I hate powerpoint

[djm]

No-one has brought up the absolute worst application of PowerPoint, which is as a training aid. I am seeing our (fairly large) company doing away with classroom training for on-line training. The student reads the screen and answers a couple of test questions to pass the course. But what is on the screen is basically a PowerPoint-type list of bulleted points; no explanations, no sense of flow of the information or its application, and nothing to refer back to after the "course".

The same problem arises with PowerPoint presentations as highlighted in the notes and articles above, that after the presentation, there is nothing to refer back to. The information was in the disconnected babble from the presenter, following his/her own bullets on the screen. What can you take away from such presentations/courses? What can you refer back to six months from now?

I can see faces at meetings close down when someone gets up with a PowerPoint presentation, as if there was some immediate unconscious agreement amongst the audience that this is going to be a dreadful experience that we will endure and try to quickly forget about.

(rant, rant, rant .... )

djm

[The Weekenders]

Yeah, we should be past the "Gee Whiz, look what you can do with yer computer!" but many aren't.

I still remember when HyperCard first came out. It was a big deal then.

[fel bautista]

I like Hypercard- especially in the black and white

[fel bautista]

DJM- yes, I've seen training modles liek that- its UGLY with a capital u and should not be foisted off to any other folks regardless

[ChristianRo]

Here's what I found yesterday in a German online magazine: I don't know if the idea first came up in the US, but in Berlin, the latest talk of the town is "Powerpoint Karaoke"! Contestants are faced with ppts that have been googled randomly. Then they deliver a presentation without knowing about subject, content etc., trying to be as coherent, self-assured and" witty" as possible. Afterwards, the audience/jury picks a winner.
Hilarious. Come to think, my boss never reads my ppts before presenting them. He would be a hot candidate for first prize...
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzkult ... 88,00.html

[Dale]

Here's what I found yesterday in a German online magazine: I don't know if the idea first came up in the US, but in Berlin, the latest talk of the town is "Powerpoint Karaoke"! Contestants are faced with ppts that have been googled randomly. Then they deliver a presentation without knowing about subject, content etc., trying to be as coherent, self-assured and" witty" as possible. Afterwards, the audience/jury picks a winner.

Actually....that's really funny. I'd go to something like that. I'd even particpate as a contestant.

Dale

[Wombat]

Boy, do I hate PowerPoint. I'm forced to use it in one subject, but I have resisted using dot points. I just write out in full what I'd otherwise put on an overhead or just write on the board.

I'm glad to see so many others who hate this because some of my colleagues regard me as a technophobe even though they know I can operate a digital multitracker with competence, something most of them cannot do. I resisted the moves from chalk to whiteboard, from whiteboard to overheads and now from overheads to PowerPoints. Well, actually I didn't resist the first move much but I've never met chalk that doesn't work or can't be removed but I've met a lot of whiteboard pens that suddenly dry up and boards that have been indelibly soiled with somebody's accountancy lecture. Overheads have one advantage over write-as-you-go presentations. You don't waste talking time writing and, if you are smart, neither do the class. That said, you still have to hand the class copies of the overheads and go slowly enough for them to understand what you are saying.

The reason I like the write-as-you-go approach is that you have to concentrate on vivid presentation. You have to be thinking 'what can I say next to make this really clear and vivid'. With preselected points, even written out in full, it is hard not to think that the technology is doing the work, even when you know it isn't. Somehow it is hard to get motivated to lecture properly. My solution to that problem is to use very few overheads and always have writing materials with me in case teh lecture goes in a direction that requires board work I hadn't anticipated.

[Joseph E. Smith]

Here's what I found yesterday in a German online magazine: I don't know if the idea first came up in the US, but in Berlin, the latest talk of the town is "Powerpoint Karaoke"! Contestants are faced with ppts that have been googled randomly. Then they deliver a presentation without knowing about subject, content etc., trying to be as coherent, self-assured and" witty" as possible. Afterwards, the audience/jury picks a winner.

Actually....that's really funny. I'd go to something like that. I'd even particpate as a contestant.

Dale

...sad, so sad. You really need some help my friend.

[fel bautista]

Here's one. Can't find the person's name who adapted it.I HAVE A DREAM...

I had to do it. I put it on power point. It looks just as ghastly as it is written out.

