Runnin' with the Excel

Excel is really cool, and I'm not just saying that. I mean it because I am a nerd. I have had previous experience with Excel. When I was in the Air Force, I ran a clinic's budget using an Excel file that I created myself. I even made graphs and charts to give to the Officer In Charge along with a printout every month. However, that was Excel 95, I believe; roughly the equivalent of cave paintings by my fellow students' standards ("Excel 95? Didn't you have to keep that running by shoveling coal into the computer?"). Even then, I thought Excel was cool.

Now, of course, Excel 07 is the programme du jour (that means "complicated geek stuff" in French), and it's much cooler than any previous version. I am just getting to know it through this class, but I am very impressed with how intuitive it is relative to its ancestors. I knew a few formulas before, but I am now a lot more efficient with them. I can use them in conjunction with conditional cell formatting and other tools to do a lot more, which allows me to more effectively communicate a lot more. I have just created a home budget for my wife and I. We are able to keep track of bills, expenses and spending very quickly and easily, as well as quickly and easily adjust certain elements of our budget throughout the month as it becomes necessary.

Obviously, there are uses for Excel in the work place as well (besides budgeting). If I were a History professor (a future possibility), I could keep a beautiful record of my students' grades. Not only could I see instantly what had been completed and what hadn't, the effect of each grade on their overall average could be noted immediately. I could also demonstrate hypothetical scenarios to students, letting them know what they need to do to get the grade they want. I wish my professors were that cool to me...

With or Without You

I chose this pair of pictures which exhibit the amazing disappearing Leon Trotsky because of its political and historical poignancy. Trotsky was a key figure in the Russian Communist Revolution of 1917, second only to Vladimir Lenin, and founder and commander of the Red Army. In the 1920s, however, Trotsky became an outspoken opponent of Josef Stalin's increasingly bureaucratic brand of totalitarian Communism (as opposed to the less bureaucratic Marxist-Leninist brand of totalitarian Communism). He was exiled from the Soviet Union at the end of that decade, and was later assassinated by a Soviet agent in Mexico.

In the photo on the left, Trotsky is seen hobnobbing with other Soviet officials. In the picture on the right, Trotsky is not seen hobnobbing with other Soviet officials, probably because he isn't seen at all. This type of photo manipulation was an extremely common practice in Stalin's workers' paradise. When anyone crossed Stalin, they were either killed or sent to work camps/prisons known as gulags (where they died gradually by intense labor and malnutrition instead of by a bullet to the back of the head). But Stalin was a thorough man--when you were gone, you were way gone. It was as if you never existed. Stalin killed countless officials, Party members, friends, and even family members, but he didn't stop there. Anyone known to the public, especially known to have been in his good graces, was erased from photographs as well as documents, books, news archives, or anything else that mentioned them at all. His enemies were not just removed from this world, but from history altogether, especially if they were once his allies.

Of course, this manipulation is harmful. To deny any relationship with a man who was instrumental in your rise to power (ahem, Barrack Obama, ahem) is to not only dangerously distort history, but to cause a massive cognitive dissonance on the society as a whole. George Orwell brilliantly demonstrates this in 1984: the ever-present socialist regime would not only reverse its positions and claim that the current position was the position it had held all along (ahem, Barrack Obama, ahem), it would claims things that the people could plainly see were not true. Doing this repeatedly caused the aforementioned cognitive dissonance, both in 1984 and in the all-too-real Soviet Union, subjecting those trapped behind the Iron Curtain to a sort of nationwide psychological trauma by creating massive disconnect with reality.

We can CLT if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, 'cause your friends don't CLT and if they don't CLT then they're no friends of mine

There are many impressive things about this university, and the AT&T Center for Learning and Technology (CLT) is definitely one of them. Several of us got a grand tour from Greg Longoria, who himself deserves a lot of credit for being patient, informative, and extremely helpful, even though we dropped in on him unexpectedly.

The Studios at CLT are in one large, open area comprised of several different stations. Each station is comprised of a group of computers, and each station has a different focus. This is the area primarily available for student use. Here you will find the latest hardware and software. All of the computers here are equipped with the full Adobe suite for all kinds of projects. For video editing, the Apple computers are equipped with iMovie and the PCs are equipped with Sony Vega. There isn't much one couldn't do in the studios to make an impressive presentation. I could use these studios to create and/or edit a video or multimedia presentation for this or another class.

The Innovation Studio's primary function is to hold workshops for faculty, although students may sit in on these workshops. The instructor may use either Mac or PC technology (or both) to teach. Right now, most of the workshops have the purpose of instructing our Blackboard-savvy (ahem) faculty in the ways of T-Learn, a similar "core" program.

We weren't able to get a look inside the Digital Audio Lab, but I was surprised and impressed by all it had to offer. In addition to the expected sound editing equipment, the lab contains a CD player, turntables, and a keyboard, among other things. It is nearly a mini recording studio! In fact, it will be put to use this semester by Beginning Guitar students, who will actually use the Digital Audio Lab to record their musical presentations for class.

With the advent of digital technology, there is no longer really a Video Conference Center. In truth, that room's primary function is now actually storage for older equipment. That isn't to say that it's just a glorified closet. This is where professors can have videos made for classroom use. This room also serves as a studio for TigerTV. Attached is a small side room which houses the cable boxes that provide Trinity students with their beloved off-campus television programming (you know--stations people have heard of) and Ruben Rodriguez. Ruben controls Trinity from this little room like the great and powerful Oz from behind his curtain, monitoring student activity and making slight and unnoticed but powerful adjustments to the mind-control devices secretly implanted in all Trinity students (don't worry--your parents agreed to it). The primary function of the Video Conference Center is now performed by the mobile Polycom video conferencing equipment. This is a single cart with a self-contained television, speakers, and two-way video conferencing equipment. The Polycom equipment is housed in the Video Conference Center, but it is primarily used in the Media Presentation Lab, making it the primary location for video conferencing.

The Media Presentation Lab is, believe it or not, a room designed to display and evaluate media demonstrations and presentations. The presenter has at their disposal video conferencing equipment (the Polycom unit), a touch-screen monitor from which to control the presentation, a projector and screen, and speakers in each corner of the ceiling. This room and all of its equipment are available to students.

Lastly, we were shown the office of Pat Ullman. Computers are serviced in the main office. A connected room contains the servers for TriniTV, TigerTV, and MTVU, the electronic scheduling equipment for TigerTV, and even the equipment that provides online streaming video of important speeches and lectures, such as a recent speech by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

We were told more than once that the entire staff was happy to help us at any time. Ruben was helpful and informative when we all invited ourselves into his back room in the bowels of the library. I want to especially thank Greg for all his help and information.