Check out my new website!!!!

Please visit my website at: www.cs.trinity.edu/~lhusband.

Making this website was much harder than I thought it would be. There are a lot of details and tedious tasks that go into making the website function smoothly and properly. For my website, I used the website editor called KompoZer and then in class I edited it with Expression Web. I edited the hand code a couple of times too. I made the website for my friend Ashley Hamner, who is a local music artist. She did not have a website and this was a great way for me to do something to help her.  I really like the home page of my website. The viewer can access her itunes album and can look at various photos from her album. I would have provided videos if I were to change anything. The biggest technical challenge was getting everything centered and in the correct place on the web page. My biggest design challenge was figuring out a decent background that would work and match every page's web design. Hopefully, my friend Ashley will be able to use this website to promote her music to her fans. I do not think I will ever have to make another website for a class, but I am glad I have the skills to make one if I ever need to again one day.

Ignorance and Irony

This is my photo manipulation which I entitled "Ignorance and Irony." What I am trying to convey through this photo is the need for more compassion, awareness, and intentional giving to the needy. Oftentimes we go about our comfortable lives and forget that there are people (sometimes three feet away) that are suffering and in need. The well-dressed woman looks at the food in the window while the beggar sits starving and invisible. There is a twenty dollar bill on the ground that the woman has unknowingly dropped. To her, it is a manageable loss, but to him, it could be food for a week. The woman represents those who are blessed with financial stability, but unfortunately do not take the time to notice the "invisibles" or are too ignorant to realize the true value of what they possess. The irony is that she dropped money on the pavement and did not even notice. We can help in ways that hardly inconvenience us, but even if it did inconvenience us, we have a role and responsibility to care for those around us.


This artistic photo manipulation is actually a combination of three photographs: the homeless man with the shop window, the woman, and the money on the ground. I used various techniques including: clone stamp, magnetic lasso, crop, picture mover, etc. to create my photo manipulation. I truly believe that this is an effective and beneficial photo manipulation because it is conveying a broader social issue. The situation created in the photo is very probable and realistic to the point that most likely a people interaction, similar to this one, happens daily around the world. However, I do not believe it is always okay to manipulate photos. In some cases, there are regulations one what should and should not be manipulated in a photo. The Department of Defense has very specific guidelines: 


"The memorandum states that alteration of official DOD imagery is generally prohibited. The following photographic techniques are allowed:

• Dodging, burning, color balancing, spotting and contrast adjustment to achieve accurate recording of an event or object.
• Photographic and video image enhancement, exploitation and simulation to support unique cartography, geodesy, intelligence, medical, research and development, scientific and training requirements, provided these techniques do not misrepresent the original image's subject." 
• There should be great caution when using photo manipulation. You should always consider who you are representing and what message should be conveyed (within the guidelines of your respective organization or academic institution).

Source used:

"DOD memorandum on digital manipulation." Military Review 75.6 (1995): 81. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Nov. 2010.

My Power Point Presentation

My power point presentation was on Tina Marie the media lie-buster. She is one of a kind in her area of expertise. She seeks to reveal the lies that are a present counterpart of the Hollywood/Showbiz industry. I am majoring in Spanish, minoring in Religion, and have a concentration in Music. I hope to use the knowledge and abilities I acquire in college to make an impact globally. My hope is to go in to global missions/ministry and working with high school students to make a positive and life-changing impact on their lives just as Tina Marie has done. It was great to learn more about someone making a positive impact on the younger generation. Her info was conveniently accessible, so I felt that I was able to present her well. I would have enjoyed more time to expand upon her career description.

I really enjoyed Andrew Crook's presentation on Teach for America. His topic really intrigued me. I appreciated his enthusiasm and passion for the subject as he presented it with consistency, neatness, and organization. He made clear the organization's goals. Teach for America will make a positive impact on young people's live; it correlated with my interests and was enjoyable to listen to.

Danny Lee's presentation was extremely entertaining. Her broad subject of "Advertising" was presented well. The presentation had direction and focus despite it being a broad topic. I really enjoyed her overview of what makes an effective advertisement. Her compare/contrast pictures were extremely effective in presenting her material. Her energy throughout the presentation was contagious.

Chris Nolan- Finding High Quality Information on the Web: Refining Your Search

Chris Nolan
Assistant University Librarian
Coates Library, Trinity University

Finding High-Quality Information on the Web

Refining your search

Google Search Engine

·         Some are sponsored links (usually in a shaded box at the top or in a column on the right)

·         Results are based upon the search engine:

§  Looking  for key words

§  How often websited get views

§  How often websites are linked to something else

·         Over 250 characteristics that Google takes into account

·         Search Engine Market Share 2010 U.S.A.

§  Google 66%

§  Yahoo 16%

§  Bing/MSN 11%

§  AOL 3 %

·         .com sites are commercial sites- they sell some kind of product

·         .org sites are organizations that do not sell products, but often try to sell ideas

·         .edu is mostly in reference to higher education, but has been given to school districts, etc.

·         How do you limit a search to just .edu sources?

§  Click advanced search

§  If on Google Scholar, click advanced scholar search

·         You can also limit to state, country, and lanugage

·         Creative commons will allow you to protect your work

·         Google Function

·         Googele Cache-Helps you get to a webpage (a stored copy from a few days before.)

