Advice

I have learned a great deal in this course, and I feel more competent using general computer programs such as word, powerpoint, photoshop, and excel. I felt that learning about the Trinity network was most important. I would advise students who take this course to follow every assignment because each program is important to understand fully. Also the tests are comprehensive and you will be counted down if you do not understand a function. like Ms. Belisle suggested at the beginning of the class, it is important to keep track of your grades on your own so that you are always informed on how well you are doing.

Favorites

I enjoyed this assignment in which we created our own websites by practicing HTML coding. The sites I enjoyed most were:

Autumn Goodin- great layout, very personable, fun pictures

Laura Husband- engaging topic, profesional pages, engaging graphics

Riley Newson- good information, easy to navigate, I enjoyed learning about her hobbies

Please visit my website at: www.cs.trinity.edu/~ksilva

www.cs.trinity.edu/~ksilva

Making my own website was not as difficult as I thought it would be. I used Expression Webs to help with my website's HTML coding. I am most happy with the design and layout of my navbar. I used a picture of a poleroid online and edited in my own photographs using Photoshop. I would have liked to have made my photographs framed so that they didn't look like they were floating ontop of the background. I had a difficult time figuring out how to link the pages to each other, but once I understood the coding on Expression webs It became easy. my biggest design challenge was picking photographs that displayed my own artwork and other artists artwork well. I am glad I know the basics of HTML coding because I would eventually like to publish my own professional website for my artwork.

Larry Hechler Class Talk

Computer maintenance of your hardware is extremely important to ensure the safety of your work and lifespan of your personal computer. Larry Hechler shared some tips in class about saving work and prolonging the lifespan of your computer. Mr. Hechler pressed the importance of saving and backing up work on an external hard drive. Once a hard drive dies, it cannot be recovered. As for cleaning computers, it is important that you do not spray anything on the LCD panel or keyboard, especially not ammonia or acetone. lap tops have a vent in the back of the keyboard that should never be covered by placing the laptop on blankets or pillows. this vent functions to keep the computer from over heating. If I were to purchase a new computer, I would buy a DEL with a warranty plan. Mr. Hechler let us know that the warranty plan will replace the computer up to 4 years if it should incur any damage.

my own Photoshop creation

I chose to manipulate a photograph I found on the web of people swimming in the ocean. A friend of mine posted this photo on her blog and I chose to use it because it was an interesting black and white image with lots of negative space that I could fill with another form. I manipulated it by inserting a shark below the people swimming. If my photoshoped image was published it could be harmful because it portrays a fake shark in shallow waters where people usually swim. The image I manipulated shows how photoshop can be unethical and lie to the viewer, just as my article I found discussed.

Photo-integrity

 "digital photo manipulation -- commonly referred to as 'photoshopping' -- has recently become a popular pastime, and many consider this photographic fakery to be a new art form. But when it works its way into photojournalism and the media, the issue of ethics comes to the forefront. How far can we take digital image manipulation and still maintain photographic integrity?"

Larry Gross, John Stuart Katz, Jay Ruby. Image Ethics in the Digital Age. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, c2003.


This quote pulled from an article in the presents the issue of photoshop ethics.

Power Point Presentations

Overall I am happy with my power point presentation on becoming a museum curator. I wish that I had added more animation and sound to make the presentation more engaging. I am glad that I learned how to insert a video clip in one of my slides because that is a tool that I can use later for other presentations. I enjoyed watching Langston's power point presentation because his custom animations he added were very helpful when he was describing plate tectonic movements. I thought his class presentation was very professional and easy to follow. I also enjoyed Laura's presentation because it had interesting graphics and she discussed an important topic of how the media may be a corrupting force. I enjoyed this assignment because it was interesting to see what other students are interested in and what career paths they would like to take.

Chris Nolan's Presentation

Chris Nolan discussed search methods online, and I found it to be very helpful to be able to learn how to recognise quality information online by wording and site type. google is currently the most used search engine on the Internet, so we used google for in class practice. The right hand column of google is the business advertisements area, and where google makes its money. the top results that come up from a google search are chosen by common words and how popular a link is. the top links have high relevance because many people have used those sites. It is also important to take into account the type of sites that come up. .org sites are usually not selling products on their sites because they represent an organization. .edu is a higher education site. key things to assess when choosing a site are author, publisher, intended purpose/audience, objectivity/bias, substantiation for claims, and date of information.

PowerPoint Presentations

From the classroom to the office, PowerPoint is a great learning tool and presentation format. There are however many ways to create a poor PowerPoint presentation that would detract from its helpfulness. for example, over-active graphics such as moving letters take away from a good presentation. also, loud sound effects and overly cluttered slides make a presentation difficult to understand. Each slide should not be full of information, but rather it should include key points. The speaker should not read directly from the slide because the information on each slide should be elaborated on in discussion.

I have found PowerPoint to be very useful in my schooling. I have used this program to give presentations on book reports, and research analysis, and even to study for tests. for my art history test this year I created a slide show of important works of art that I needed to study. For personal use, I created a slide show of pictures and music for my grandparents 50th anniversary party. PowerPoint is great because it can be used in a variety of ways.

