PowerPoint Presentation Reviews

My favorite PowerPoint presentations were those belonging to Travis Halff and Moira Allen. Halff used humor to his advantage while utilizing animation to nicely emphasize his point. Halff's slideshow background was simplistic which allowed for all attention to go to his lively graphics and slide transitions. The use of animation in this presentation was great and kept the crowd interested. Although his content wasn't intellectually deep, his thoughtful design and product choice captured the class' attention and made me want to immediately order a Shake Weight. Oh, and I throughly enjoyed the Rory Davidson accent that Halff used while presenting. Moira Allen's presentation was delightful. I really appreciated the Indiana Jones theme that was made constant throughout the presentation. The font, background, and taglines all complemented one another nicely. I thought that Allen's technique was captivating and entertaining. Although the font was hard to read at times because the orange blended into the background of dirt, her enthusiasm kept the presentation My favorite part of it all was when m demonstrated how musuem curation affects us in San Antonio. Furthermore, after she was done, I wanted to immediately take a trip to the McNay! Nice work, presentation and creativity Moira and Travis!

Beware of the PowerPoint

Dear Classmates,
After reading the articles that Ms. Belisle posted for us, I began to fret that come class time, I would be bored with dreary PowerPoint presentations. But, alas, I remembered that you too were reading the articles, and therefore I would not have to sit through the drone of a horrible presentation. I think that the posted readings are very helpful in identifying major downfalls that can come upon a presentation. To make sure that we don't forget everything that was just read, let me remind you of some key points to avoid in the creation and presentation of a PowerPoint show:
1) Make it simple - people get frustrated and confused if the slides have too many details and distractions, thus the audience subsequently stops paying attention
2) Use video or sound - something to grab your audience's attention and wake them up if they are snoozing is always a good idea
3) Choose fonts well - complicated and numerous fonts frustrate the audience and they stop paying attention
4) Limit bullet points and text - remember, a PowerPoint is supposed to aid you in presenting, you should be doing a lot of the talking while the show keeps your audience engaged in the topic. Don't crowd your slides, you will lose your audience!
5)Spend time sorting your slides - make sure that your presentation has a nice flow and is cohesive. If necessary, use the slide organizer to re-group your thoughts to be more easily understood and comprehended.

Friend or Foe?

This picture collage is representative of the various emotions that can be displayed throughout a friendship, and it offers advice on what action to take when a relationship may not be going well.

Finding High Quality Information On The Internet

Last class, Chris Nolan, Assistant University Librarian at Trinity University's Coates Library gave a presentation that concentrated on commonly used search engines and the information that can be found with their usage.
Something new that I learned pertained to the order that results are displayed after a search is conducted. How can one website appear on the first page of results when another is on page fifty-three? Mr. Nolan said that this can occur if a website puts a common search term in their encoding, or fills their first paragraph with words that are common search terms but unrelated to the site's actual purpose.
The most surprising thing he said was that when a search is conducted, the results showing up may not be a website, but could be information on a spreadsheet or another document saved onto a computer. The search engine is able to use those files and construct an answer in the form of a result webpage.