PowerPoint 101

These articles have some great advice for making a PowerPoint presentation, although I have heard most of these tips. The article "Really Bad Power Point - and How to Avoid It" was enjoyable and I liked how it made fun of the bad issues of PPT but then corrected the problems and stated what should be done. I also liked the faculty advice article because I have had professors do some of the things the article advises against.

To me, some of the most important tips for making a PPT include: having legible fonts, having appropriate colors (nothing too flashy), limiting slide and word transitions, using enough pictures to make it interesting but not inundated, and most importantly limiting the amount of words on a slide. The most annoying thing in a PPT presentation is having all of the words on the slide so that the presenter ends up reading the PPT. Using crazy fonts, colors, and transitions is forgivable, but reading the slides like a book is not!

Searching on the Internet

Chris Nolan gave some very helpful advice in his presentation today. I for one did not know Google could get any better! But with the advance search and Google Scholar options, Google can help a lot more with school related searches. I was a little surprised when he said that not all .gov sites were reliable. I had always believed they were the best sources of information. Then when he said that .org and .edu were not always reliable either, I began to wonder if anything was. But there are good website sources out there; you just have to be careful and read the all of the details when trying to find a reliable source.

Copyright Craziness

The most important thing I learned in the presentation is the distinction between copyright and plagiarism. I knew about each , but didn't actually understand the details involved and the difference between the two. It is rather simple though; plagiarism is ethical and involves citation, while copyright is legal and involves permission.

One of the big issues today with copyright is the mindset that if something is on the Internet, it is up for grabs. I can see how people would think this, since everyone can access things for free online, but, anything written after April of 1989 is legally protected no matter where it is published, even if it does not outright say "copyrighted." I certainly have thought this before and have wanted to use some material from the Internet. I understand the idea that it is on the Internet and should be expected to be used. But I see that it is wrong to just take it. I would not want people to take my work or even my ideas without my permission, even if it was within easy access on the Internet.

The Wonders of Excel

Even though doing a lot of spreadsheets in class was not very exciting, what we learned from doing them is extremely important. I had a basic understanding of Excel before this class; I could enter data, create simple formulas, and make graphs. Learning the more complicated formulas and how to work with a large file was what helped me the most. I also learned how to put Excel information into Word and PowerPoint; I actually did not even know that was possible.

Knowing how to work with Excel is going to be very important in the future. It has already helped me in my biology lab and other classes. Farther in the future though, knowledge of Excel will help in any job, seeing as computers play such a huge role in almost every profession. Excel can be used to create a simple record or a complex set of data. Its range of uses can be applied to anything for a profession. Learning Excel now will be very helpful.