Powerpoint presentations "a disaster" says professor

[T_i_B]

I'm sure a few of you could have told them that!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/19/nppoint19.xml

Powerpoint presentations, beloved of the business executive, are so ubiquitous that there are even PowerPoint presentations on how to do a PowerPoint presentation.

Now research claims to have proved what millions of bored workers have suspected all along - they have little power and even less point. According to the report, the brain cannot cope with having too much information thrown at it at once. Having someone speak and point to a screen full of facts and figures at the same time causes it to switch off.

A speech would be far less of a waste of time, the research claims.

The study, at the University of New South Wales, branded PowerPoint presentations a disaster and called for them to be scrapped

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Sounds like my Macro theory class...

A never ending series of PowerPoint slides at rapid-fire speed... :crazy:

[PVnRT]

2. It's not PowerPoint necessarily, it's how it's used

Yes, when all you are doing is reading the same thing that is on the screen (which is what most people do) they are a waste of time. However, they are very useful for presenting data while you're talking, rather than have to continually refer people to a handout.

[cobalt1999]

3. sounds more like poor presenters...

First thing I was taught about presenting to an audience is to NEVER repeat what is written. I tell my staff that too. Powerpoint, in the right hands, can make for a very good meeting; in the wrong hands, a very dull meeting.

I use slides for graphs or pictures that would be difficult or confusing to present verbally. A simple graphic with a verbal explanation works beautifully. I agree that filling your slides with words and then reading them to your audience is a disaster.

Too many people learn the technology without learning how to do a presentation.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. also people spend so much time "prettying up" their power point presentation that it lacks substance

[cobalt1999]

5. Lack of substance is common

I find that most of the details of a topic are not presented in meetings anymore, but in various emails afterwards. The worst offenders get the following article emailed to them...


PowerPoint Makes You Dumb

(New York Times, Dec 17 2003: “Year in Ideas” issue)

In August, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA released Volume 1 of its report on why the space shuttle crashed. As expected, the ship's foam insulation was the main cause of the disaster. But the board also fingered another unusual culprit: PowerPoint, Microsoft's well-known ''slideware'' program.

NASA, the board argued, had become too reliant on presenting complex information via PowerPoint, instead of by means of traditional ink-and-paper technical reports. When NASA engineers assessed possible wing damage during the mission, they presented the findings in a confusing PowerPoint slide -- so crammed with nested bullet points and irregular short forms that it was nearly impossible to untangle. ''It is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation,'' the board sternly noted.

PowerPoint is the world's most popular tool for presenting information. There are 400 million copies in circulation, and almost no corporate decision takes place without it. But what if PowerPoint is actually making us stupider?

This year, Edward Tufte -- the famous theorist of information presentation -- made precisely that argument in a blistering screed called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. In his slim 28-page pamphlet, Tufte claimed that Microsoft's ubiquitous software forces people to mutilate data beyond comprehension. For example, the low resolution of a PowerPoint slide means that it usually contains only about 40 words, or barely eight seconds of reading. PowerPoint also encourages users to rely on bulleted lists, a ''faux analytical'' technique, Tufte wrote, that dodges the speaker's responsibility to tie his information together. And perhaps worst of all is how PowerPoint renders charts. Charts in newspapers like The Wall Street Journal contain up to 120 elements on average, allowing readers to compare large groupings of data. But, as Tufte found, PowerPoint users typically produce charts with only 12 elements. Ultimately, Tufte concluded, PowerPoint is infused with ''an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.''

[philosophie_en_rose]

6. Powerpoint doesn't bore people. People bore people.

Powerpoint is a good tool, if used correctly. However, I'm not a fan of paying money to hear professors or others simply read their powerpoints. I do know how to read. :)