Katie's Computer Skills Space

NEW STUDENTS!!!

2009-04-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

My piece of advice for you, is first to keep up with your assignments. It's easy to forget. Also two, enjoy having Professor Belisle! She's so sweet and kind! It's a good class, and you will learn so much more than you thought you ever would going into it! Good luck:)

Classy Class Pages

2009-04-27T21:21:00.001-07:00

Wow! I loved looking through every one's web pages! They were all so different and reflective of their creators. I thought Ryan Buckrei's site was particularly well put together. He chose a topic very important to him, martial arts, and explained it in full detail with great images and photo shop creations to support it. I also loved Adain's because it was so creative and fun. It's style portrayed his personality and unique sense of humor. Nick Hargreave's website was one of my favorites. It was really fun and interesting with all his pictures, short and sweet descriptions, and of course its super cool navbar. I also loved how he talked about a passion I share-music! I love music, so that's why I dedicated my whole site to music, a band in a particular--Kitsch from Austin/Dripping Springs, TX. Check it out at www.cs.trinity.edu/~kdoucet. Enjoy! :)

Class Power Points

2009-04-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

First of all I'd like to congratulate everyone on a wonderful job. All the projects were creative and interesting. Everyone seemed so passionate about their subjects. I believe that Jenny Zeberlein's presentation on Pediatric Therapy was a nice reflection of her personality. I don't know her, but I could certainly tell that she possesses a sweet temperament great for working with children John Runge did an excellent job on his slides with a nice color coordination that go along with his sports writing interest. I really enjoyed Adan's project since I have a great interest in music as well. I have considered getting into the music production field and it was interesting learning more about it and the field's prominent figures. Taylor Hoyt's slides were elegant and beautiful, nicely complementing the art of Chinese Writing. I was moved by Taylor Burden's presentation on D-Day. He did an excellent job of portraying a serious and thoughtful mood. I have wonderful things to say about everyone's presentations. You all did such a fantastic job.:)

The Power in Point

2009-03-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

The key to a successful PowerPoint is simply remembering the cliche, yet truthful phrase "less is more." Here are five important points to help you with this.

1. Limit text and bullets-Don't be too "wordy".
2. Never read your PowerPoint
3. You are the presentation-Your PowerPoint is a compliment to you not a repeat of your
words
4. Chose display wisely-Make sure colors, fonts and designs are carefully chosen and not
distracting
5. Connect with the audience-make sure your PowerPoint is both interesting and relevant
to your audience

Good luck with your presentations and remember to smile!;)

Excel Rocks My World

2009-03-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

When I first entered the class, I knew barely anything about excel. However, I feel much more confident in my excel abilities. Since I am considering a double major in business and communications, I know that knowledge of excel will definitely help me if I chose this path. In business, excel will help me make spreadsheets for all areas of the business and help me stay organized. In my personal life, I create charts and spreadsheets for budgets. It's a quick and efficient way to manipulate large amounts of data, which can be used in any of your math and science classes. Excel is a very useful tool in all areas of life, academic and personal alike.

Computer Creativity

2009-03-03T10:38:00.000-08:00

The AT&T Center for Learning and Technology offers a wonderful collection of resources for students including scanners, Windows and Mackintoshes, laser printers, audio and video programs, and other multimedia and editing software. In the Digital Audio Lab, students and faculty can record and edit audio for presentations and projects. In the Media Presentation Lab, containing computers and video projection hardware, students can watch and manipulate videos and presentations. This center will prove helpful for both in class assignments and outside projects. Here we can create effective presentations, advertising commercials, etc. We can also use it to explore and learn by editing our band's songs or by creating home movies. It's open for the both students' needs and wants. The AT&T Center for Learning and Technology is a place of learning, innovation, creation, and freedom. Rock on!

Goodnight Moon and the Smoker's Dilemma

2009-03-03T07:18:00.000-08:00

I chose the last picture of Goodnight Moon illustrator Clement Hurd. The picture is on the dust jacket of the book where the illustrator's biography is located. However unlike the original version where Hurd is holding a cigarette, he instead has his hand open as if "trying to get someone to repay him 2o bucks." The picture was most likely manipulated so that his smoking habits would not influence the children who read his books. Worried parents were probably the promoters of the change and the printing company did not wish bad publicity or plunging sales. Obviously the picture does not reveal itself in its truest form, but I don't believe this particular case is harmful. The cigarette could be taken or left and would not make a difference to the purpose of the work, the children's story. I believe that perhaps the company made the right decision to alter the photo in order to save children's opinions of smoking.

