Visit My Site!

www.cs.trinity.edu/~toliver2

Creating a website was harder than I thought. There were so many elements involved, and the layout was harder to create than I expected. I used Expression Web to create my website. I'm most proud of my Off the Runway page because I love the background and I think the colors flow very well. If I were to change something, I would have started earlier in creating my website! My biggest technical challenge was creating each of the pages and tabs in Microsoft Expression Web. My biggest design challenge was making sure all of the pictures fit together in a table. I would love to show the site to all of my friends!! In knowing how to create them now, I'm more motivated to create an even better one in the future!!

Larry Hechler Talk

Larry Hechler provided really great insight into what to look for when buying a computer, as well as showing us the different parts of desktop and laptop computers. He described how to take care of your computer, for example never using alcohol or ammonia based cloths to clean your screen. He said that although Macs may be more expensive, other computers such as Toshiba are just as good and may last just as long. I thought the parts of the computer were very cool, because they are so easily dismountable. it is very important to take care of your computer because each part of it is unique and may be very expensive. In my next computer I'm going to look at where the parts were made as well as the warranty on the computer.

Photo Fakery

I chose a picture from when I went hiking with my boyfriend Bryan and our husky, Boris. The nature was very beautiful and I thought the picture was funny because Boris is walking right beside me. The picture originated from the Salado Creek Greenway, where we went walking the other day. It was manipulated by changing the hue and the saturation, as well as the lighting. I also inserted a picture of a dinosaur and used the magnetic lasso tool in order to crop it to enter it into the picture. It was manipulated because I wanted to bring out the colors in the forest, accentuate the dinosaur by changing the lighting effects and focusing on him, and I was pointing in the original picture at nothing, so I thought it'd be fitting to put in a picture of some sort to draw the eyes to it. The manipulation was not harmful, just fun, unless people are traumatized by the thought of flying dinosaurs. The picture really didn't relate to the article, because the article I found mainly talked about photo manipulation in the newsroom, and the common public wouldn't think twice to believe this picture!!              

I thought the article was very interesting, because it discusses the harmful effects of photo manipulation pertaining to real life, focussing on the newsroom. The author discusses how photo manipulations occur in order to help defend a story or dismiss an opposing position, and even to create drama or draw interest fro the public. The author notes how it is more possible for photo manipulations to take place in big, complex newsrooms. She states how it is unethical to do so, and that photo manipulation when it pertains to news is unacceptable and does not follow ethical standards. 

Lowrey, Wilson. "Normative Conflict in the Newsroom: The Case of Digital Photo Manipulation." Journal of Mass Media Ethics 18.2 (2003): 123. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Nov. 2010.

Powerpoint Presentations

My own presentation, on neonatal stress, was very fun to present because I am fascinated by this subject, and I would even like to focus on it when I have to give a presentation for my neuroscience experiment. I learned a lot more about the causes of this stress, such as neglect, as well as how pregnancy or (prenatal) stress affects newborns. I liked the fact that I was able to discuss the chemicals involved, and how cortisol plays a role in stress, which we have learned in my neuroscience course. I might've given more information on the chemical pathway of stress so that there is more background to understanding why stress occurs and why it can be so damaging.
I really enjoyed Katie Garrett's presentation on medical anthropology. This subject fascinated me. I thought the video was really important and insightful and the information she gave was very relevant to today's society and it needs to be brought to attention and focused on. I really liked the layout of the presentation as well.
I also really liked Sophie's presentation, because it was fun and I found it to be very interesting and I don't know much about even planning. I really liked the youtube video!! Also, the pictures and animations were beautiful! The content about the planning was very interesting because it seems like so many details are involved!

Chris Nolan Talk

Our Assistant Librarian, Chris Nolan, came to speak to us about search engines. He described several, and mentioned that one of his favorites was Bing. It was very interesting to learn about all of the capablilites of sites such as the Coates Library online database, and google. I learned that google offers many possibilities to narrow down a search, such as advanced search. Something new I learned was that you can simply define a word by writing define:word in Google. Google offers Google Scholar, which provides the user with only academic sources, which is very useful when writing research papers which I frequently have had to do. I also learned the importance of credible sources. Many sites contain false information, and I was surprised to learn that educational sites that usually end with .edu or organizations .org, have now been being displayed on websites that are not in fact educational at all, one example being wikipedia. When trying to figure out if a site is a credible source, it is important to note who the author is, and there should be a background provided about him/her, as well as other links to other works or their profile.