Windows 8.1 question

I have a fairly new Dell Inpsiron laptop (maybe 9 months old) with Windows 8.1 installed. For those of you who have 8.1 installed, do you know how to stop the clock on the bottom left and the menu along the right hand edge from appearing all the time? It seems that when I am surfing the web and move the cursor, these items appear even though I am no where near the area (upper right hand corner) that would make these appear. I can't seem to find anywhere where I could adjust the sensitivity to prevent this from happening so often. As an FYI, the laptop also has a touch screen.

Thanks