Having sat through many bad PPt presentations, I feel compelled to jump into the conversation here. Part of the problem with PPt is not the technology (although it is limiting in many ways) but with the user. Isn't this a little bit of the "medium and the message" -- where the technology has both aided bad presentations and caused them?
An interesting article appeared November 10, 2003 in The Toronto Star --page D5 entitled "Countering 'death by PowerPoint'" that gives a similar perspective from the business point of view.
The problem is that it is now de riguer in meetings, classrooms, and offices. And the question is how to teach our students to use it without being subsumed by the robotic/hypnotic possibilities.
My colleagues and I sense a paper in this..........with PPT presentations to our faculty!
Sandy Dorley
Conestoga College
School of Liberal Studies
Professor of Communications
519-748-5220 x3819
[log in to unmask]
>>> [log in to unmask] 11/20/03 08:51AM >>>
Well, then, why is it so popular?
--On Thursday, November 20, 2003 9:37 AM -0400 Russ Hunt <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> But I think it's interesting that Jamie posted this to us
> Chatelaines, because it seems to me that at the root of Tufte's
> objections is a rhetorical one. It's not only about denuding
> complex ideas of their richness; it's not only about abandoning
> the connectives and subordinators that make discourse into
> thinking; it's about your relation to your audience. PPt is
> unremittingly monologic. The speaker's plan is the speaker's
> plan, interrupt it at your peril. The _Wired_ piece concludes
> with this: "PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and
> projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has
> become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most
> important rule of speaking: Respect your audience." It's no
> mistake that it's called POWER point, eh?
Surely it can't be because speakers intend to disrespect their audiences,
denude complex ideas of their richness, and abandon the connections among
ideas . . .
This is a serious question. The denunciations of powerpoint that I have
seen are amazingly vituperative, yet it's darned near ubiquitous. (Can't
just be that it's a M$ product; you don't find the same thing with Access,
say.) Obviously the program meets a need. What is it?
Marcy
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Marcy Bauman
Media Consultant
College of Pharmacy
University of Michigan
734-647-2227
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