PowerPoint Presentations

After reading the articles on how to create a good PowerPoint presentation, the one article that I found the most interesting was the one intended for faculty. I am assuming that the presentation that was shown to faculty on how to give a good presentation must have been boring and ineffective itself, as I cannot begin to count how many lectures I have sat through that were a waste of my time. Through my first three semesters of college, I would have to say that the amount of professors who give good presentations is about half. There are just too many professors who load up their presentations with information and just repeat it, opposed to actually teaching the material. To be fair, I have also had great professors who are capable of putting together a lecture that grabs my attention in subjects I have never had a remote interest in. They were able to do this by passing out copies of the important parts of the slides, which allowed me to focus on what the teacher was saying opposed to just trying to copy down information. Their presentations periodically also contained sample test-like questions that engaged my interest and was helpful in allowing me to know how well I was learning the material. At first, creating a PowerPoint presentation seems simple and easy, but there are many ways to quickly ruin a presentation. My list of five things to be sure to do (or not) would be: 1) Just have subjects or keywords that help you in presenting your information, opposed to a bunch of sentences/bullets that no one is going to read or remember 2) Use legible fonts and colors so that the audience can actually read your slides 3) Minimize the effects you use as they probably do not help you present the information and just end up being annoying 4) Proofread the information that is on the slides, otherwise it will be unprofessional and the audience will lose interest 5) Be creative. Use a background or some feature that the audience has never seen before and is going to capture their attention. Although there are many aspects that can be detrimental to a presentation, with proper time and concern an effective PowerPoint presentation is more than capable.

Excel

Before this class I used Excel very limitedly, mostly due to the fact that I had no idea what Excel was for or capable of. I knew it was mainly for creating spreadsheets, but I never really had any reason for using one. After our few weeks of practice with the program, I now realize that Excel is pretty much capable of doing anything that you ask of it and I will certainly use it much more often in the future. The one aspect I found the most intriguing was all the different sorts of formulas that Excel can calculate. Whether you just need to find a sum or average, Excel can do it all, not to mention various functions it can compute such as the "IF" function. I will certainly be using Excel in future business courses, such as Statistics, in order to find descriptive statistics on a set of data or to quickly compute other information. Excel really can do almost anything you ask of it and I know it will come in handy for many applications in the future.

Pictures that Lie

The picture that I chose to analyze was the CBS live broadcast of New Year's Eve. My reason for choosing the picture was simply due to the fact that I watch Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve every January 31st, so this was an issue I felt was interesting and something I could relate to. The picture is a frame shot from CBS' broadcast of New Years from Times Square and it was manipulated by putting CBS' logo on the Times Square screen, when in reality NBC's peacock logo was being displayed. The intent behind manipulating the broadcast was simply to conceal NBC's logo and instead promote CBS to audience viewers. This sort of manipulation is not something that can be done through Photoshop, but is instead done through other technology that is available to TV stations. I personally do not believe that this sort of manipulation is harmful. In this case, it is simply one company trying to cover up the advertisement of one of its main competitors. There is no political propaganda or subliminal messages being sent, like so often found in other manipulated photos, which is why I believe this picture/broadcast is fine. The same type of technology used in this picture is often used in sporting events, where advertisements are displayed throughout stadiums and arenas. Instances that I witness the most are in baseball games, on the padding, in front of the seats behind home plate and also in basketball, where the check-in booth is located. If you actually go to the games, you will see that there is nothing really there, or that there is some other advertisement than that displayed on TV. The manipulation is simply the broadcasting station trying to promote itself to the audience opposed to the actual advertisement that is displayed. I believe this is fine, considering the fact that I watch TV specifically for the program being shown, and most of the time don't even notice the advertisements being shown simultaneously. Others may disagree with me, however I feel that I am truly only affected by advertisements on TV if it is a commercial, and not something that broadcasters snuck into the background.

CLT

Today I not only found out what the second and first floors of the library looked like, but also discovered the amazing equipment available to students through the Center for Learning and Technology. Before my visit I had no idea that the CLT existed, let alone all the technology that can be used within it. The one room that I found the most fascinating was the video studio theatre. The room looked like something you would find on set for a blockbuster movie; with all sorts of expensive looking cameras and even one of those microphones attached to an elongated pole so you can better hear the actors. If I were to ever use the resources in the CLT, it would most likely be from the studios. There are an abundance of computers available for use, along with laser printers and scanners, in case I ever needed to print out a high-quality report or send a copy of something. As for all the software on the computers and recording equipment in the various rooms, it all seems so overwhelming. I have never considered myself to be good with technology and I feel it would take awhile to learn how to use all the different resources. Being a business major, I probably will not spend too much time in the CLT unless I am required to make an advertisement for a marketing class or such. I will be curious to see if we use the CLT in the future for this class and if so which resources. It would be a shame for no one to use all the equipment that is available down there.