Class Visit to the CLT

The AT& T Center for learning and technology is located on the 1st floor of the Trinity Library. Robert Chapman gave us a presentation about the facility and I was pleased to hear about so many resources available for trinity students at the CLT. In the Lab there are 26 computers and 11 scanners open for use. there is also a help desk that can assist students with computer classwork. I was happy to hear that there is also a recording room stocked with microphones that is open to be used by students. also as an art major it was helpful to hear that I can rent out cameras for class work with the permission of a professor. I hadn't been down to the CLT before, but now that I know what it has to offer me I will take advantage of the great resources there. Here is a drawing that I scanned at the CLT:

Can a Picture Lie?



Does this photo of Oprah Winfrey seem off to you? Oprah is depicted on the cover of this TV guide looking much slimmer than she is on live television. This is because her photo has been manipulated and cropped. This image is actually the head of Oprah and the body of actress  Ann-Margret. I chose this picture because it was striking to see such a recognizable woman looking unusually slimmer and scantily clad. I feel that this photo manipulation is detrimental to society because it creates an impossible and inappropriate ideal for both men and women.

This video clip shows how intensively celebrities have their image manipulated after a photo shoot. I chose this video of Leighton Meester, a well known female actress, to demonstrate how much her photograph changes from when it was initially taken to the published photo shopped version.

Excel Thus Far

This computer course CS 1300 has taught me how useful Excel can be. I work at an art gallery and I have been required to use spreadsheets for artwork inventory. Now that I know how helpful Excel can be, I feel much more comfortable using it at work. knowing little tricks of formatting and copying formulas makes my work much easier and makes me more efficient. I am sure my boss at SA Art Gallery will be pleased to see my improvements with office programs such as Excel.

Copyright

In class on Tuesday Jason Hardin, the Manager of Access Services at Trinity University, gave a presentation about copyright laws. He defined copyright as government recognized ownership. The creator of an idea or an invention ultimately has the right to control distribution and profit from it. Jason Hardin made the distinction between copyright and plagiarism by stating that copyright infringement is a crime, while plagiarism is an “academic sin” and unethical. Copyright laws began in the 1790s, and copywriting is mentioned in the constitution directly. Our government has always wanted to support copyright laws for the people to promote innovation and incentives to allow our government to grow. The term of a copyright is the author’s life plus 70 years. This time restriction issue on copyright brought up an interesting debate about Disney copyright laws. Originally the law stated that the copyright lasted for the author’s life plus 50 years. The creator of Disney is dead, and Disney’s 50 year anniversary was approaching back in 2000. This meant that Disney copyright laws would no longer be in effect and some Disney characters would be open to the public domain. Because Disney Company was still fully thriving, they wanted to retain their copyright laws so they lobbied for an additional 20 years of copyright protection. I feel that it is important to have copyright ownership as long as a person or company still exists.


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Network Diagram

It was very interesting to see the Trinity's Server Room in class. Jared Peck, the Systems Administrator gave us a brief overview of how the Trinity network runs and how it is all connected to the Ruth Taylor building.

Secret Spot

I wake in this building and return to this building every night. This is the entrance, and it is located far from the rest of campus. I chose to take a picture of this because I see it so frequently. I uploaded and edited my picture on Picnik.com. I heightened the contrast, saturation, and temperature because the original image was taken on a gloomy day and had a drab color palate. I also sharpened the picture, and added a border and text at the bottom. I have this image saved on my desktop and in my 4Mysterpix group folder on the Trinity network.

Joe Hatch Talk

I enjoyed having Joe Hatch talk in class because I learned some important safety tips and ways to avoid identity theft. I felt that the information he gave on using antivirus programs, avoiding phishing, and protecting ones online identity were very pertinent to everyone. My parents fell victim to identity theft online when a hacker found their bank information stored on a site. It is important to be aware what network you are on and whether or not it is protected. It is important for me as a trinity student to use TUsecure because TUsecure is protected while TUguest is not. Clean access is a security check within the network and creates a safe online environment. it is also relevant on macs.

I also found it interesting to note that 99% of the business world still uses windows. As for personal computers the mac is gaining popularity. if your computer is acting slow it may be due to a data sector failure. This causes your operating system to loop again and again because the sector has become corrupted. A program that can help make your computer run quickly is Ccleaner.com

Hello

My name is Kathleen, but I go by Katy. I drove to trinity this year from my home in LA, California. I bought an old 91 volvo over the summer and decided to drive it to school. The interstate 10 is a direct shot which made the road trip easy. my interests usually revolve around art and music. I am an art major, and I am still deciding between a cognitive science or psychology minor. I collect jazz vinyls, and I play the jazz guitar at Trinity. I am not very computer savvy so I am looking forward to taking this class and learning necessary computer skills. I would also like to become more computer literate for my job. I work at a local art gallery in san antonio and part of my work includes using spreadsheets and inventory work.

ksilva@trinity.edu