Advice For New Students

If you want to do well in this class, do all your homework and come to class! It is really hard to make up missed classes because you learn a lot in class. Then, the homework is really hard if you didn't learn the methods in class! Also, don't be afraid to be fun and creative. Creativity will take you very far! One last thing to remember, make sure to read all homework directions carefully to avoid losing points on something easy because of a stupid mistake! Enjoy this class, you will learn a lot!!

Favorite Websites

My favorite websites were Lucy's, Neyaz's and Erin's. Lucy's was very fun and interesting and I loved her use of colors and her navbar. Neyaz'z was really creative and I loved her use of various fun and interesting backgrounds. I liked Erin's because everything went together really well and it provided a really cool resume type page for her to show people. Everyone in the class did an awesome job!

My Website

Please visit my website at http://www.cs.trinity.edu/~agarcia6!

Making this website was actually way easier than I thought it would be. Using web design software like Expression Web makes it so easy, anyone could do it! I am most proud of my navigation bar as I worked really hard to create it in photoshop. I think if I could have changed anything, I would have done more elements in photoshop. Unfortunately I had very limited time to work so I didn't get to do as much as I wanted. My biggest challenge was trying to remove the blue link border on my music page. I tried to make the border white but it just kept changing back to blue so I ended up just leaving it without a border. My biggest design challenge was the tables! They were kind of hard to work with and make them do what you wanted. I will show my website to anyone who desires to see it. I could possibly make another site for a different class and hopefully I would have more time to make a really good one!

Why HTML?

Even though there are programs such as Expression Web and KompoZer, it is still good to know basic HTML. For example, if there was something wrong with the web page, you could go in and use your knowledge of HTML to fix it. Also by knowing HTML, you could see someone else's website with some really cool aspect and be able to figure out how they did it and add it to yours. Understanding the basics is the key to almost anything, including building a website.

My Photo That Lies

I chose a picture of Nancy Pelosi and a picture of a random convict to manipulate. In 2009 Nancy proposed a law that those without health insurance would be fined and incarcerated for up to 5 years. This manipulation was kind of a play on that situation in which she is the one going to prison for such a ludicrous idea. The two pictures I used were just found on Google images. I manipulated the images by first cropping the mugshot as it had too much space in the background. Then I got Pelosi's face out of the second image using the magic lasso tool and moved it to the first image. I cloned the chin and some excess hair a bit to make it seem a little more realistic. I desaturated the face and made it a little darker. Then I selected the skin of the convict and messed with the saturation and brightness until it was just about the same color as Nancy's face. I manipulated it in order to show that Pelosi's proposal of jail time for those without health insurance should land her in jail as many innocent people could be hurt if her idea would have been implemented. This manipulation has the possibility of being harmful as someone who saw it might think that she was really in jail and that she needs to be removed from her job. According to the article I found, this image would be an example of photojournalism manipulation that is never allowed as you cannot add or move objects from pictures. "Good photo enhancement should be like good copyediting—the goal is to improve the message, not create science fiction." This quote from my article pretty much sums up the point of the whole thing. Photo manipulation can be allowed as long as it isn't done to deceive. My picture would not be considered ethical in any way as it is a blatant attempt to deceive. In order to manipulate a picture ethically, it must be done in such a way that the meaning of the photo is not changed. You can make the photo look nicer, but as in the case of my photo that lies, you cannot create something that doesn't really exist.

Salvo, Suzanna. "True Lies." Communication World 25.5 (2008): 26-30. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.

Powerpoint Presentation Evals

There were some really awesome Powerpoints shown in class. It was very hard to choose but I would have to say that my favorites were Lucy's and Tori's. Lucy's presentation on neurology was interesting and intriguing and left me wanting to know more. She had a very creative way of showing us what she is passionate about. Her design was great as she had tons of neat pictures and not a lot of words. Also, the video she showed us was really touching. Overall it was an awesome Powerpoint! Tori's presentation on preschool teaching was really cool. I loved the layout as it went with her theme perfectly. Her videos were interesting and I learned a lot about the underlying lessons hidden in fun preschool games. I loved her design and the content made me want to know more!

Powerpoint

The PowerPoint articles we had to read were very helpful in showing what to do and what not to do when it comes to making a PowerPoint presentation. There were some great pointers in how to make a great presentation such as:
1. Keep it Simple
2. Use high quality graphics instead of Microsoft clip art
3. Use colors in a way that invokes emotion
4. Use fonts that are easily seen and readable
5. Limit the use of text
Something that annoys me about bad PowerPoints are fonts that are impossible to read. I hate when people use font that is too loopy to decipher or font that is too close to the color of the background.