Powerpoint

Powerpoint is a very resourceful program that allows one to visually present their data in an organized way. However, because there are so many cool tools that you can use to enhance your presentation, a lot of people get carried away and it ends up making their powerpoint worse. Five things that I dislike about powerpoint are: 1. I don't like when people use crazy colors and backgrounds to the point where it overshadows the information they are trying to convey. This happened a lot in high school when we'd make presentations, and people would put more time in choosing the colors and the backgrounds than preparing the information. 2. I do not like it when you can't read the writing on the slide. This bugs me because people don't seem to check to see if the text is visible. 3. However, on the flipside, I don't like it when a powerpoint has no color or photos. I do believe pictures and a nice background enhance the presentation because it captivates the audience and makes it look like you tried. I think there needs to be a good balance between overdoing it and making it look professional and presentable. 4. I do not like it when the words on a certain slide appear on the screen one at a time, accompanied by the annoying swooshing sound. 5. I also don't like it when the speaker only relies on the slides to present their information. I think powerpoint should be used as an aid, but the speaker needs to effectively articulate their presentation with their words.
All of that being said, I do believe powerpoint is a huge tool in helping people communicate and articulate their research, project, or any other source of information. I believe this because it allows the speaker to utilize visual, sound, and video aids within their presentation. It can also serve as a talking guidlines, so they stay organized and so they don't have to remember everything. For the audience, it can be helpful because they can visually see the main points the speaker is presenting. Powerpoints can be utilized in vitually every sector of professions, be it education, business, or the humanities. Educators can present their lessons to students using powerpoint. This is a very common method of aiding teachers.

CLT Visit

I found our visit to the AT&T CLT center very interesting. I thought it was really cool because I haven't really utilized all the resources the center has to offer. It was awesome to see all the Macs and PCs available to us students. Additionally, when Robert Chapman showed us the sound recording studio, I was amazed by the equipment that every student here at Trinity has access to. Robert Chapman talked about all the uses the center has, including it's ability to record sound, edit videos, photoshop, and a lot of other softwares. I realized that the center has a lot of uses that I can take advantage of for not only this class, but for my other classes as well. I think I will use the photoshop software in the center when we have photoshop assignments because the computers are equipped with an advanced version. Also I can use the software on these computers to edit videos that I record. For my job in the education department, my boss has me edit recordings of teachers, so that they can watch themselves teach. This enables them to learn how to become a more effective teacher. I can come to the CLT center to edit the videos because the computers in the education department are not as nice and efficient. Overall, I realized all the resources the CLT center has to offer. I think it's a really good place where you can study, record music, edit videos, and use photoshop!

The Abilities of Photoshop

For my photoshop blog, I decided to select the image of OJ Simpson on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazine. I decided to use these images because I think it accurately reveals the great effects and potential of photoshop. These images stirred up a lot of controversy, and photoshop and picture alteration certainly played a part in distorting the image. The image on the cover of Time is the photoshopped mug shot. The picture is Simpson's original mug shot. The photo was manipulated by dramatically darkening Simpson's face, which makes Simpson appear more "killer-like" because he appears angrier and more threatening. The photo was manipulated because Time believed it would grab more peoples attention if Simpson appeared more frightening and it would draw people into buying their magazine because they would want to know why he appeared on the cover. There are many perspectives in determining whether the manipulation was negative or detrimental, however I believe that photoshop ultimately was negative for this photo. Because the photo was manipulated, OJ Simpson was portrayed as a dark, menacing killer. Fair or not, the media altered his mug shot so they could sell more copies of their magazine. I believe that is wrong to harm someone else's image for financial gain.
I also selected a short Youtube clip on photo editing and image manipulation. I decided to use a video that was more of a practical, positive tool. The video outlines the various uses and abilities of photoshop. The uses that they highlighted were: photo touch-ups (for blurry or faded photos), the ability to add special effects (enhanced coloring), to look slimmer and younger, and colorizations. I think the point and message of this video is that photoshop and image manipulation can improve your photos, regardless of the problem. There are many tools that are out there that can help your pictures, so they hope that people recognize the vast abilities of photoshop to improve their photos!