Finding High Quality Info on the Web with Chris Nolan

Last Thursday CSCI 1300 was graced with a lecture by Chris Nolan, the information Guru.

In his discussion, we learned about searching for academic level info. on google,  google tips and some very useful search directories. Many times when someone is searching for specific information on google a lot of the same information links come up everytime. This is because google has programmed it's search engines to sort by relevancy, words found in the title/text and how often the site is used, cited by other links and its ownership. Overall, we learned that there are over 250 characteristics used to rank relevancy. For google tips, there is a smaller link beneath the big search that says advanced search. Here, one can do specific searches controlling what domain they want to see along with using specific phrasing. Also, there is a down arrow beside the word more that can be used to specify scholarly sources. Other tips included using Cached sites (sites that are no longer visible but if searched and found on google they are still viewable in the original form) and using the word Define ...  in the search engine (gives specific definitions). For the directory information, we learned that the directories like ipl.org, Internet Index, InfoMine and the Trinity Library, especially LibGuides, are all useful search sites.

IF YOU GIVE A BULLET, YOU SHOULD TAKE A BULLET!

I once had a brilliant speech teacher who put it this way, "If you give a bullet, you should take a bullet!" Before this epic discussion on PowerPoint, I was taught, in the past, that when giving a presentation its ok to load up each slide with tons of facts, clip art, sound effects, graphs and bullet points; the more, the better!  However, after my teacher broke it down, I realized how ineffective and boring I was really being. I felt bad for what I put some of my fellow peers and teachers through in my past presentations. So I came to this personal conclusion:
 "MY FIVE PET PEEV'S OF POWERPOINT"

1. Bullet points
2. Ugly/Unnecessary Clip Art
3. Too Much Text for ONE Slide
4. Bizarre Sound Effects
5. Un-readable Graphs/Charts

Bullet points are a distraction and they pull away the attention of the audience from the speaker. Yes, they help organize the slide a little better, but let's be honest, when a PowerPoint is going are you really listening to the teacher or are you trying to scramble and write everything down before the timer switches slides?

Using Ugly/Unnecessary Clip Art is a crime. Most of the clip art available is ugly, weird and distracting. If someone is giving a presentation on a dog adoption business they should use real pictures of man's best friend. The real pictures will evoke a more positive emotional response to the presentation. Using a clip art dog that's purple and oddly disfigured will not make someone WANT to adopt; possibly run over..

Too Much Text for ONE Slide is a major no no! When an audience sees a slide like this, automatically the brain goes into auto pilot and distractions are easily to succumb too.. like that oddly shaped purple dog. Plus if the speaker is reading DIRECTLY off the slide, it unprofessional.

Bizarre Sound Effects are retarded. They are fun to play around with but in a presentation they are again distracting, boring and in many cases irrelevant to the presentation. Nothing worse than when someone ends a presentation with a flushing toilet sound or clapping. It's amateur.

Finally, Un-readable Graphs/Charts are the worst visual aids anyone can put in a presentation. I am all for having visual aids but they must be organized, comprehensible and depicted in an appropriate graph/chart choice. Having a poorly depicted set of information will confuse the audience, discourage/lose their attention and cripple the presentation.

PowerPoint is a very useful tool and needs to be thought out before it is made. The speaker must make the audience depend on them for all the information they are going to learn. Having the major topics on the PowerPoint will help guide the presentation but the speaker must know their material to make it all work. PowerPoint can be used in just about any situation. For instance, people who help develop athletic teams and strengthen team relationships, all geared towards winning national championships, can use PowerPoint. The women's soccer team went through one of these team building work shops yesterday and it was very effective. The speaker didn't use bullet points, clip art, huge amounts of text, bizarre sound effects or un-readable graphs/charts. She used relative material like a video clip form  The Blindside and all her PowerPoint information was simple. We had to listen to learn. I believe that if these five pet peev's are left out of PowerPoint, a speaker can give a presentation that is effective and professional. How they choose to present it is their choice.

CLT

This past Thursday the class paid a visit to the first floor of Coates Library to receive an introduction to CLT by Robert Chapman. CLT stands for the AT&T Center for Learning and Technology and provides faculty and students access to high-end computer work stations, scanners, audio/video digitizers and other high-tech developmental tools. In the innovation studio there are 26 computers total, 14 Macintosh and 12 PCs, and 10 scanners, which gives everyone the ability to work with familiar technology. With all of these resources, faculty and students are able to develop multimedia presentations, reports and projects. Other facilities included in the CLT, other than the studio, include a digital audio lab, media presentation lab, video conference center and an innovation studio. After our brief chat with Mr. Chapman, we had time left in the class period to play with some of the technology. In our in-class assignment we were to draw a self-portrait of ourselves and using the scanner upload the drawing to our computer. Being a beginner with this it was a little tricky to do. However, once completed it was exciting to see what new things I could learn to do with technology. I can see myself using the studio for an upcoming Italian presentation and also for several photo albums for my family. This is my self-portrait I scanned for class.. It's hard to see but I'm in my soccer uniform.

IMAGE MANIPULTION & PHOTOSHOP

I chose the eleventh picture that displays Oprah Winfrey on the August 1989 edition of TV Guide magazine. It is a pretty accurate display of Oprah's wealth and influence, but I chose this picture because I liked the purple dress. The original picture was actually a 1979 publicity shot of the famous Swedish actress, Ann-Margret. The picture was created by splicing Oprah Winfrey's face onto the body of Ann-Margret. Oprah Winfrey is a full figured woman and this image was created to show Oprah in a more slender fashion. However, this image manipulation was done without either the consent of Oprah or Ann-Margret. The picture has positive and negative effects on its intended audience. It's attractive, especially to male viewers, but it also has a negative vibe due to the social pressures against women associated with body image. In today's media, shows like The Biggest Loser, Dance Your Ass Off and Extreme Makeover all put people under a lot of pressure to succumb to what Hollywood views as beautiful. Being healthy and taking care of yourself mentally, physically and spiritually should be a priority on every one's well-being list. However, mainstream media has a tendency of taking this subject and pushing it too far; making goals and expectations unhealthy and unrealistic to achieve. Photo shop and image manipulation technology is amazing, but how far is too far?

I chose this youtube video to give an idea of how much photo shop manipulation is being used in the media and how detrimental it can and will be by influencing an unattainable perfection.