CS1300: Essential Computer Skills

A Word of Advice

2007-11-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

If you have any kind of doubts or are confused, ask questions immediently.

Favorite Websites and Stumpers

2007-11-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

My favorite websites were Patrick's, Spencer's and Miti's. Patrick's website was informative and I liked the pictures he used. Spencer's website had well organized collages and his pictures were really nice. His page on his Australian trip was interesting, too. Miti's website was extremely well laid out and the colors and pictures looked especially pretty.

I also liked Patrick's stumper. It was creative and the lighting was interesting. Xin Ma's stumper with the trees was beautiful.

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Trinity Stumper

2007-11-26T18:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture of a cozy study spot located somewhere on the Trinity campus. Can you guess where it is? (If you are really curious and desperately need to know the answer, you can e-mail me at kbrown1@trinity.edu for the answer.)

My Website

2007-11-20T08:48:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to my new webpage. I hope you enjoy it and take the time to check it out because I'm pretty impressed it actually works! Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Power Point Presentation

2007-10-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

My favorite three presentations were by Whitney Stanant, Xin Ma and Miti Matamoros. I thought they all had original ways of presenting their information. I liked Whitney's use of white space, making the point that your presentation should be interesting, and slides should be relatively full, with at least some color. I thought Xin Ma did an excellent job with all the audio and animations. Miti's presentation was ironic and I especially enjoyed her slide on animation.

I think the most important things to remember about Power Points are as follows:

1) Make sure you use correct grammar and spelling.

2) Present your information in a way that is interesting, but not distracting to viewers.

3) Slides should be short and concise, no paragraphs or lenghty sentences.

4) If you use any outside sources, cite them.

5) Don't go overboard with audio or visual clips, especially for professional power points.

Mary-Alice Brown

Below is a link to my "Bad" Power Point Presentation

http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~kbrown1/bad/How%20to%20Make%20a%20Bad%20Power%20Point_files/frame.htm

Copyright Laws

2007-09-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

Copyright laws protect everything from books, works of art end even items found on the Internet. They exist to protect the works of the authors of all types of works. If I were to publish a website and I wanted to use an image from another source, there are rules I would have to follow. Copyright law include "fair use", a rule that allows teachers, scholars and news reporters to use sources without permission as long an they cite the source. However, this rule only applies if the user is under short notice. If I planned ahead of time to use a picture from another source on my own website, it would be most appropriate for me to ask permission of the original author. Often times, people forget about citing sources, namely the Internet. Unfortunately, the Internet is no different than any other source, and users should be especially careful when copying words, images, or sounds bits from the Internet. Some cites, such as Stock.xchang, offer thousands of free images that require no citation. Nonetheless, if I wanted to use a source online, several websites offer useful advice on Copyright laws and how to cite sources.

Mary-Alice Brown

Web 2.0

2007-09-24T15:01:00.000-07:00

In the article, "What To Do About Web 2.0", the author, Andrew Keen, discusses the relevance of Web 2.0 as a marketing tool, and how much impact he believes it will have on online marketing. Keen uses the important example of Google spending $1.65 billion to purchase the much talked about YouTube. Some fear the "revolution" of 2.0, guessing that it will drastically change the relationship between online consumers and marketers. However, Keen compares the Web 2.0 hype to the same anticipation expressed when Y2K was upon us. Despite the terror of what would happen when the year 2000 rolled around, the actual event was pretty anti-climatic.
Keen warns online marketers against consumers who might take advantage of their anonymity, and present only negative feedback. Nonetheless, I must agree that though Web 2.0 seems a little odd and enormously popular, I don't believe it will drastically change our lives. The web just poses a new way of communication, advertising, and media, not a replacement. Though most will adapt and probably even partake in Web 2.0, I don't think it will drastically change anyone's way of life, whether or not they ever explore Web 2.0.

Mary-Alice Brown

Microsoft Word

2007-09-05T14:39:00.000-07:00

In the past, I only used Word for writing essays and papers I had for school. I rarely did anything else with Word,or Office in general. I've only done a few Power Point presentations and they were way back in middle school. I'd like to learn how to do much more with Word and Office. One thing I always used to get confused about was citing my papers. When I tried to indent in certain places, Word wouldn't let me, and my Works Cited pages never turned out correctly. I've noticed that the Office 2007 has a section for citing papers, and I'd like to review it.

Mary-Alice Brown

More on Mary-Alice Brown

2007-08-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well hello,

My name is Mary-Alice Brown. A lot of people are confused, because my first name is Kaitlyn, but for some reason no one ever called me by my first name, so it's Mary-Alice. I'm from a town called Edmond in Oklahoma. It's a nice place located right next to Oklahoma City. I went to a tiny private school called Heritage Hall in Oklahoma City. During high school I really enjoyed literature and the visual arts. Hopefully I'll pursue those more at Trinity but for now I'm focusing on some basics. Let's see, activities...I played softball for a year at Heritage, but I was so bad, I decided to just manage the team. While I'm at Trinity, I'd like to get involved in some form of community service and try out some new things. I'm not terribly interesting, but one thing people always find fascinating about me is that I had not four, but eight wisdom teeth removed. Apparently, that's extremely rare, so I guess that makes me special.

As for my computer background, I'm hopelessly lost. I use my computer (a Gateway laptop) for e-mail, the occasional paper, and of course, Facebook. But unfortunately, that's about as far as my skills go. I'm excited to learn a little more this semester though!

Mary-Alice Brown