very little reading off slides or notes.

Another presentation I particularly enjoyed this class was Carmel Tajonera's presentation on cooking and kids. First off, I love how passionate she was about her topic and how long she has thought about persuing it. So many people change their minds about what they want to do, and it is really impressive to see someone so committed. Her presentation was so pretty and simple, yet it touched on valid points and solidified her interest in cooking and working with children.

That's all I got folks!
Thanks,
Eva Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

My Favorite Powerpoints!

2009-03-30T22:19:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Last thursday, the class presented powerpoints on a topic within their intended major or interest. Let me just say that all of the presentations I saw in class were interesting and well done! I was really impressed! But, if I have to pick two favorites, they are Adan Gonzalez & Hye-Won Kim.

Adan's presentation was obviously made using powerpoint XP and not Vista, so it was much simpler than most of the other presentations. In a way, that only made the information more powerful. It was obvious in his presentation that he has a strong passion for producing music. I never saw him look at notes once! He spouted the information like he'd been studying it for weeks. Not only did the powerpoint exhibit knowledge on the meaning of producing music, but he also provided lots of background information on the history of the music producing business, including its pioneers and most famous leaders. The information provided established that Adan knows this topic forward and backward, and is well on his way to making it a career.

The other powerpoint I liked best was Hye-Won's. Her layout was simple yet neat and pleasing to the eye. I loved the background picture of the gavel in black and white, it made it very dramatic (which I love :) The sound of the gavel striking the sounding block (yes, that's what it's called. I googled it) in the first slide was also very effective. Her information was also really interesting. I had no idea what to major in if you are hoping to go to law school, but now I do! I also found it truly helpful that she put instructions on applying to law schools, this shows that she has given the process a lot of thought.

Everyone did a really awesome job, those are just my favorites!

- Eva Thompson

ethomps4@trinity.edu

Steps to a Great Powerpoint Presentation

2009-03-23T21:51:00.000-07:00

After having read the three articles about how to improve powerpoint presentations, "Top Ten Slide Tips", "Recommendations for Faculty on Powerpoint" and "Really Bad Powerpoint - and How to Avoid It" really interesting. Granted that most of the information was the same for all three, it is still important to review helpful tips. The last article "Really Bad Powerpoint - and How to Avoid It" was probably the most helpful to me since it corrected a lot of the ideas I had about making presentations "fancy". "Top Ten Slide Tips" seemed more general and "Recommendations for Faculty on Powerpoint" seemed to be geared towards, as it says, faculty, and was a little more professionally founded then I have real need for.

I still think that anyone who uses powerpoint habitually should give these articles a good read, just so that they understand what is important to know about making presentations. These are my personal rules for making an effective presentation:

1)Decide what Information You Need to Relay

Before worrying about slide transitions or effects, make sure that the facts that you need are included. On that note, you may have more information then you really need, so if you find that is the case, cut and condense anything that seems extraneous.

2) Be Knowledgeable on Your Subject

Make sure that you aren't just reading the text off of your presentation. Your audience can read, they don't need you to do it for them. Instead, have extra facts, opinions, quotes, experiences or questions that you can use to keep your audience interested.

3) Make Eye-Pleasing Format Choices

Choose layouts and color schemes that complement, and not clash with, each other. There is nothing more distracting in a presentation then badly-chosen text color that conflicts with the background color or image. Make it easier for your audience to see by giving them nice colors to look at ;)

4) Use Sound and Pictures with Discretion

A sound clip or photograph can do wonders for a presentation, if they are professional and relevant to the topic. Do not riddle your presentation with them however, because they will come off as a gimmick instead of valid points to your topic.

5) Be Mindful of Your Audience

Know the people you are talking to. For instance, a presentation for your classmates should differ from one that would be for a prospective boss or client. Use words and phrasing that apply to your topic and to the people you are trying to appeal to.

These are rules that I gathered from the articles I read, and from my personal experiences with powerpoint. I hope they are helpful & thanks!

- Eva Thompson

ethomps4@trinity.edu

2009-03-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody!