·         Define: 'Multitasking' (Google will provide several definitions for the word you enter)

·         Google Scholar is a subset of Google (deciphers its credibility of a source)

·         Information is not always free

·         Google does not look at individual webpages, it is all done by algorithm

·         Google Books-might have the enire book

·         Google/Yahoo Dot Comparison site

·         Directories

·         Key Evaluation Points

§  Author

§  Publisher (or website creator)

§  Intended purpose/audience

§  Objectivity/bias

§  Substantiation for claims

§  Recency of information

As you can see, Google is a leading search engine with many useful features that users should take advantage of. One of the most helpful tools Google offers students is Google Scholar. It becomes very useful when needing to do research for reports or presentations. Now, I am also more aware of how to detect sponsored sources connected to Google versus relevant website pages. There are different techniques used to evaluate if a website is scholarly. Mr. Nolan helped us practice those techniques so that we can be more capable of deciphering academically sound websites. Here are the websites we evaluated:

What do you think of each of these?

• Martin Luther King Jr.
• http://www.martinlutherking.org/
•  Feline Reactions to Bearded Men
• http://www.improbable.com/airchives/classical/cat/cat.html
• Blondes to die out in 200 years
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2284783.stm

Visit to the CLT

I have been to the CLT before, but I have never taken advantage of all the great opportunities it has to offer. I had no idea that it had a full recording studio complete with computer equipment and a keyboard. I realized that I could use the studio for a music theory project or the lab for working on a Photoshop assignment for computer class.

Robert Chapman talked to us about the different projects they partake in--whether it is streaming a graduation ceremony or the University's presidential inauguration. They have a full-time videographer on staff to film classes, ceremonies, special speakers, etc. The CLT (Center for Learning and Technology) provides top-notch computers (Macs and PCs complete with scanners) that are perfect for graphic design and video editing. I personally would like to come to the CLT just to learn how to use the video editing software.

I also learned that clubs on campus can use the equipment for special events or activities. The CLT also has a very cool technology similar to Skype that can connect you with up to 100 people while on campus!!!

I really enjoyed my visit to CLT and I hope to spend more time here in the future.

The Media Will Lie

The picture on the left of Katie Couric was released in May 2006 by CBS. The altered picture on the right was debuted later in the September 2006 issue of  the magazine called Watch, which is also an associate of the conglomerate CBS. As you can see, the picture to the right is more slimming, the lighting is different and the overall appearance is a lie. Her face is thinned, her arms are minimized, her waist is must slimmer, as well as her neck, and her teeth are whitened. This picture is most definitely a lie that tells viewers that in order to be on TV you have to be extremely thin and "hyper-perfect." This picture will hopefully remind everyone that what the media culture portrays, is a lie. Things are most definitely not as they seem.

This featured video shows how distorted our view can become of beauty if we are not aware how much a role computer/digital alteration affects what we see. I have seen this video for years now and I think Dove does a great job of really capturing and revealing a "new truth" about the society we live in. Dove shows the impossible expectations that many girls try to live up to. This video helps one realize how non-human and unrealistic advertisements can be.

Copyright and Creative Commons

Jason Hardin
Manager of Access Services

---

Circulation Boss

Responsibilities- In charge of the Reserves

Make a lot of reproduction-Xerox and Digital scans

Copyright-government recognized ownership of some kind of intellectual property; having the right to control distribution and ultimately profit from it.

Difference of copyright violations and plagiarism

Copyright violations-crime
Plagiarism-Academic “sin”


U.S. Copyright Law Dates from 1790
Mentioned in the Constitution directly
This was important in the minds of the framers

Creates a more innovative society; encourages creators with incentive.

To promote the development of useful arts and sciences.

It becomes copyrighted once it is published.
Once something is set in a fixed tangible medium, it is protected under U.S. federal copyright.

The term of copyright for U.S. published works is now author’s life+70 years.

Mickey Mouse Sonny Bono Act extended from 50 years after author’s death to 70 years.

Trademarks (symbols) and patents are different than copyright (ideas, creative works).

In practice, copyright comes down to an economic model. Works for the public as much as it works for a corporation.

It is a felony to commit a copyright infringement involving more than 10 copies and a value of more than $2500.

Diane Graves-campus copyright officer
Take down notice-stop doing what you are doing; have very good hackers and detectors (record date, time, and IP address) ask for names (sepenas), and the University has to give them their names and tell them cease and desist.


Recording Industry Assn. of America
Motion Picture Association of America
Entertainment Software Association

The Higher Education Opportunity Act (2008) obliges colleges and universities that host computer networks to provide “alternatives to illegal downloading”



The HEOA has three key provisions that affect colleges and universities:

1. Must make an annual disclosure to students Re: Copyright and campus policies;
2. Must develop a plan to combat unauthorized file-sharing, to include the use of  “technology-based deterrents”
3. Must implement a system to provide alternatives to illegal downloading

The Special Case of Education: Fair Use

Positive defense against infringement; justification

Four factors to consider whether or not it is Fair Use

1. Purpose of the reproduction- Why are you actually reproducing this work?
2. Nature of the work that you are copying (entertainment is a commodity) Economic issue.
3. The amount that you are reproducing
4. The effect that your work has on the right’s holder

Fair use continues to protect you once you are outside of the university.

Derivative work: taking characters already created and altering the environment.

Parody is protected: it is a form of critique.

Any and all educational use is not always “fair use”

Creative commons-Creates more of an open culture