Meghan's Computer Skills Blog

Advice for future classes...

2008-04-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

This is a very fun class, but if you want to do well, you MUST keep up with the homework every night. Try not to get behind, because each class builds on the previous one. Have fun and be creative with it!

Our First Websites

2008-04-23T19:28:00.000-07:00

For our first shot at making a web page, I'd say the whole class did a great job! Once I got past the nit-picky details, I actually had a lot of fun making my website. There were a couple sites from our class that I particularly liked. Ashley's was very well designed, and I really liked her collage on the homepage. I also liked her page with all of her photography work; it looked very nice on the black background. Danika's website was also very good. She has a great design, and I really liked her hometown collage. Her gallery was really good as well. And, I really liked Jeanna's website. She obviously has an amazing talent with digital graphics. I really liked how unique her design was and how fun her click-ons were.

Everyone did an excellent job in designing their websites! I thoroughly enjoyed making my own. You can visit it at www.cs.trinity.edu/~mappelba

The Joys of Creating a Webpage

2008-04-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

I always thought that creating a web page would be very difficult. Now that I know how to do it, I still think so! It is a very meticulous process if you do it by hand, but it is a lot more fun than I expected. I'm sure most professional page-makers use cool programs like Microsoft Expression Web to make the process easier and quicker, but they do need to know how to hand code a web page. Nifty programs are not always perfect, and if something were to go wrong or breakdown, the designer would need to be able to fix the web page by hand. Also, they would be able to read the html of other pages and either learn new techniques or point out errors for that page. It is always good to know the basics before you learn the high tech advancements.

PowerPoint Presentations

2008-04-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

Our class is rather skilled in PowerPoint I believe. All of the presentations were well constructed and demonstrated a certain level of skill. The presentations themselves were good too; no one simply read off of their slides. There were a couple that stood out to me as excellent though.

I really enjoyed Jose's PPT for a number of reasons. He had a unique topic and obviously enjoyed talking and learning about it. His PPT was put together well; I really liked his background because it was simple and yet very effective. He also had a good use of pictures and animation. I enjoyed listening to his presentation.

Ashley's PPT was also very nice. It was professional but not boring! She utilized her background, fonts, and pictures very well, and made them all fit an overall theme of business and communication. Her gif was also very creative. Ashley made a very convincing point with her PPT presentation.

Like I said though, our entire class did a marvelous job with this assignment.

PowerPoint 101

2008-03-25T13:58:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-13T18:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-11T13:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

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.

Pictures that Lie

2008-02-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

I chose the July 1992 cover of TexasMonthly that shows Gov. Ann Richards riding a motorcycle because it looks very real, but is so ridiculous it's funny. It was originally a picture of a model on a Harley-Davidson, and the governor's head was pasted over the model's head. From the magazine cover, I assume the croppers made this picture to give Richards that tough, "I'm in charge" look because of her power and prestige as governor. I would not call it a harmful Photoshop job because it was not offensive, and Richards herself was able to joke about it. If the people involved in the photo are not hurt or offended, I do not think there is any harm in playing with photos.

Wireless Connections on Campus

2008-01-31T13:43:00.000-08:00

Even though Trinity has a great wireless connection, I do not actually take advantage of it. To me, it's more work than it's worth to carry around my laptop everywhere. However, I know the wireless connection has its pros and cons. Many of my friends bring their laptop to biology class to take notes and access the posted powerpoints. Even though it is a great help to them, they do get distracted during class because they have the internet at the tips of their fingers. Here is an article with some more information on wireless campuses.

The Blue Screen of Death

2008-01-22T13:09:00.000-08:00

If my computer died on me the night before an assignment was due, my first instinct would be to go to the library. It is open late and has lots of available computers. The only problem is the walk over there. From the library computers, I could access my Y drive and would be saved!

Introducing Meghan

2008-01-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

Hi, my name is Meghan Appelbaum. I'm a freshman at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX and absolutely love it here! I have a wide variety of interests, which explains my plan. I'm a potential history major, astronomy minor, and on the pre-med program. It's going to be difficult because of the lack of over-lapping classes, but I look forward to the challenge. I plan to major in history because I enjoy learning about history and these four years may be my only chance to study it. I hope to minor in astronomy though because I love space more than anything else and I hope to one day be a doctor working for NASA. Hence the pre-med.

Aside from school, I like going to the beach, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and hanging out with as many friends as I can. My home is Houston, TX, specifically Clear Lake City. Here is a picture of it from Google Earth. http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.58813,-95.105035&z=12&t=h&hl=en From this picture, you can also see the place I used to work, Space Center Houston. I was in the education department and taught all of the day camps during the summer and school visit camps during the school year. I really enjoyed working there and hanging out with kids all day.

I'm pretty good with computers and usually learn quickly. In high school, I learned Digital Graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Flash. I know how to use Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, but I wouldn't say I'm skilled in any of them. Well, that is me in a nutshell and I hope to learn a lot about blogs, networking, and other computer skills in this class! Feel free to e-mail me anytime at mappelba@trinity.edu!