Tosh has a good point about Tufte's bias for "contribute to data
presentation only." I think that what he may be missing (and I'm
working from his Wired article here, not the full-blown and
controverially distributed pamphlet) is that an audience for a talk
cannot process certain kinds of complexity. In the wired article, he
holds up a table as "good" -- but frankly it isn't. I see no legitimate
warrant for the claim of "goodness". It is visually unappealing and
cognitively difficult. Certainly, a good presenter could lead a listener
through the table, but would the listener comprehend or retain the
information? Not likely. When handling information aurally (and
whatever the ppt folks say, a presentation is still largely received
through the ears), we have a much more limited scope for comprehension.
In fact, some research I read recently suggests that the human ear can
receive 160,000 bits per second, whereas the eye can absorb 30, 000,000
or more. That's a factor of 100 difference!
For me, that becomes the reason why the construction of the visuals is
so important. If the visuals do not complement the oral presentation,
then the speaker will lose. The flashy visuals will take over, but so
too will the complex table that Tufte lauds. Neither is, in fact, good
for a talk. I concur with the points from the Calgarians: we need to
teach students to have rhetorical savvy for using powerpoint. They
can't just avoid it -- it is ubiquitous -- but they can understand how
it positions an audience, and how to use it creatively.
Just to show how more technology may in fact make life better -- in this
one regard -- the new Electrovaya Scribbler Tablet PC actually enables
you to make marks on your powerpoint slides on the fly. Thus, you can be
in mid presentation, and add a point, circle a spot, or whatever, and it
shows up on screen. That at least takes us back to some of the
flexibility in emphasis that was available with acetate. Of course, it
also continues to widen the divide between the techno-riche and the rest
of us.
Rob
--
**************************************
Dr. Robert Irish, Director
Language Across the Curriculum
Applied Science and Engineering
University of Toronto SF B670
416.978.6708
http://www.ecf.utoronto.ca/~writing
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