Powerpoint in the Army: Dumb Dumb Bullets

There's an interesting essay in the Armed Forces Journal (which, no doubt, you all read. I only spotted it via Boing Boing) about the negative influence of Powerpoint in decision making. The premise is that the shift away from briefing papers to Powerpoint presentations changes how decision are made for the worse. Much of the points the author argues are as relevant for teaching as decision making. I'd get a coffee and read it, if I was you.

One of the points made was how instead of a short paper being circulated before a meeting where a decision was to be made, much time was spent in the meeting going through the powerpoint slides. Thus people did not review the material in advance, or in the level of depth, or have time to reflect on it before the meeting where the decision was made. Instead of having, say, 20 minutes to discuss an issue and make a decision, there was a 15 minute powerpoint, then 5 minutes to discuss and decide.

And in lectures, we spend 55 minutes in Powerpoint, and zero time in discussion and reflection...
Are the lessons applicable? Could we expect students to review a couple of pages of material before a 'lecture'? Can we expect them then to participate in a discussion of the material, instead of simply listening and writing it all down? Probably not, but should we expect more of them? If we, as teachers, up our game, will they, as students, do the same?

Power corrupts, and Powerpoint corrupts absolutely

Edward Tufte, originated the quote in the title in his 2003 Wired article , is one of many critics of Powerpoint. His famous essay 'The cognitive style of Powerpoint: pitching out corrupts in" elaborates the criticism better than I could. In the essay, he shows that Powerpoint may truly be a 'killer app', as he describes how a cryptic Powerpoint slide hid the severity of the problem which would lead to the loss of the Space Shuttle Colombia, and seven lives.

And yet, here we are. Powerpoint is probably the most widely used teaching software on earth, (despite ranking only 10th in Jane Hartes top 100 list). Who will rid us of this terrible tool!

Powerpoint's great virtue was that it gave poor speakers a frame to prepare. It established an expectation that there would be slides. Thus, folks would would previously have muttered through a 20 minute presentation in an hour or so have to actually prepare and think through their material in advance. The linear prison of Powerpoint forces a linear narrative upon them. For some lecturers I know, this was nothing short of revolutionary. But the virtue of revolution depends on your point of view. This very structure sucks the greatness from the heart of many great, or even above average speakers, as the Gettysburg Address Powerpoint slides (a must see, if you haven't) demonstrate with wit.

If you do use Powerpoint for teaching, please try and use it better, or less. Presentation Zen is the best resource for in this area I have come across so far-there is a book also, alas not in our Universities otherwise excellent library. Neither is Slide:ology, another good text in a simlar vein.

Another useful resource on presentation style is the TED talks. Note the near total non use of Powerpoint. It's worth watching some of their top 10 talks, for style alone, if not content. Widely circulated on the web are their speaker tips, The TED Commandments.