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Today we visited the CLT in the library. Pictured here is my friend Bart enjoying the presentation. We learned that the CLT offers many kinds of software for design and editing. They also have a sound editing lab and have conference rooms available. Video cameras, digital cameras and other equipment is available for rent through the CLT. That is a very nice service that i'm sure I'll take advantage of!

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joey!

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My roomie and i on our chapel beach retreat!

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Websites

After listening to our guest speaker, Chris Nolan, the class was assigned to evaluate a website which we could choose from a specific list. The one I chose was www.whitehouse.org.

Do not do this.

The website, after a little bit of browsing, is obviously not the official website of the white house. The first red flag should have been that an official government website has the ".gov" domain. While I was perusing the website, which is clearly a spoof on Bush's politics and platform, I tried to look for the authors of specific "articles" only to find that there were no bylines. What I did find though was that at the bottom of the website there was an icon for "chickenhead.com" which I can only assume is the organization responsible for this lovely website.

This website obviously has no credentials other than being somewhat informed about what Bush's politics are supposed to be and then blowing them out of proportion for satirical purposes.

As far as design goes, it seemed a little busy and crammed, but overall easy to navigate. There were plenty of easy to find links, though I must admit I was a little wary to click on any of them for fear of destroying my computer. I felt a little like I was reading a tabloid-- you're kinda curious but at the same time you sort of feel like you're poisoning your brain.

There wasn't anything I particularly liked about the website. At first glance one might actually think it is a legitimate website, as long as he didn't read anything on the site, look at the advertisements or any of the website content.

Soccer Locker Zoho Show

This is a presentation I made in ZohoShow for class-- it is a bad advertisement from the yellow pages that I redesigned to incorporate the elements of design. ZohoShow is kind of like an online version of powerpoint. I think some of the features are more limited than powerpoint, I don't think you can do animation, but I think it is a very cool and useful website/program.

Copyright Issues

Copyright issues and plagiarism is something that I have had beaten into my brain since I was a sophomore in high school. I've been learning about it in English, Journalism class, Newspaper and various other classes that bring it up any time I have to write a paper or anything else.

One thing that I learned during the guest speaker, Diane Graves' presentation is the difference between copyright and plagiarism. Obviously, they are different things, but I hadn't ever really thought about the difference before. For example, file sharing is considered a violation of copyright but because I wouldn't actually take a song that Taylor Swift sings and try to distribute it on the internet as my own, it isn't considered plagiarism.

I also had no idea how serious the consequences were for file sharing. Lawsuits by the RIAA of college students have been up to $15,000. In addition, Universities are required to give the name and information of students whose IP address is caught file sharing. They really aren't kidding around, especially with college students.

I think that the Copyright laws in the United States are a little bit harsh, but that plagiarism is a problem. There shouldn't be any problem with using another person's material to enhance your own as long as you give that person credit. However, I do sympathize with the RIAA's cause because people should receive monetary compensation for their creative works, particularly if that is their full-time job. What many people do not realize when downloading music illegally is that they are not taking away from the already rich artists, but the song writers and the little people who help with the production. We need to find a middle ground, whether that includes redistributing the income from the profits of things like songs, or changing how copyrights are protected and when they can be used.

Ms. Graves gave us an excellent website called Creative Commons that provides an alternative to Copyright, because the rules are relaxed a little bit more. The philosophy there is "you can use my stuff if I can use yours. But if you're going to make a million dollars off of it, give me a call."

Educational Blogs

Digital Convergence is a fascinating phenomenon.  Not only can we watch T.V. on the internet, hook up our computers to T.V.'s so that we can have a bigger screen or check our emails on our cell phones, but now we can do things online from an educational standpoint that used to only be done by painstakingly thumbing through dusty old tomes or getting together in groups for study.

There have been several studies done about the effectiveness of blogging and online communication in an academic environment, one of which was published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The study took sixty students and divided them into six groups for online blogging.  The students used the blogs as study tools, which led the researchers to explore the possibility of using wikis and online collaboration tools for classes.  Most of the students reported that the blogs helped them learn a lot, where as a significant amount less reported finding the blog somewhat helpful and even fewer not helpful at all.  The key thing about the study was giving students enough time to post the assignments and analyses they had done and still give other students time to comment on them.  The only thing that I don't recall reading about on the study was a control group- a group of students who did not use any new online tools.  

This would be an interesting study to conduct-- allow one group of students to use a wiki and one group to only do email or face-to-face collaboration, then take note of who does better on an exam.  

Here is a link to the study

Citation: American Journal of Public Health; Sep2008, Vol. 98 Issue 9, p1658-1663, 6p

Cyberspace

One thing that Trinity is exceptionally proud of is the wireless internet access on campus.  Because we have wireless internet set up in my house, I didn't really think much of it-- it is easy how quickly you can grow accustomed to having certain luxuries.  

I didn't really notice how great it is that I have such great wireless access until I went and tried to get onto the internet in Nathan and Mike's dorm down the hall from mine.  I had heard from them that my roommate and I had great wireless, but I didn't think it would be any different over there.  I had absolutely no connection in their room.  It really made me think about how lucky I am that I have a great internet connection not only in my dorm, but all over campus (except, apparently, at Nathan and Mike's . . .).  

It is really cool that Trinity provides this service to students, because not only does it mean that we can pretty much get on facebook while we are eating lunch or sitting by the magic stones, but we can also do research at three in the morning for that writing workshop paper due the next day without getting out of bed and bothering our roommates.

While Trinity is on the cutting edge for wireless connections, here is an article about other schools who are getting WLAN from cisco, the same company that made the Clean Access program that annoys so many of us here in San Antonio . . .

http://www.physorg.com/news8289.html

Maybe Albuquerque Turkeys Aren't So Bad After All . . .

Its funny how so many of us take things for granted.  Up until I left for college, I've lived my entire life in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  My friends and family made fun of everything about it, from the school system and the government, to the fact that we were ranked number two in the nation for accident related deaths behind Louisiana (and only because of Hurricane Katrina) and all of the tourists who get so jazzed about the balloon fiesta (Seriously.  All of the locals just go for the cinna-mini's and the breakfast burritos anyway).

Coming to Trinity University has completely changed my perspective of my home.  The little things are what I seem to miss the most about Albuquerque.  The fact that the sky doesn't look like it was lit on fire with all of its brilliant colors at sunset.  The fact that there are so many trees, I can't see a mountain that would take me an hour and a half to drive to.  And yes, of course, green chile.  

Don't get me wrong, though.  I absolutely love college, all of my new friends, and my newfound independence.  I find the lack of elevators particularly awesome, because I always try my best to avoid them at all costs.   

Even though I think that I'm passably skilled when it comes to computers (I have a secret love affair with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe In Design), I am taking Essential Computer Skills as part of my common curriculum.  The more I think about it, the more I realize that this will actually be a very good thing for me, because I would like to major in communications.  Computers are essential to the ever-changing way the world communicates, and I can't wait to learn more about multimedia technology so that I can add it to my experience as a journalist.  I was lucky enough to have found a passion for writing and publishing as the Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper senior year.  Hopefully, I'll be able to get on staff here at the Trinitonian.  However, I know that newspapers and printed books alone are not the way of the future, and I feel very blessed to be a part of this massive transition and to have the opportunity to learn about it.