Blog 13

What applications do you use most often on your computer? Why? Is it related to school? Work? Fun?

What would you rather be doing right now?

Most of the time, when I’m on my computer, I am browsing the internet with Firefox. I recently started putting add-ons into Firefox, and now I don’t even have to leave the browser to play music or even check the weather. It’s pretty cool. Other than Firefox, I’m mostly using word, itunes, and utorrent for a combination of fun and school related activities.

Honestly, right now I would really like to be sleeping, but since that’s not happening, I suppose hanging out in this class isn’t too bad.

Blog 12

Go out and look up alternative tools besides Power Point. Which ones did you find? Are they better? Worse? Why?

In my search for alternatives to powerpoint, I stumbled upon this list of powerpoint alternatives. http://mashable.com/2008/02/16/forget-powerpoint-online-presentations/

While exploring several of these alternatives, I discovered that a few of them were inferior, both in the fact that they had inferior graphical qualities and rely upon the user having access to the internet to operate them. However, others, such as Google Documents, were highly comparable to the familiar powerpoint program. I think it’s quite excellent that there are viable alternatives to powerpoint out there on the internet. It’s pretty cool.

Blog 11

Talk about your experience of the last couple of weeks in terms of working on the Tasks, using the software, and working with your Team.

What are the most important tools you have used up until now and why?

In the last few weeks, I have definitely learned new things regarding the software we have been using. I was familiar with all of the programs before, but only in a wide sense. I now know how to do more complex things in the programs that I did not know how to do before. Working on our tasks has developed these skills much more than anything else. With the tasks, we have to use the things we’ve learned and in the process learn more. I find the tasks to be much more productive than the labs.

Working as a team has been excellent, and I think the most important tool in the class has been my partner. When one of us doesn’t know something, the other generally does, and if neither of us know what to do, generally one of us comprehends and solves the problem faster than the other and is able to explain it to the other. It’s an excellent two way street that has genuinely helped me, and hopefully my partner as well.

Blog 10

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/powerpoint/images/2OutlineWeb.gif

That first link is an example of a good powerpoint outline. It is a good outline because it is concise and briefly explains what each slide and bullet will be about without becoming too detailed for an outline.

http://www.allaboutoffice.co.uk/powwdo27.jpg

The second link is an example of a terrible outline. It is far too short and is indecipherable to anyone but the one who wrote it. The only person who could build a presentation from that outline is the person who wrote it, and that makes it a bad outline.

Blog 9

Your blog for this week is a reflection on the semester so far. What has gone well? What has been problematic? What have will you do differently for the rest of the semester?

This semester has gone well so far. I have enjoyed working in a group with Christina, and I think we are pretty productive together. Our biggest setback was when our third group member dropped the class without telling us, leaving us to completely restructure how we went about our first task. After that, however, we’ve been working pretty well together. Another, more personal problem I’ve been having, is getting the labs in on time. I’ve learned from the labs, but sometimes the mere act of doing them is so daunting that I put it off for far too long.

Something I would like to do differently for the final half of the semester would be to get my labs in on time. I would also like to finish our tasks sooner than we have been. Overall, though, I’d have to say I’ve enjoyed my time in this class.