Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?

1. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm? When you think of what your computer can do what comes to mind first? • Word processor • Browser • Email I think of these because, without, question these are the tools I use the most. These are all software products/programs. • Runs on the operating system. • They are only as useful as the competence of the user

2. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Word Processor Wikipedia defines a word processor as: “A word processor (more formally known as document preparation system) is a computer application used for the production (including composition, editing, formatting, and possibly printing) of any sort of printable material.”

3. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Word Processor How are they helpful? • Spell checker • Find out meaning (thesaurus) and other idea for words we use while writing. • Type quicker • Edit documents easier • Documents are more legible

4. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Word Processor • How could they possibly be harmful? • Too much reliance on spell checker • Software not always reliable, files can vanish in a flash • Microsoft’s helpful features are often UNhelpful. • Ergonomic issues • Cut and paste can be misused re; academic integrity • We can no longer spell

5. Desktop Tools: Word Processor Early word processors used tags or layout instructions written within the document that were then interpreted by running the program as formatting instructions. These systems today are used for specialized writing such as documents that require the inclusion of mathematical formulas. Today most word processors are WYSIWYG : What You See Is What You Get

6. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Word Processor \documentclass[12pt]{article} \title{\LaTeX}\date{} \begin{document} \maketitle \LaTeX{} is a document preparation system for the \TeX{} typesetting program. It offers programmable desktop publishing features and extensive facilities for automating most aspects of typesetting and desktop publishing, including numbering and cross-referencing, tables and figures, page layout, bibliographies, and much more. \LaTeX{} was originally written in 1984 by Leslie Lamport and has become the dominant method for using \TeX; few people write in plain \TeX{} anymore. The current version is \LaTeXe. \newline \begin{eqnarray} E &=& mc^2 \\ m &=& \frac{m_0}{\sqrt{1-\frac{v^2}{c^2}}} \end{eqnarray} \end{document}

7. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Presentation Software • Is this the next step “up” from word processing? • A presentation program is software used to display information, normally in the form of a slide show. It typically includes three major functions: an editor that allows text to be inserted and formatted, a method for inserting and manipulating graphic images and a slide-show system to display the content. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentation_program • Take a slide projector, a tape recorder and the ability to add text and you have presentation software. • PowerPoint is NOT the only game in town. Adobe, Macromedia, and Google all have presentation software.

8. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Presentation Software How is this helpful? • Makes text and info readable • Gives visual cues making the material easier to remember • Make material easily available to students

9. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Presentation Software How could this possibly be harmful? • Some of the animation tools are annoying • Too much material goes by, presenters can read faster than we can write. • Can’t follow the material, too easy to be very complex • Lighting can be too dim to easily stay awake no matter how engaging the presenter • Can be BORING

10. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Spreadsheet “A spreadsheet is a computer application that superseded paper worksheets. It displays multiple cells that together make up a grid consisting of rows and columns, each cell containing either alphanumeric text or numeric values. A spreadsheet cell may alternatively contain a formula that defines how the contents of that cell is to be calculated from the contents of any other cell (or combination of cells) each time any cell is updated. Spreadsheets are frequently used for financial information because of their ability to re-calculate the entire sheet automatically after a change to a single cell.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet

11. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Spreadsheet How is this tool helpful? • Keeping track of a long list of “things” like inventory • Accounting • Good at keeping track of mathematics and formulas • Color coding • Can create all kinds of graphs

12. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Spreadsheet How could this tool be harmful? • Numbers can lie • The software needs to be accurate for it to be useful • Can be the wrong product for doing non-mathematical tables

13. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database or Data Base • A computer database is an structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. A database relies upon software to organize the storage of data. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database • Electronic filing cabinet • Often abbreviated DB. A collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/database.html • Traditional databases are organized by fields, records and files. A field is a single piece of information; a record is one complete set of fields; and a file is a collection of records. For example, a telephone book is analogous to a file. It contains a list of records, each of which consists of three fields: name, address, and telephone number. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/database.html

14. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/database.html

15. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database Popular Database software include: • MySQL – Open Source from SUN Microsystems • ORACLE • Access – Microsoft

16. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database How are databases Helpful? • Organizes information so that it is easy to access the information you want. • Can store lots and lots and lots and lots of data and make it available for searching and sorting

17. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database How can databases be Harmful? • Can hold erroneous information • If it crashes you lose it all • Can be stolen • Who has access to the information?

18. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database An alternative concept in database design is known as Hypertext. In a Hypertext database, any object, whether it be a piece of text, a picture, or a film, can be linked to any other object. Hypertext databases are particularly useful for organizing large amounts of disparate information, but they are not designed for numerical analysis. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/database.html Now expand this database design to include all the information in an encyclopedia that can be searched in an incredible number of ways and you get • World Book online • Encarta – Microsoft product

19. Desktop Tools: Help or Harm?Database • Now expand this database design to include all the information you can possibly imagine, all searchable from your desktop. • What you get is the Internet. The Internet is sort of the most complex, searchable, confused, disorganized, accessible data storage system ever imagined.

20. Desktop Tools: Browser • A web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. Text and images on a Web page can contain hyperlinks to other Web pages at the same or different website. • Browsers include: • Internet Explorer • Mozilla Firefox • Safari • Opera • And others

21. The Internet: Helpful or Harmful? How is the Internet Helpful?

22. The Internet: Helpful or Harmful? How can the Internet be harmful?