WEEK EIGHT

25.04.08

PRESENTATION STRATEGIES

Lecture
Today's Lecture was all about learning how to present an effective oral presentation using helpful presentation strategies. The power point slides also gave tips on how to do so.

First I learnt there are different types of presentations. These are:

SELF CONTAINED PRESENTATIONS

• CD ROM
  Web-page
  Video
  
• WRITTEN PRESENTATIONS
  Essay
  Paper
  
• STAND AND DELIVER
  Oral Presentations
  

I also learnt that its very important when making a PowerPoint presentation to choose a subtle back ground, don't use a lot of animation, don't use sound effects and also never use irrelevant graphics.


Tutorial
Today's tutorial class focused on making a PowerPoint presentation.


Task1.
After looking at the web site: http://www.personal.psu.edu/uxg3/blogs/undergraduateresearch/2008/02/online-resources-for-how-to-pr.html
I made a list of the top five strategies for making an effective PowerPoint presentation. These are:

• Start the presentation with an interesting topic and end with a BANG
• Know your audience
• Keep the PowerPoint slides simple
• Define the problem and state the central question, then indicate the importance of what was done or state what was found
• Believe in the presentation
  

Task 2.
These following slides are my example of a PowerPoint presentation that is simple and effective. The slide includes top notch tips on how to make PowerPoint slides.

Readings.
The first was called Presentation Helper. It focused on how to give bad presentations, with giving examples of what NOT to do.
These points were set out like the 10 commandments.
Some examples of these were:

• Thou shalt not waste space
• Thou shalt not write large
• Thou shalt not use colour
  

The second reading was continuing on with how to give a bad presentation. Some examples of these were:

• DON’T just wing it
• DON’T abandon your objective

WEEK SEVEN

11.04.08

CREATING & MAINTAINING END NOTE LIBRARIES

Lecture.
Today's lecture was mainly introducing the class to Endnote.
Endnote is a reference guide, that helps you to format your references easily in the correct APA format.
Endnote can be used in two ways:

• As a stand alone program. Keep a list of all you references.
• Or you can integrate End Note with Microsft Word. You can use the program to correctly format you end-text references or bibliography.

Helen showed us how to download End Note onto our home computers, and how to create our own End Note library.
Helen also advised us of a few principles to go by when first using End Note.
These principles were:

• Don't expect to understand End Note the first time
• Begin using it as a standalone application, as a way of keeping a list of you references
• Eliminate clutter and simplify the display
• Back the End Note library up. This is very important to have several copies of everything you save. (for example, on your thumb drive)

Tutorial.
This class was en extension of learning how to use End Note. Our tasks included making our first End Note library and using this with Microsoft word to add in-text references, quotes and end-text references.

Task 1.
Our first task was to review the online referencing guide that we accessed through blackboard. We were then asked to record 5 references that were of electronic material, such as:

• A web page
• Online Journal
• Image found on the Internet
• Email with information

This is a screen capture of the online referencing guide. Its the same as the hard copy.

First I searched Google for a site that I knew would be authentic and have all the details needed to reference it. I went to http://www.vestwest.com.au/ The reference for this is:



Vetwest. (2007). Retrieved April 11, 2008, from http://www.vetwest.com.au/




The second search I did was for a picture. I again used Google to search for a picture of a dog. I chose this one.

The reference for this image is:



Cute Dogs. (n.d). Retrieved April 11, 2008 from
http://www.photopumpkin.com/photo-blog/category/dogs.


I also referenced two journal articles that i located from Pro Quest, from the ECU Library home page. The two references for the two articles are:



Jones, G. (2007). Marketing. [Electronic Version]. BBC Worldwide Ltd. 12



Walsh, M. V. (1999). Illegal Whaling for Humpbacks by the Soviet Union in the Antarctic.
[Electronic Version]. Journal of Environment & Development. 8(3), 307




The last reference I did was for another web page. I went to Yahoo and typed in tattoos to find a website about tattoos. I found one called Tattoo Johnny.