Chris Nolan's Magical Presentation

2009-02-25T12:18:00.000-08:00

Chris Nolan gave us a great presentation on tips and ideas for making our web surfing more efficient and successful. Search engines such as google, dogpile, yahoo, and microsoft are extremely helpful in starting a search. Also using advanced key word searches or options such as google scholar, which I had no previous knowlege of, and google books are great ways to narrow down our searches even more. Google also allows you to add other engine links, suggest terms, and eliminate cookies from your search. Mr. Nolan also pointed out that directories such as Librarian's Internet Index, InfoMine, and Trinity Library lists are very helpful places to begin your search.
*One thing that I found surprising was that Google actually includes the original page or the link labled “cached” where google has indexed and highlighted all the key terms you're looking for.

America and the Epic Copyright

2009-02-04T19:26:00.000-08:00

I found it incredibly interesting that the copyright act was actually enacted in 1790, predating the United States Bill of Rights. Our founding fathers must have found the issue extremely important to the well-being of our country. They foresaw the need to allow creators of all sorts to protect their work and claim what is rightfully their own. I imagine they felt quite close to the issue, for America was their new creation that required their upmost protection.
As important as copyright is, I also believe that as the world becomes more and more technological and computerized, copyright issues are rising. So much information is produced daily and what is and is not protected under law can become very muddled and confusing to users. I feel that many people know when they are crossing the line and breaking a copyright law, but I also feel that there are those who do not even realize that the two songs they downloaded from the user-friendly website “X” are actually copyrighted and punishable by law. So much on the web is unclear and I feel that users who do not quite understand what is and is not copyrighted should have an advantage of talking to companies about their situation without being automatically fined. I suggest that if a company finds a person unclear what they have done and did not mean any harm to the company’s well being, that they should drop most of the cash-based penalty and instead require the person to take a course on copyright laws and issues.
I also understand that even if a person is unaware of their crime, they still may be costing the company profits. I propose that a company works to find out the intentions of the committer and then charge them accordingly to their intentions and the lost profits to a reasonable degree.

What's the deal with facebook?

2009-02-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

Facebook is the new social networking system.

For the longest time I refused to get a facebook, fearing a profile thousands could access. It wasn't until the summer before my senior year in high school that I finally decided to set up a facebook account in order to keep in contact with with my best friend Anna who was staying in Italy for a couple of years. I wasn't very interested in the whole process at first and checked it rarely. However, when I returned to school, I found numerous friend requests and friendly messages. I met up with people from long ago that I may have never seen again if it weren't for facebook. I became a fan.

Facebook has massively replaced handwritten letters, telephone calls, and even regular emails. It's an incredibly user-friendly system that allows easy communication and individualized creativity. You can share pictures and communicate with as many of friends as you want simultaneously.

Facebook has proven to be a great system for college students in particular. We are able to keep up with out-of-state and out-of-country friends and also set up meetings with groups and clubs from school. We can help each other with homework or just chat with friends. There are some downsides to facebook such as information leakage and the "stalkers". Everyone seems to know everything about everyone if you're not careful. Invasion of privacy is the greatest problem when dealing with facebook, but you can control the majority of information and set it to private so no one else can see except your closest friends and yourself. People are aware of what they display so if everyone knows theire business it's because either they want other people to know or they don't care if they do.

For more comments on facebook see:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1213/p13s01-legn.html

or to visit facebook see:
http://www.facebook.com/index.php

Word!

2009-01-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

I've always used word to do homework and personal writing assignments. It's great for essays and outlines. I admit that forgot about the drawing tools in word. There's so much you can do! Now that I know all about the drawing and writing tools in Word, I would really like to review everything else it has to offer.

Here's Who I Am

2009-01-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

Hello! My name is Katie Rose Doucet. I was born in Carmichael, California, but I grew up in Austin, Texas. I think of my soul in the Pacific Ocean but my heart in Texas. I graduated from Dripping Springs High School this past year, and I'm really enjoying all the new freedoms that come from college life. In Dripping Springs I live on fifty acres with four horses, four dogs, chickens, one cat, and my parrot Jojo. Here a couple pictures of my beloved Hill Country.
http://www.metronetiq.com/archives/texas%20hill%20country/Texas%20Hill%20Country.jpg
http://www.ranchesandrivers.com/images/waterhole.jpg
http://www.geocities.com/old_lead/alamogroup2.JPG
I have two brothers, J.D. who is 21 years old, an International Business and Economics major studying in Okinawa, Japan, and Michael, my little buddy, who is 12 years old and has the warmest heart you'll ever meet. I have a very musical family, both brothers and my dad play guitar and sing, which probably explains my passion for music. In my free time I love going to concerts and listening to music. Even though I'm not proficient yet, I am learning bass guitar and drums. As of now, I'm undeclared, but I am leaning towards doubling in Art and Communications with a minor in Spanish, or perhaps Philosophy. My dream is to attend Film School and write and direct my own films some day.
My secret fact is that I am related to Harry Rossoll, the U.S. Forest Service illustrator who created Smokey the Bear. (The one who who reminds all to put out forest fires.) We own some of the original bears and books.
My latest computer class was Digital Graphics in high school where I learned basic photshop and graphic design techniques. I'm looking forward to this semester!

kdoucet@trinity.edu