Monday, August 14, 2006

PowerPoint Presentation Problems

They're fixed but it has been an interesting day.
  • The hearing aid powerpoint in the web page did not have pictures. I had to resave it and now it has them. I don't know why it didn't work the first time.
  • It turns out that people without the new beta version of powerpoint can't view the powerpoint shows, so I had to resave the ones in the download file in to the older version.
  • After I did that I put the new zip file online but for some reason it would not replace the old one so everyone was still getting the old version when they downloaded it. I finally removed it completely from the old file and changed the name. Now they can get the usable version.
I'm not sure why any of these things happened but I am hoping that everything works right now. I do hate posting new stuff online becasue so much can go wrong and you don't know it until someone on another computer finds it and lets you know about it.

I also changed the color for unvisited links on the page with the downloads. I took the code from the graphics file and it turned out that all links were set for the same color as the font. Now they are a purplish/blue and are more noticeable.

PESDHH PowerPoint Presentation Posted

I got everything posted from my presentation. Hopefully it's not too cutesy-I don't have graphic arts experience so I borrowed from someone else. Thanks Grace.

Here's the link.
http://www.presentations.koolkidssign.com

Kool Kids Sign is really spreading out. Someday I will have to get back to the main site and link all the subdomains into it.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

New Blog Look

I got tired of my background-it was too pink/purple so I went searching to see if I could find something I like better. I saw several things I liked but this one from Point of Focus was the only one that was clear on what to keep and what to throw away. And I love butterflies.

I'm not sure about the colors of the fonts as far as visibility goes, but I wasn't in the mood to fool around with it any more. I need to finish getting the PowerPoints posted from my PESDHH presentation.

Just pulled the blog up in Firefox and the right side bar shows up way down the side instead of where you can see it easily. I will have to play around with that later.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Next Year's PESDHH

My mind is working overtime thinking about next year. I think digital video is the way to go. The topic came up this year in one of the workshops so I think this will be where to go. I will need more time though. Last night's meeting talked about having something in the morning for the people that are here for Low Incidence workshops which have nothing on Wednesday. The 9-12 slot would be good-still not as much time as I would like but it would be a start. Of course that would mean we would not have a drop in tech lab with software reviews. Or at least not run by me.

I also need to check on computers to see how much memory they have and if they can do firewire.

Also need someone to help me who can do this stuff...

I still think Pattan itself should offer this-it could be a whole day training.

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

PowerPoint Games Training/PESDHH

I finished my first training. Only 6 or 7 people came-there wasn't really a description of the different workshops for the day so no one really knew what to expect. That was enough people for just me to manage.

What went wrong? What didn't go wrong!

First my computer wouldn't work with the LCD projector so I turned my screen and showed the sample games that way since it was such a small group.

Tech was able to get a different computer working with the projector by the time I was finished with the demo part so I switched to that one to teach making a PowerPoint game.

I was using a different version of PowerPoint on the new computer so things were different than I was used to but they were similar enough that I was able to work with them.

I had put two graphics on all the machines I thought, but I was wrong so I had to quickly put them on two different computers for the people using them.

When we went to insert clip art the computers we had borrowed did not have any clip art on them and the internet connections was not working so we couldn't get them from microsoft-I explained how to do that normally and I showed them how to add sound although mine did not work right.

What else went wrong? NOT ENOUGH TIME which I knew probably would happen but the directions were very exact so they should be able to follow them on their own.

All things considered it wasn't bad. The people were very interested and asked questions especially as we ran out of time so I gave quick examples of the unfinished steps.

Amazingly enough I was not at all nervous unlike last year when I did the Quizdom training for Rosemary, Julie and Bill during my internship. I thought I would feel nervous but I didn't. I was more nervous facilitating for the next session than doing mine.

One woman said she wished I could come do a training where she is (on the other side of the state from me) because even though there are people who could do it they are (not my words) mostly men and they don't break it down enough for someone who is not real skilled at a computer. I take that as a compliment that my directions and handouts were that helpful. :)

I think next year I will do something again but this time I will ask for a double session for whatever I decide to do. I'm thinking maybe something with video (I might be able to get cameras from the same place as I got the computers-got a whole year to plan but this time I will have to write a call for papers since I won't be on the planning committee for it.

Our drop in tech lab was also helpful. I had different software installed on the computers and people were able to play with them to see what they were like. They liked many of the different ones that I had.