PowerPoint Guidelines

1) I agree with most of the tips from the article and I think "keep it simple" is the most important and applies to any presentation.

2) The "logical flow" of slides is also pretty important so your viewers aren't confused or stop paying attention because they don't understand.

Powerpoint is, above all, a visual tool, so I think one important guideline to always keep in mind is to try and make your slideshow appealing without being too overwhelming. I find it annoying when a presentation has so much information that is obviously just copied and pasted from a Word document without the slightest effort to make it look more attractive because the presenter has made no effort to make his or her information more accessible and easy to understand. In the article about really bad powerpoints, the built-in slides should be driving people away instead of giving them an easy way out.

3)Presenters should practice their presentation, from setting it up to ending it to avoid technical difficulties or find things to improve on.

4) Try posing questions as another way to keep your audience engaged and make the presentation more interactive and memorable.

However, I do think that the guideline Seth Godin suggests about never having more than six words on a slide is a bit extreme.

5) I think that a better guideline is just to make sure that the words on your presentation are not more overpowering than what you have to say.

Internet Research

I think the presentation was very helpful because effective internet research can cut down time spent on wading through sources that aren't academic or reliable. I learned that many sites that Google pulls up are linked to other websites, and popularity is one of the main factors when it comes to which websites are higher up on the list, not necessarily just the number of times the key words from the search appear. I don't use advanced searches very much, although Google scholar can be helpful when looking for information about a well-known topic. I usually use the library databases when I need to look through academic journals, but I didn't know Google scholar could pull up some of the same ones. The links from the presentation in class also offer some more researching tools.

Copyright Issues

In the copyright presentation, I learned that much of universities tuition goes toward funding for educational materials. I did not realize this before, and I began to think about how much money all of my readings for this semester have cost, since two of my classes use E-reserves. I had assumed that all educational use is fair use, but evidently many authors or publishing companies still reap the benefits of work published several years ago. Many professors and teachers also assume that anything is fair game.

Although this is nothing new, I have heard about college and high school students buying papers online or in person several times, which I would consider cheating and plagiarizing. It's also a copyright issue because these papers are usually not officially published. Also, some papers are posted online where anyone can take them. My view is that if you are paying money to go to college, it is pointlesss to pay someone to do the work for you because not only is it dishonest, but it also devalues your own knowledge and the knowledge of the professor. Some might say that this practice is harmless because the writer willfully gives out information that he or she is compensated. However, if the professor found out that the work was not done by the student, it would result in negative consequences. Statistics show that an alarming amount of college students admit to plagiarizing. Although it is not a federal crime like certain copyright violations, plagiarism is a serious violation at many educational institutions, such as Trinity, because it is a way of presenting someone else's work as your own.

Excel

I learned a lot using Microsoft Excel in this class; I had very limited knowledge of it beforehand because I hardly ever used it. I didn't know how to create formulas, format cells/charts, or link excel documents to other types of Word documents. All of the new formatting styles in Excel are also pretty nice to have if you want to polish your document and make it look more attractive.

Now that I have learned so much from this class, I am much more confident with this program and I'm sure that I'll be able to use it more effectively for future classes and/or jobs, internships, etc. It's important to have these skills in Excel because so many businesses and schools use this program regularly to keep records, show statistics, and plan events, among other purposes. Not only will Excel help students like myself with their homework, but it can also serve as a resume builder and help set you apart from job applicants who don't have extensive knowledge of how to use the program. Aside from creating spreadsheets, the ability to link Excel with other documents is a big advantage. This can help with creating better, more professional presentations in an academic or business setting.