Advice for New Students!

The best advice I could give to new students taking this course is simple: Come to class and listen! We go over everything in class so homework goes by quickly. If you don't come to class and follow along, homework and tests will be made much more difficult. If you have a question, ask. Once you understand the concept, you can use it for fun or practicality outside of class!
Good luck!

Great Websites!

I really enjoyed Emily Gray's website. I thought that the background really accented the images she used. My favorite pages of hers was her music and favorite artists pages. It was nice that the music artists were linked to their page where you could listen to them.
Another website that stood out to me was Daniel's. The backgrounds pertaining to each of the sports teams were very fun and a great idea. The links were very useful and a good use of thumbnails.
However, my favorite website was Emily Hilliard's. The colors were great and all of the image maps really caught my attention. I could easily browse through her website and the links to the candidates views and websites are very informative. The overall layout was creative and visually appealing.
Check out my website at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~abusch
Thanks!

HTML Code

HTML is important to understand when designing websites no matter what software is used. HTML is like the alphabet of websites and in order to advance in design it needs to be understood. Web designers should be able to use HTML code because that is the foundation of what they are doing and in case something goes wrong they need to be able to work with HTML to fix it.

Great Presentations

I enjoyed many of the presentations, but there were a couple that stood out to me due to their unique designs and clear layouts. One of these PowerPoints that I especially liked was one about Golf Pro Instructors by Dan Maurer. I knew very little about this topic and his presentation did a nice job presenting the information with great pictures and creative additions. I liked the original background and the bouncing golf ball animation. He used the perfect amount of text that supplemented the verbal presentation with relevant information. The use of links in the presentation enhanced the presentation along with the use of video.
The second PowePoint that I thought was especially good was Mica Segal's. The story she presented was very interesting and was made even more interesting with the attention grabbing images on every slide. The color scheme complemented the pictures and the lack of text made the audience focus on what she was saying. The fact that she had her slides timed was very impressive. Her images helped tell the story without the use of text and helped the class gain an deeper understanding. Overall, these two presentations did a great job in presenting the information and did so in a visually appealing way!

The Do's and Don'ts of PowerPoint

I have seen a lot more PowerPoint presentations than I have given, and from viewing the good and the bad I appreciated the advice given in the article "Top Ten Slide Tips." There is nothing more annoying than a PowerPoint that you cannot read because of lime green font against a pale yellow background, or five different images and animations going on at once. I think the most important tip given in the article is number one, "Keep it Simple." As long as your PowerPoint has images that are relevant and supplement your presentation, they will not overbear the rest of your information. Too many unnecessary visuals end up distracting the audience instead of engaging them. In order to keep their attention you must have an attention grabbing, yet clear PowerPoint. One of the other articles talked about the use of clip art. I never thought about how unprofessional these really are and how much better your PowerPoint could be if alternative images were used. After reading these articles I made my own list of guidelines that I find important:
DO
1. Clean, Clear and Simple
2. Visually Appealing, but Relevant
3. More Visual (images), Less Text (bullet points)
4.Use Backgrounds and Animations that Allow the PowerPoint to Flow
5. Use Video and Charts Only When it Enhances Your Message
DON'T
1. Use Hard to Read Fonts
2. Clip art You've Seen Before
3. Distracting Animation
4. Write Everything You're Going to Say
5. Write Sentences or Paragraphs

Searching on Google

What I found most interesting in Chris Nolan's presentation were the facts about exactly how Google works. I use it all the time and have always wondered why some searches were separated from others, and how they decide what order to put the websites in. When you search something on Google, usually an extremely long list of websites turns up on your screen. Every time there are a two or three websites that are separated at the top. From the presentation I finally found out that this is because these websites are sponsored. This is the same for the websites that appear to the side. This is how Google makes its profit. As far as the rest of the lists of websites go, relevancy is the determinant of order. Google ranks these websites by the words in your search that are frequently mentioned. Popularity also plays a part; the websites at the top of the page have more links from other websites, which usually means they're more relevant and reliable. For example the CNN websites has more weight because it is a major website. This is good to know when searching on Google. After learning about Google's search process, I understand why most people, including myself, only browse through the first page of a search and now I know that this is also the most efficient way of searching Google as well.

Copyright laws and Illegal Downloads

I thought it was very interesting to learn about the history of copyrights and how they have changed from the past. Now that the copyrights have been extended from 14 to 75 years, the protection of copyright on this group is coming to an end. Before the guest speaker, I was unaware of the effects this extension had. However, what I found most intriguing was the process that goes into identifying and notifying a student if they have broken a copyright law. I had heard previously that college students were the primary targets for finding illegal downloading. This seems absurd when the actual percentage of total song downloading traffic by college students is 4%. The reason for the suspicion of high education is the fact that fast networks are involved. Although the percentage is small, it may still be a problem that is only developing. I understand the business side of this issue because illegal downloading has a severe impact on companies' profits. It is necessary for them to take action when their work is stolen and being distributed freely. Although I am a student who does not take advantage of illegal downloads, I believe a compromise can be reached between the money making businesses and students and citizens who are involved in this illegal traffic. The extents that the businesses go to in order to find such specific downloads is unnecessary, along with the extreme fines that most likely follow. I don't see the need to take such drastic measures, but suggest a happy medium be found.