The reference for this website is:

Tattoo Johnny. (n.d). Retrieved April 11, 2008 from http://www.tattoojohnny.com/


Task 2.
We than had to complete the 'End note v11 Exercises for Vista'
This included having to open a new End Note library and referencing the documents assigned on the exercises. We had to copy and paste the references. This included in-text references and end-text referencing. I really .enjoyed using End Note, it saves a lot of time and in one of the exercises there was a short cut to referencing. On a online journal you can link the citation to Microsoft Word and End Note retrieves all the information needed for a reference for you.

I found this task really helpful and I know using End Note will save me a lot of time.

These two screen captures is the final document once I copied and pasted all the requirements in the exercises.

Reading.

There was so specific reading in this weeks tasks, but there was additional End Note help. That could not be accessed.

WEEK SIX

4.04.08

EVALUATION & AUTHENTICATION OF RESOURCES

Lecture.
Today's lecture was all about 'Finding Quality Information on the Web'. Firstly we all discussed the answers to the questions below in the lecture. These were questions that need to be considered when searching for information on the Internet.

This is a screen capture of the 1st Lecture Slide.

As a group we discuss that certain web sites may not be fit for use or fit for a certain purpose.
I learnt that there is no control on some web sites. Some have no publisher, and anyone can go
on there are change information or add to the site. A lot of sites a lot are no relative to the topic you have searched.

In the lecture slides there were some examples on how to evaluate the WWW.
These slides included some important topics to consider. These were:

• Accuracy- standards, error free, is there an editor?
• Authority- Is the page signed? Is there an author? Last updated date?
• Objectivity- Does is show a bias/sway of opinion? Is there advertising on the page?
• Currency- Is it recent? Current links?
• Coverage- In depth material? What does the page have to offer? Topics covered?
• Authentic Consideration- Who wrote it? Name/ Position?

Lastly Helen spoke of using you first impression to quickly evaluate a web site. Quickly scan through then content and compare with ease-of-use. A question to ask yourself is What is the visual feel?
Your first impression can quickly determine whether a site is authentic and fit for your purpose.

Tutorial.
The tutorial was all about how to evaluate and recognise an authentic site.
We were also given the Group Assignment and chose groups of three for it.

Task 1.
Our first task was to visit the site http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think.html and look at the strategies or criteria for evaluating a web site

This is a screen capture that I edited in paint that highlights the 6 main suggestions to evaluating a website.

I found that to 6 criteria were the same shown to us in the lecture slide this morning.
Including Accuracy, Objectivity, Currency, Coverage and Authentic Consideration.
These 6 suggestions are things to consider. They are very important and I believe are very helpful. For example, if the information found on a website is no recent and does not show a date that is was last updated, the facts may no longer be true, as things change with time.

Task.2
The next task was to go to the website http://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think60.html
This site listed 5 different websites. We were asked to chose two and evaluate them thoroughly.

The first one I chose was called 'American Cultural History: 1960 - 1969.'
At first glance to site looked authentic. It included facts about the decade, and dots points of other information you could find on the site. After scrolling through the site, i found it have an author, a last updated date (which was December 2006, which would make the sites information quite recent). It also had details about Copyright, and lots of pictures, headings and bullet points. I do believe this web site is authentic and would be very useful to some one who was researching American Cultural History.

This is a screen capture of the American Cultural History site.


The second site I chose to look at was called 'The Sixties Project.'
My first thoughts from having a quick look at the site where that I didn't believe it was authentic. The home page was dull and not very inviting. To me it didn't look like there was going to be an obvious author and details to prove it was a fit for use site.

Underneath the main heading there are 3 sub-headings. These were links to certain parts of the site. These headings were:

• Scholars
• Sixties Survivors
• Casual Surfers

After looking carefully on the home page I did find an author and contact information, including a postal address and an email address. Underneath this in really small writing was the last updated date, which was January 1999.
Although this site did seem to be authentic, I don't believe it would be very relevant to a topic. The information had been edited 9 years ago. This information may not be very reliable anymore and not true.

This is a screen capture of the Sixties Project Home Page.

Reading.
On Blackboard there is no reading that needed to be included in my learning log.