Using excel this semester has been really fun! I won't lie, I thought it was going to be really boring. I took a computer class in high school where we learned about excel, and it did not excite me at all.
But, I learned so many interesting things about excel, like I had no idea you could link excel spreadsheets to other programs like word documents and powerpoint presentations. Not only can you link them, but if the original spreadsheet is edited, the revised form shows up in the other program it is linked to!
I also really enjoyed all the options and design patterns that excel with Vista has to choose from. I always like having lots of choices :) It is really interesting to me that something like math or graphs or charts can be made personal.
I think my favorite part of using excel is all of the formulas that are available. Any tool that helps me avoid doing math is completely awesome in my book!
I have really enjoyed learning about excel in this class and just this class in general! I'm also really looking forward to working with photoshop and powerpoint!

Thanks,
Eva Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

CLT Tour

2009-03-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

On our tour of The AT&T Center for Learning and Technology, AKA the CLT labs, Rob Chapman told us so many interesting things. The digital audio lab and the media presentation lab were very impressive, but I most enjoyed the computers in the main studio at CLT.

Rob told us that some of those computers are equipped with Final Cut Pro software, a program that edits video. I worked with Final Cut all of my senior year in high school in my Media Technology class. We would film, log & capture, and edit our films using the program and I am so excited that I can check out a video camera and make movies & use the computers in the CLT lab.

I could make movie or documentary for a class project in our computer class, or in one of my theatre classes. If someone writes a script that they want turned into a film on campus, we can use the Final Cut Pro software to edit the film. I so enjoyed our tour, and will definitely be utilizing the resources provided by the CLT staff and labs.

Pictures Can Lie Too?!?!

2009-03-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

At the website maintained by CNet, there is an article called Pictures that Lie. http://news.com.com/2300-1026_3-6033210-1.html In this article, twenty-four pictures that have been doctored or edited are displayed and comments have been made about them. After going through all the photos, the one that shocked me the most was the one that displayed a British soldier surrounded by Arabic people gesturing for them to get down with one hand, and holding a gun in the other. Particularly disturbing is that the main person he is gesturing to has a small child in his arms, seen here.
I chose this picture because, as I said, it was the most disturbing to me, and it really bothered me that someone created this image when there is already so much controversy about the Middle East. I also feel deeply for the children, not only in the Middle East, but around the world, who are forced to endure endless pain for reasons that they are not responsible for. The manipulation shown here, putting a child in such an image, is in my opinion, hitting below the belt.
This image was originally two images; the soldier was in one, the Arabic people in the other. Both photos were taken in Basra, Iraq in April of 2003. The creator of this image, Brian Walski, a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times and a 30-year veteran of the news business, digitally composited to two photos together. This image later appeared on the front page of the Los Angeles Times shortly after the U.S. led an invasion of Iraq.
I suspect that these photos were manipulated because the new image created is incredibly provocative and controversial. It tugs at the public's heartstrings, and most importantly, when used as a cover, which it was, it sells magazines. This manipulation is incredibly harmful. It plays on the emotions of the public solely for profit. There are more than enough shocking images from the Middle East that are legitimate, digitally compositing them is not only unnecessary, but detrimental to the support and well being of the public. Obviously, the employers at Times Magazine agree, because Mr. Brian Walski lost his job of this image.

Thank You,
Eva Thompson

Finding Info From Search Engines

2009-02-25T18:27:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday in class, Chris Nolan spoke to our class about using search engines effectively online. He spoke to us about the most commonly used search engines-google.com, ask.com, yahoo.com, Wikipedia.com, and aol.com. He also explained that websites like these make profit by advertisement on their website. When asked why certain websites rise to the top of a search, Chris explained that websites that have more credible links that lead back to it will appear first on a list of websites for a search. One new thing I learned was that when searching for information, it is possible to narrow your search in many ways. You can eliminate words like “and”, “but” and “or” because some sites will search for exact phrasing. You can also select “advanced search” in Google, which asks more specific questions about your topic. Also, you can select the media through which you would like to search, for example if you are only looking for books to search through, you can select “Google books” and the search will only apply to books. Something surprising that I learned is that you can tell if a website is scholarly or a good source if it has a bibliography or works cited note at the end of its articles.

