Advice

This class was very useful! Some skills, like Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, you may be familiar with. Even in these units, you can pick up advice for how to make your documents look better, or time saving tips. Others, however, you may have limited or no experience with, like Microsoft Excel, Photoshop Elements, or Microsoft Expression Web. Also, you'll be introduced to useful websites like Picnik, Wordle, FindSounds, etc. You may that these skills may be useful in other classes. In fact, I used the Sound Database for a movie I made in my Media Interpretation class, and Picnik for a presentation for my Dramatic Literature course!

One problem you may experience, however, is that there are many differences betweeen PCs and Macs. So I would advise practicing for quizzes, etc on computers here in Halsell or in the Library if you have a Mac.

Also, if you have any questions, Ms. Belisle is really good about responding quickly to email. So utilize this resource!

Don't be afraid to be creative! If you have a question about whether something is okay for a resource, ask Ms. Belisle. She'll probably be really encouraging.

Good luck this year and enjoy the course!

Favorite Classmates' Websites

I absolutely loved seeing my classmates' websites today. They are all so creative! One that really impressed me was CJ Roginson's. I loved the way he used photoshop elements to alter the colors of his photographs to match with the color theme of his site, and the fact that clicking on a different tiger led to a different surprise page. Another site that I liked was Lucy Cevallos'. The navbar she created in Photoshop elements was really cute and reflective of the overall tone of her website, which was cheerful and fun. She used lots of cute personal pictures as well. I also like John Nathan's website. The fact that he did his website on something he really cared about was a wonderful surprise, and he used high-quality, relevant pictures to illustrate his points. Great job to everyone in our class.

My Website

Please visit my website at www.cs.trinity.edu/~edooley1.

After studying HTML code, I figured making this website would be quite difficult, but using Microsoft Expression Web was actually a breeze. (I used Expression Web to build most of the site in class or in the CLT, and just tweaked a few things at home with KompoZer.) To do some of the more advanced things, like embedding video, etc, I had to do some hand coding , but most things I could do easily using the Expression Web menu bars.

I am especially proud of my “Relevant Experience” page. In addition to the text formatting, I was able to embed a film clip after visiting another website and right clicking, “view source.” I was also pleased that I was able to embed a downloadable PDF version of my resume for website visitors to print on the “Contact Me” page.

I might have changed the way the navbar worked, creating it perhaps in Expression Web rather than in Photoshop Elements. I wanted to somehow make it be highlighted when I was actually on that particlar page, but I’m not sure how to do that.

My biggest technical challenge was positioning the pictures exactly where I wanted them on the page. I wanted them to be aligned specifically with certain text elements, but it was difficult to do using tables. I used the “help” menu and discovered layers, which I used instead of tables.

My biggest design challenge was coming up with a home page that looked good on all computers (since some monitors are bigger than others). My first conceptualization included elements being left-justified, which didn’t look good on computers with huge monitors, as the left-justified elements actually appeared in the middle of the page. I ended up creating a homepage using centered elements instead, which I’m actually quite proud of. (I used Photoshop Elements.)

I created this website to be a companion piece to my resume. Since I am going into the communications field, I thought prospective employers might be interested in how I organized and presented my own information. Thus, I can present this website to prospective employers. I’ll also be sure to share it with my family and friends!

I know that the ability to create a website is a valuable skill in today’s job market. While I am likely create a website for another class, it’s also possible that I will create one in the course of my career.

Pictures that Lie

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A picture can't lie, goes the old adage. At one time, a photograph of an event was regarded as proof that it actually occurred. With the rise of photoshop, photoshop elements, and other photo editing software, however, this is no longer true. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Making a fantasy land where turtles fly and elephant-headed zebras with lion tails roam New York City can be entertaining. It's acceptable because the audience knows it's obviously a fake. It is also generally acceptable to blur a portion of an image to make superimposed text more readable, to crop an image to make it fit a page, etc. According to Nic Bishop, an award-winning photographer, "It's the scientific integrity of the picture itself that's important" (Bringelson). If viewers are aware that the photo has been manipulated, that manipulation isn't detrimental.

Photo manipulation becomes harmful--unethical, even--when an extensively altered photo is presented to the audience as the "real thing."

In one such instance, Lui Weiquang, a Chinese photographer, grafted a photograph of a group of endangered Tibetan antelopes peacefully grazing onto a picture of the new Qinghai-Tibet railway, which had been regarded as disruptive to the antelope population. By so doing, Weiquang "justify[ed] the controversial project as environmental friendly" ("Photo of Antelopes Unperturbed..."). In fact, the photo was titled, "Qinghai-Tibet Railway Opening, Green Passageway for Animals. He later admitted to the manipulation, admitting that he had waited for two weeks for the animals to come near the train, but that "they never did." I wonder why, Lin. It's because, clearly, the railway was disturbing to the antelopes.

