Powerpoint Slides: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

Powerpoint presentations can be very effective in distributing information to a large group of people, in a very fashionable way. However, there are things that can make a powerpoint turn into something that is boring and excessive. These are a few things that really bother me when it comes to powerpoint presentations.

1. The powerpoint presentation needs to have a nice background or colors that can catch the eye of the audience. There is nothing that I detest more than a powerpoint presentation that has white slides! However, the presenter needs to find a happy medium and not make the background of the powerpoint too flamboyant. This could cause the audience to be distracted from the information that is being displayed.
2. Another important aspect of the powerpoint is that the presenter doesn't overload the audience with too much information. This is essential because every presenter wants their audience to stay interested in the powerpoint, and too much information on one slide could cause the viewers to get bored!
3. Another mistake that most people make while doing powerpoint slides is using the excessive sound effects. A couple of these are alright in my opinion, but when used on every slide the audience gets very agitated.
4. Every speaker should know his information well! The presenter shouldn't read straight from the powerpoint and not be engaged with the audience that he/she is presenting to. Therefore it is important for the presenter to know his/her information well!
5. It's also important to make sure that the powerpoint isn't too long, either. This relates to the point of not having too much information on one slide. It is important to keep your presentation short, sweet, and to the point, so the audience won't lose interest!

Powerpoints are great ways to give information and do it in a fun and interesting way. Powerpoints allows a specific audience to see the main points and ideas of a broad topic, also. The most important thing to remember, however, is that a powerpoint is only as good as the presenter!

AT&T Center for Learning and Technology

Today, we visited the AT&T Center for Learning and Technology on the first floor of the Coates Library. We learned that the CLT has 26 computers that include both Macs and PCs. There are 14 Macs, 12 PCs, and 11 scanners that I counted in the CLT. The CLT is primarily geared for faculty and students to assist them in any matter for academic learning. The CLT is a great place for studying because it allows students to get away from the noise that might occur on the 3rd floor of the library, but also have access to a computer. CLT is great for video and multimedia projects. You are also able to convert things into different formats and convert movies to DVDs in CLT. CLT also has a video conferencing room, where the person using it can talk to up to 20 people at simultaneously, at any given time. I was also able to scan a neat little drawing of myself at CLT also!

Photo Manipulation

The photo that I chose was a picture of Martha Stewart on the cover of "Newsweek". The picture was manipulated by placing the head of Martha Stewart on the slimmer body of a model. Martha's head was placed on this body, to make Martha have a more slimming, attractive body figure. This manipulation is a positive influence because it could possibly make women insecure about their body and also, make them take extreme measures to have this type of body, which in turn could cause serious health problems.







Also, I found this short video that talks about the manipulation of photos in the media. This is an important issue because media is very influential in today's society. This video talks about whether or not photo manipulation should be banned in the media because it can cause problems for both men and women in today's society. Photo manipulation can mess with a female's confidence level and make her have a unattainable idea of what beauty and perfection is. Therefore, the female might take extreme measures such as: eating disorders or plastic surgery, to achieve this goal. Also, this can affect men as well. Men might start to have higher expectations of women, which could cause problems for couples.