Ditch the PowerPoint

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Thought provoking article:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/03/16/288796805/physicists-generals-and-ceos-agree-ditch-the-powerpoint

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I concur.

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Conversely, I’ve used PowerPoint very successfully as a training aid. The key is to remember it’s only an aid and shouldn’t be seen as the be-all and end-all of a presentation. Being unable to answer questions about what’s on screen, as cited in the link, only proves the presenter isn’t conversant with the topic and probably relied on someone else to prepare the presentation for which they want the kudos…

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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Bad presenters (and there are lots) will not be transformed into good ones by PowerPoint.

However just give them a flip board and they will be even worse!

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Powerpoint is like most tools. It is a good aid but their is significant potential for misuse and abuse.

Joe

--Joe

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Any tool can be put to bad use. I have used Powerpoint as a tool while teaching for 15 years or so and I have had no complaints, though I have seen a fair number of slides of which I could not make any sense at all (hopefully, none of them mine). It does help when you know what you are talking about. I guess you can’t blame Powerpoint for lack of knowledge on the part of whoever is using it.

Powerpoint is a great tool that can be put to great use. Contents are key and you need to know what you want to convey, have a good strategy to achieve it, and implement it decently. Powerpoint can help implement it, but will do nothing for the rest, so maybe Powerpoint is not to blame for the issues on all the other points.

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Any good teacher should be able to use a chalkboard to make a presentation. With Powerpoint, you simply prepare everything you will write on the chalkboard ahead of time, and you can do it in a lot nicer way than with only the chalkboard.

To me, this falls on the presenter, not on the tool he is using.

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Any good teacher should be able to use a chalkboard to make a presentation.

Not with the computer-based training I was doing. There’s no way I’d be wasting time doing chalkboard sketches of dozens of computer screens and reports. The goal was to train people to use software, not merely to watch a presentation and listen to me rabbiting on as I drew sketches (for which I’d have to face away from them). A good teacher chooses the best available tool for the job and endeavours to optimise its use.

One of the major flaws in PowerPoint presentations, though, is that people sometimes cram too much info on screen (e.g. every point in detail – leading to “Death by PowerPoint”), instead of just the main points then speaking to them.

Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

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One of the major flaws in PowerPoint presentations, though, is that people sometimes cram too much info on screen (e.g. every point in detail – leading to “Death by PowerPoint”), instead of just the main points then speaking to them.

So that means it’s the presenter’s fault, as mrjimphelps says. I will be using Powerpoint at one of our village History Group sessions. I think it would be interesting if I had to draw some of the pictures I have of the village in years gone past!

But what I will be endeavouring NOT to do is:

1 Read what’s on the screen. Bullet points are there to be expanded
2 Have irrelevant illustrations (because you think they’re clever or pretty). Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
3 Turn and look at the screen and say ‘as you can see’. Especially as we have a regular attender who can’t see.

I’m sure others can add to the list.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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Not with the computer-based training I was doing. There’s no way I’d be wasting time doing chalkboard sketches of dozens of computer screens and reports. The goal was to train people to use software, not merely to watch a presentation and listen to me rabbiting on as I drew sketches (for which I’d have to face away from them). A good teacher chooses the best available tool for the job and endeavours to optimise its use.

One of the major flaws in PowerPoint presentations, though, is that people sometimes cram too much info on screen (e.g. every point in detail – leading to “Death by PowerPoint”), instead of just the main points then speaking to them.

What I meant was, a good teacher will be able to teach from a chalkboard, a series of handouts, or Powerpoint. The advantage of Powerpoint is that it allows the teacher to put all of the “chalkboards” together before he even starts lecturing. And a good teacher will know what to put, how much to put, and what not to put on the board or on the screen. He will know if he is putting too much on the screen.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Our church uses PP for displaying announcements and song texts with a projector mounted below the ceiling and showing on a retractable screen behind the pulpit area. The only issues have been with the users on the keyboard and those who create the slideshows.

Before you wonder "Am I doing things right," ask "Am I doing the right things?"

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Perhaps this is a good opportunity to recall one of the many “Death By Powerpoint” sites:

http://www.slideshare.net/thecroaker/death-by-powerpoint

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I concur with all the comments about using PPT for its intended purpose, that is, a training aid, not as the presentation itself. My concern is not with the application itself so much as with the way its use has spread far beyond its intended use. I worked in the U.S. Federal government for many years, and I noticed that PPT had become the word processor of choice in many organizations. No longer did people organize their thoughts on paper (that is, with Microsoft Word) before they built their presentations. I would ask an expert for information about a topic, and in response I’d get a PowerPoint presentation (minus the presenter, of course). I’d ask for a memo, an essay, a white paper … but ordinarily, the PPT was the only document available. It drove me nuts.

Now, I fear, this approach is spreading to our public schools. My grandchildren are in seventh and ninth grades, and their teachers are assigning them homework that involves building PowerPoint presentations. I’ve seen no indication that the schools have given these children any realistic training on how to use PowerPoint. (Of course, I can level the same charge at my former employer. That’s how we do things: We just wing it.) Worse, it seems some teachers don’t know how to use it themselves. I find it alarming that the schools push young children into using PowerPoint without first teaching them how to use it (and, more importantly, how not to use it) and without requiring them to first organize their thoughts.

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