This story inspired my photo. I wanted to create a photo supporting a controversial economic move, not because I myself support it, but to show how easily companies could alter photographs to protect their own interests. So, I created an image in which a dolphin is frolicking (presumably happily) in the midst of an oil spill (something that would never happen--in fact, oil in the water can lead to hypothermia, congested lungs/damaged airways, eye and skin lesions, and secondary organ dysfunction, to name a few. For more information, click here). It is the type of photo that could have been used by a company like Exxon-Valdez could have used after their oil spill to prove that they didn't really do that much harm.

Had I actually published the photo for an oil company, it would have been extremely harmful, as it might have caused an audience member to believe that oil spills are not harmful to marine life. It is "very important," Nic Bishop asserts, "never to produce a photograph that is being manipulated in such a way that it shows incorrect behavior of an animal" (Bringelson). Clearly, this image is depicting the incorrect behavior of an animal. (Because it was made for educational purposes, of course, it's fine.)

Using the magnetic lasso tool, I extrapolated the dolphin from its original photograph and put it on a layer in front of the oil spill picture. Then, I duplicated the background, cropped it to about half its size, feathered it, and layered that over the dolphin's tale, creating the illusion that the dolphin was leaping out of the water. In addition, I made the oil spill picture look less disgusting by going to enhance, color, change hue and saturation; I made the reds and yellows less saturated and lighter, and the blues more saturated. Lastly, I added a text layer, changed the font style, matched the font color to the color of the water, and added a bevel. (You can see the original photos at the bottom of this post.)

Let this be a lesson--next time you look at an image, keep in mind the fact that it just may have been doctored.



Bringelson, Carin, and Nick Glass. "Tenacity and Ethics of Scientific Photography."
School Library Monthly 26.7 (2010): 25. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web.
12 Apr. 2010.
"Effects of Oil on Marine Wildlife." Global Marine Oil Pollution Gateway. United Nations
Environmental Program. Web. 13 Apr. 2010.
"Photos of Angelopes Unperturbed by Tibet Train Exposed as Fake." Tibetan Review: The Monthly Magazine on all Aspects of Tibet 43, no 3 (March 2008): 4. Academic Search Complete. EbSCOhost. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.

HTML code... Why Bother?

With sophisticated web-design software such as Expression Web or Kompozer easily accessible, it may seem like knowing HTML code is an outdated skill. However, it can actually be pretty useful. Firstly, if you're having a problem with your webpage, going to the HTML source code can make diagnosing the problem easier. Secondly, if you see an aspect of another person's website you like, you can right click anywhere on the page, choose "view source," copy the section of code pertaining to the aspect you like, make a few changes, paste it into the HTML code of your webpage, and voila, you've added that aspect to your page.

Presentations

Today's class was really interesting! Not only did I get to see seom excellently designed powerpoints and some wonderfully delivered presentations, but I also got to learn about my classmates interests.

One presentation that really stood out to me was Lucy Cevallos' presentation on Neurology. From the begining, the graphics really caught my eye. She used high-quality images that went well with her topic, and then matched her slide backgrounds and text colors to those pictures. She used these pictures to supplement what she was saying, instead of reading text off the slides that dictated her performance. Additionally, her inclusion of the youtube video about the young girl who had been given her life back after brain surgery was not only interesting, but a call to action! I liked the way she showed us only a portion of the video--that left us wanting more. However, the very best thing about her presentation was that you could tell she was passionate about her topic. She communicated to us her her enthusiasm in a way that made us want to check out the neurology field.

Another presentation I really enjoyed was Hunter Ramsy's presentation on sharks. Because he chose a narrow focus, he had time to cover it in detail. The title slide really got the audience engaged and interested in his presentation--the music he included put the audience in just the right mood, as did the dramatic entrance anamation of the shark photo. I also really liked that he put his facts in terms we could relate to. It's hard to imagine the lenght of a great white shark when given a number of feet, but when he said, "that's the lenght of two basketball goals," I found myself invisioning a terrifying beast. It really put it it perspective. His video wrapped up the presentation in a wonderful way. The best thing about this presentation was his delivery; he sounded energetic, and also used pasuses in a masterful way to create subtle suspense.

Powerpoint Tips

Powerpoint is a great tool--as long as you don't let it take the driver's seat in the presentation.

Here are some tips so that your powerpoint adds to your presentation:

1. Do not, I repeat, do not read directly off your slides. The audience can do this off their own. Use the slides only to aid you in making your point, not to make the point for you.

2. Use high quality images. Believe me, if your audience has seen many presentations, they've probably seen many of the pics in the clip art library. You want your presentation to stand out in their mind. Try visiting a site like artstor for excellent images. (Google images can be a great resource too.)

3. Have a consistent theme. If you use a million different font styles, backgrounds, etc, your audience will wind up feeling frustrated and confused.

4. Use audio and video. They can make your presentation look very professional. You can import music from your itunes library, or visit the Find Sounds database for sound effects to download.

5. KISS. "Keep it simple, stupid." It's a phrase used often by elementary school teachers, but it holds true in many situations, particularly in ours. Including pictures and perhaps a bit of text on your slides can benifit your presentation. But if you put too much text on your slides, your audience will spend their time trying to take in everything on the slides that they won't be listening to YOU.