Week Three - Personal Computing

LECTURE:

In the week three lecture we observed beneficial techniques of how to display a presentation and present a task orally. Firstly we were shown how to structure our presentation, learning what to include in the introduction, body and conclusion of our tasks. For example in the introduction we learnt to be confident at the start to create credibility for yourself as the presenter, to use a rhetorical question or some sort of humour for attention from speakers etc.

In the main body we learnt to include our main ideas with facts to back up our topic sentence, to have a clear sentence structure as well as organisational patterns and use connective devises with reference to outside research. Finally in the conclusion we were taught how to sum up and close our presentation effectively, as well as reinforcing the thesis. With the PowerPoint presentation we were told to KISS ( Keep it simple stupid!), this message was important to consider as it outlines our whole PowerPoint presentation.

I found this lecture the more useful lecture so far, because this lecture had expanded my knowledge on how to construct a presentation with helpful hints and tips. I have learnt what to and not to put into the context of a presentation and how to make the context credibly appeal to the audience. I also learnt how many sentences i should have in the introduction, main body and conclusion of my presentation, as well as how to make my presentation interesting and engaging, rather then boring and lifeless.

WORKSHOP:

In week three workshop we were required to Read David Patterson's Oral Presentation Advice at www.cs.wisc.edu/~markhil/conferencet-alk.html. After reading Patterson's advice we had to create a "Top Five" list of strategies that would help us produce a outstanding presentation. This "Top Five" list which i typed up using my own words is very helpful to me as a reminder list of the things i should do before and after a presentation.




Finally we had to create a PowerPoint presentation that included a title, introductory, three main body and a summary slide as well as including graphics and one animation for further enticement. I had no problems completing this task and quite enjoyed doing it as well.

READING:

Week three reading was just basically reading over the Oral Presentation Advice by David Paterson again, which reinforced my knowledge of how to give a excellent presentation.

Week Two - Personal Computing

LECTURE:

In week two we learnt how to process common PC tasks on Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Windows Explorer, Adobe, Excel, Outlook express and Internet Explorer itself to increase our knowledge on how to find and processing information through these different types of programs. By learning the common PC tasks it enabled us to manage files in Windows Explorer, learn about the formats, styles, document mapping, image inserting and other basic utilities on Microsoft Word. I learnt how to create and edit spreadsheets on Microsoft Excel by exploring the various types of formats and styles, as well as learning how to create columns, rows use Formulas, charts and graphs.

For Internet Explore the lecturer explained the purpose of each tab( favourites,bookmarks, net navigation) that is located near the top of the web page. Finally on Adobe we were taught the different ways of viewing PD F's online. This week's lecture was very handy as it re-jogged my memory of how to perform basic tasks on each microsoft program and showed me smart and simple ways of processing information through the programs, such as Excel.

WORKSHOP:

In week two we had to go through the basic understanding of how to use Microsoft(MS) Word to process tasks in the context of ECU standards. We were given two texts to reconstruct by learning how to adjust the margins, alignments, typeface and as well as inserting headings and header/footer. We were also shown how to alpherbetize references and insert dot leaders in MS Word. Being given this task to reconstruct, i must admit, was more challenging then what i expected. I had trouble with finding the typeface and dot leaders, but after constantly searchimg through the different tabs on MS Word, I finally figured out how to do it. After i had completed the task it gave me more confidence and and a better understanding of MS Word, therefore this task was quite beneficial to me.

After we had completed the Word task, we were given a MS Excel exercise. With this task we simply had to create charts, tables and graphs by using using the average hours spent on our daily activities. we had to create cells and columns in our chart, as well as filling them with colour, and most importantly we learnt how to use excel formulaes to create averages for each activity allocated on the table. From then on we use the table of averages to display in the format of a Pie and Bar graph in Chart Wizard.

This Excel task for me was very complicated and hard to tackle, i even got a bit fustrated at one time. When i was creating the table of averages, it was very easy and converting the table information into the display of a bar and pie graph was easy too. But when it came to inserting the legends for the pie graph and inserting information on the X axis of the bar graph, thats when I had trouble. After continuous attempts of trying to find ways overcome this complication, i was finally shown how to do it. When my task was complete i was overwhelmed, as well as releaved.


READING:

Week two reading was based on Adobe Photoshop. We read about the different ways and formats images can be saved, as well as the specific ways of converting the image format so it is enabled to be displayed on certain types of programmes. Such different image formats includes BMP (Bitmap), TIFF (The Tag Image-File Format), PSD (Photo Shop Document) and JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). For example, we learnt that saving an image in a JPEG format dramatically reduces the file size of the image and automatically decompresses the file , however the quicker you transfer your image from one origin to another the more image quality is lost.

This reading reminded me that images displayed on a PC are made of different formats and that the JPEG format is commonly used. Now every time i upload images on image shack or my Blog, ill remember to always convert my image into "JPEG" or "ALL FILES" before uploading the image.

Week One - Personal Computing

LECTURE:

The purpose of Personal computing class in the first week was to introduce students to the basic knowledge of how to use a PC to access information and technical communications through ECU websites, such as myecu.ecu.edu.au. By learning how to access beneficial web pages through ECU websites, it enabled us to process data and information which will contribute in the production of our tasks or deadlines. I personal found this lecture very beneficial and helpful as my knowledge expanded after learning research strategy, information processing and using the computer for communication requirements.

WORKSHOP:

In week one of Personal Computing we used SIMO on http://www.ecu.edu.au/ to reassure that our enrolment details and activities, such as lectures, tut's and our times table are correct. The tut also showed us how to send and receive emails via the ecu web mail as well as using Blackboard to access unit resources, assignment deadlines and quick links. after that we created our own personal blogs on http://www.blogger.com/, set up our own account in http://www.imageshack.com/ and finally learnt how to produce screen captures, as well as editing the images on paint. Going through the basic procedures of how to use student web mail and SIMO is crucial as these sites will help keep me up to date of what is happening at ECU and in my tutorials, therefore i found week one work shop very introductively helpful.

This is a screen capture of my blogger account which i set up.

READING:

Week one Reading provided us with two sites linking us to two different web pages. The first site http://www.yale.edu/pclt/default.htm introduced us to the basics of a PC hardware. Learning about the hardware meant learning about the graphics, video files, net framework, SNA, APPC and character encoding. We learnt how these components of a PC where established, why they were created, how and what they are used for.


The second site was http://www.howstuffworks.com/pc.htm. This site was more useful as it showed us how the different parts of a PC worked. The site even had a short video to visually show us the different parts inside of a PC and how it works. We learnt about the basic parts that make up a PC such as the Monitor, Speakers, mouse, and PC tower. Further on we learnt in depth about the importance's of a PC, such as the CPU (central processing unit), using virtual memory to store temporary data, the ROM (Read-Only Rom) which is the permanent part of memory storage, the PC connections, operating systems and lots more. Although i already breifly know about the different parts of a PC, this reading has given me an insight of a PC in a deeper depth and helped replenished my memory on the parts of a PC that i was unsure of.