[Scott McCallister]

I had a job that used PowerPoint
It was used on a regular basis
For the purpose of presenting product ideas
In the executive board-room and other places
At first I presented complete, well-crafted ideas.
This, of course after months of research
Countless meetings for departmental feedback and guidance

P2

Later the VP of Technology told me:
You should create your PowerPoint Slides differently
Never have more than 7 lines/page
And never more than 7 words/line
He told me Executives don't conceptualize details
Instead they want broad overviews.

P3

Condensing so much work is pretty tricky
I, personally, would want details for decisions
Strangely, the company went into bankruptcy
Spring of 2000 had nearly 4000 employees
National presence and a stock-price of 39.80/Share
Now local only to Denver, 200 employees
ICGX was de-listed when prices hit $0.11/share

Man, that's weird. It kind of becomes a type of Haiku...

[s1m0n]

Here's what I found yesterday in a German online magazine: I don't know if the idea first came up in the US, but in Berlin, the latest talk of the town is "Powerpoint Karaoke"

I love it - this would be a great icebreaker for a conference friday night, if you had a small number of attendees with alcohol-enhanced extroversion.

[Mitch]

Man, that's weird. It kind of becomes a type of Haiku...

Yes, PP slides reduced to Haiku would be a great improvement!

Seriously tho - At one time, I would commit my research and business case to a presentation - but I used Director, not powerpoint - it was the only way to actually capture the material honestly. And then I realised that only my peers got any value from that - management had not the skill or time to understand what I was doing, regardless of how it was presented. Later, as a manger, I found that my employees actually became upset and hostile if I asked them to explain what they were doing in context of the business outcomes. Usually folks don't have a clue what they are doing, thankfully if they maintain the appearance of competence then, at least, some of the job will get done and this is the value of PP - If they have not done the work to support the claims made in presentations, then the next audit has a 50/50 chance of biting their butts. On the other hand, PP is used to extract funds form the budget - who can say if those funds actually get used at the service of the company, p***ed up against the wall, or perverted into a nepotistic black hole. A business is like a rolling ball of fluff - bits fly off and bits stick on, so long as it rolls: it's a business.

[SteveShaw]

The reason I like the write-as-you-go approach is that you have to concentrate on vivid presentation. You have to be thinking 'what can I say next to make this really clear and vivid'. With preselected points, even written out in full, it is hard not to think that the technology is doing the work, even when you know it isn't. Somehow it is hard to get motivated to lecture properly. My solution to that problem is to use very few overheads and always have writing materials with me in case teh lecture goes in a direction that requires board work I hadn't anticipated.

That strikes a chord with me. As a secondary school science teacher (summat I did for 25 years!) I would often feel guilty that I'd somehow not prepared my lesson adequately unless I had all my OHPs done in advance, worksheets at the ready, and every step of every lesson worked out to a tee. Whilst I would never advocate going in to a class of reluctant 16-year-olds with a completely "blank canvas" (drinking teachers' talk for totally bloody unprepared! ), sometimes a lesson that you'd prepared "in outline only" was often the best lesson of the week. If you know your stuff and you're experienced enough to have confidence in your own resoucefulness, you spend the hour on your toes and this can definitely transmit something of your enthusiasm to the students. Call it "edge..."

Steve

[Wormdiet]

I used to type up every single one of my lectures and throw it up (almost a pun intended but not quite) on an OHP. I *do* think that giving students something visual connected to an oral presentation is a good idea. But I found that, the more I spoke as a coherent narrator, and less as a graphic interpreter, the more they understood. I never use the OHP for my econ course unless it's just definitions. Give me a piece of chalk and a blackboard any day.

I detest PPT because, like every other microsoft product ever written, it has a clunky interface, it shoehorns the user into pre-fabbed defaults too easily, and it just plain sucks as a piece of software because it implements commands inconsistently. Don't even get me started on MS Word. Two years of guerrilla graphic design taught me to immediately class MS Word fans as inferior life forms.

Now QuarkXpress - THAT was a good program. Powerful, intuitive, and freeing.

[Wormdiet]

Come to think of it, one of my biggest pet peeves as an educator is the constant drive to "incorporate technology" while NOT giving students what they need most: individual attention and small class sizes from a young age. My school alone has ten $1000 computer projector gizmoes and a few incredibly expensive "whiteboards." That's enough $$$ to pay someone to teach two classes over an academic year. I don't think anybody ever learned to read, write, or calculate well because the computer lab was equipped with the newest model of IBM.