I’m a Luddite in terms of educational technology. Never learned how to use PowerPoint because the PowerPoint-driven talks and lectures I’ve sat through have almost invariably been boring. And the slides have always struck me as another step in the direction of student passivity; students just sit there and copy down what it says on the slide, so why bother to pay attention to the lecture, get involved in the discussion, or think about the subject matter? I think Edward Tufte nailed this several years ago.
So I’m old-fashioned. But sometimes it pays to be old-fashioned, because if you wait long enough, chances are you’ll come back into fashion. Here’s hoping.
Case in point: At least at one school (SMU), the dean is trying to talk faculty members out of using PowerPoint and to banish computers from the classroom.
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The problem is that people don’t think of their slides as visual reinforcements for ideas they’re communicating via the lecture. They think of them *as* the lecture. Presentation software works well if what’s on it is dynamic, interesting, and evocative: pictures, animations, film clips, etc. But if you do *nothing* but outline on it… or, even worse, have what is basically a transcript of your talk/lecture… then, yeah, it’s teh suck.
This says all there is to say about powerpoint
http://norvig.com/Gettysburg
I second Dan’s comment wholeheartedly. PowerPoint can be a class killer if it’s used the wrong way. But by adopting a “less is more” approach, one can really bring the class to a new level.
Since, for the most part, professors are not ‘taught’ to teach, Power Point is akin to giving a toddler a hammer.
During our annual TA training conference, we host a session titled, “How to Avoid Death by Power Point.” The moral of the story echos Dion’s sentiment that instructors need to take a ‘less is more’ approach when interfacing with Power Point.
Ron Hassner had an article on the use and misuse of PP a year or two ago in PS, July 2005. He made the same points noted above: use it to illustrate, not regurgitate, the lecture.
I agree with all of the above about less-is-more, visualizations, etc. But on one of Lee’s original points about the passivity of slides, clickers (if used thoughtfully) can encourage engagement. NPR had a good story a few months back http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101343866. They’re no panacea for good presentations, but they can be good for keeping students awake and gaining feedback if you place a response slide at key points or doing informal brief surveys in class (as well as the occasional reading quiz). In the end, though, a boring lecture with student response is still a boring lecture.
I have had professors and presenters who have used PowerPoint well. I have had a vastly larger number who simply read their slides off of the screen. Guess which sort of class is more engaging, and which one sees slumping attendance after a week?
Agree with the above. I try to teach students better use of powerpoint not only by example, but by prohibiting them from putting any text on their slides if they use powerpoint during their class presentations.
Seems like lots of folks think errroneously that powerpoint is meant to replace lecture notes.
I’m a PowerPoint hater too, for the most part, but think that it can actually improve some lectures. E.g., if the lecturer wouldn’t take the time to outline without PP, then PP improves the lecture. Not everyone prepares lecture notes, at least for every lecture.
So the comparison is not b/w an interesting lecture without PP and a boring lecture with. It’s b/w the same lecture, by the same boring speaker, but one with an outline (that you can actually see!) and one without.
Also, PP serves a useful function re: “This is what we covered that day.” Because if it’s in my notes, I may or may not cover it.
But if it’s on a slide, and the slide is shown–no one can say, “You never covered that.”
But generally, it’s used in awful ways. Yes.
How about a cost/benefit analysis of Powerpoint versus a standard form of lecture? How much time and effort is spent on the former than the latter? How do students react to each? Do students accept the simplicity of the Powerpoint, or are they challenged to challenge the presentation? Is Powerpoint a form of spoon-feeding of students? And does Powerpoint permit for as much Q & A as a standard form of lecture?
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