Thanks,
Eva Gabrielle Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

Copyright Presentation

2009-02-04T19:37:00.001-08:00

This past Tuesday in our class, we were given a presentation on copyright laws. Some of what was said I had heard before, but other information explained truly shocked me. Because of my work on my high school’s yearbook and website, I am familiar with public domain (works that do not require permission to access and/or copy) and the time period it requires to apply to a work (seventy years after the death of the creator). I was not aware that copyright laws have existed since 1790 and predate the Bill of Rights. I was also unaware that copyright laws are taken so seriously, more specifically, that it is a felony to commit a copyright infringement involving more than 10 copies and a value of more than $2500.

I refuse to lie, I have used the computer program limewire in the past to illegally download music. Throughout all of my high school years, in fact, if ever I heard a song on the radio or television that I liked, I would search for it on limewire and download it immediately.
When I arrived to Trinity campus and was informed that all programs such as limewire, frostwire, kazaa, etc. were strictly forbidden, I was more than a little incensed. My best friend goes to the University of Texas at San Antonio not fifteen minutes away, and she can download as much as she wants. During the presentation, however, I was informed that if a student is using such a program to illegally download, and the University becomes aware of it, they are legally obligated to give that student’s name to the government. I also started to consider how much I was hurting the writers and performers of the songs I was stealing. What kind of a fan was I if the only way I showed my appreciation of their music was to refuse to pay money for it, the money that the artist had rightfully earned?

I used to argue with myself that music was overpriced, and that if I went out and spent thirteen dollars on a CD when I only end up really liking three of the songs, I was being cheated. However, programs like itunes and napster have rectified this by offering thirty seconds of each song on the internet so it is possible to determine whether or not a buyer likes the song. Also, each song is only ninety-nine cents, which no one can argue is too expensive.

So, as of now, I am perfectly alright with going to the bookstore and buying an itunes gift card, as opposed to risking federal offense by illegally downloading my music. I respect the artists who make the music I listen to, and think it is only right that I purchase said music legally.

Thank You,
Eva Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

Facebook, Yes or No?

2009-01-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

Definately yes for me! I have a facebook and use it all the time. I think that, like any tool on the internet, it can be used for good or bad purposes, depending on the user. I love to stay connected with my friends in college as well as back home, and facebook it a great tool for it. Facebook groups are also a great way to promote upcoming events on Campus or just find other people who are interested in the same things as you are. Check out what Cristian Lupsa thinks in her article about fb on college campuses http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html

much love,
Eva Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

~My Word Experience~

2009-01-27T09:49:00.000-08:00

I have been working with microsoft word since elementary school. I feel that I am pretty knowledgable in the program and found most of what was in the reading to be a review rather than a learning experience for me. I took many computer courses in jr. High & High School, and use my computer frequently.

I am not terribly familiar with the concept of diagram building, but everything else was pretty clear to me.

Thanks guys,
Eva Thompson
ethomps4@trinity.edu

About Me

2009-01-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

Hi there, my name is Eva Gabrielle Thompson. I was born in Galveston, Texas, although since then I have moved more than eight times. I don't really have a home town because I have moved so much, but I spent most of my childhood in an east Texas town called Tyler.

My mom and Dad divorced when I was three, and both are remarried. My parents are both insanely intelligent in completely opposite ways. My Dad is a computer programmer and an all around people person, while my mom is a surgical pathologist (a very special doctor who works with diagnosing cancers). It is because of her job that I developed a phobia of disjointed blood.

She had to pick me up from school early once, so she brought me to her office to fiddle with the computer while she finished up some lab work. Of course, being curious and unable to follow directions, I eventually wandered into her lab and saw a sight that scarred me to this day. There were all these jars full of weird colored liquids, body parts, bags of blood, just like all those freaky laboratories in horror movies. Needless to say, I never went back to her lab, no matter how long I had to wait.

Moving on, since Dad is a computer programmer, I'd like to believe I'm pretty computer savvy. I was in Jr. Tech in my high school, which was the club that created and maintained the school website. I also took yearbook and worked with photoshop a lot. I still know I have a lot to learn and am so excited to start this class!

My trinity e-mail is ethomps4@trinity.edu
Yeah, there are three other ethomps’s. Weird, huh?