Week two was much better

...Well, except for time management. That's not unusual for me, though.

This past week, we had a spreadsheet (ooh!), a "hypermedia" PowerPoint, and a diagram or mind map or what-have-you. It was a "visual learning" module using software called Inspiration.

Spreadsheets
I've been using Microsoft Office-type products since 1988 or so, and have been doing spreadsheets and data entry about that long. I've also been a certified Microsoft Office Professional, so this assignment didn't scare me at all. I'm the crazy person who kind of enjoys setting up spreadsheets. Of course, I also have to tweak them, adjust them, and make them look good.

I've also used Google Docs before. Not much, mind you, because I haven't needed to and I prefer the features included in desktop applications that Google hasn't programmed in yet. Even so, I have used them.

So basically, this assignment wasn't a big deal to me. I enjoyed figuring out how I wanted the sheets and what information I wanted in the charts and seeing what I could tweak and move around. I might stick with Excel (or Apple's Numbers, since that seems to cooperate better on my machine), but I appreciate the practice.

Visual Learning

This was simple enough once I decided what I wanted to do with it. I find Inspiration's software funny, though. I remember selling their titles when I worked at the Apple store, and it always sounded interesting. Now I've used it and I laugh at the user interface design. I'm guessing they haven't updated it since the 1990s. Bad, bad, ugly design with little tools and text boxes and pixelated graphics.

Beyond that, though, it was fine and some slight fun and it did what it advertised. Would it be useful in a classroom? Definitely, unless I find something else with a more modern user interface.

PowerPoint HyperMedia
I thrive on and love creating in PowerPoint or Apple's Keynote, so I knew I'd probably like this assignment. The one twist here was that it had to be something non-linear, which I had not personally created before, although I had seen a coupe such presentations. Oh, and I did actually use PowerPoint. Amazing, but true.

I spent hours on this, of course. And I had to make it look good and consistent. I also did not want all the answer links to be underlined, so I used empty text boxes to do the work, and it worked flawlessly on my computer. But I found out that the links did not work for Ms. Romano. My only guess is something to do with going from Mac to PC, but it destroyed my near-perfect grade, which irks me to no end.

Oh well. Such is life. I worked hard on that presentation—harder than on anything else so far—pouring hours into it to make it as perfect as I could for the material and the needs. I hate Windows with a passion. (EDIT: I found out that it wasn't a Windows thing at all and, head-scratcher to me, Dr. Romano uses Macintosh, too. So it's just Microsoft that sucks. No surprise there.)

I'm not much more silly quiz games with chintzy graphics for some reason, but this will be a useful application of presentation software. I'll find ways to make it mine if/when I become a teacher, although my idea of "fun" is often different than a teenager's.