I was very amused and heartened to see that one of the answers to the question “Why do 60% of students find their lectures boring?” (an article in the Guardian by a boredom specialist) is the overuse of Powerpoint.
As an avid detester of Powerpointlessness I welcome anything that furthers the cause, but I’m amazed at the inertia of the business and academic worlds on this issue. I wrote that blog in 2003, when there was already a plethora of high-level, high-quality, high-relevance criticism, including the wonderful The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint by the world expert on the visual display of information, Edward Tufte. Yet in all that time, I have seen no sign of the academic or business worlds that I rub shoulders with taking a critical look at Powerpoint and their use of it – and I guess that’s why history, in bullet points, keeps repeating itself.
Exactly! And tonight I will be sitting through several pointless powerpoints by students. I feel the despair descending already.
A lovely quote from Edward Tufte
“PP forces the really inept to have points, some points, any points” (from a posting on the Rocket Science page on Dec 9th 2005). Incidentally, there are some nice pages on dance notation in Tufte’s book “Envisioning Information”
There is a revolution going on with respect to the use of PowerPoint. It was started by Cliff Atkinson with his book “Beyond Bullets Point”. Then the revolution was ignited by Garr Reynolds with his blog and book “Presentation Zen”. Then came Nancy Duarte with her book Slide:ology. Check those books and blogs and I am sure you will change your approach towards PPt.
Thanks for the information. Just to be clear, everyone – please note it’s the misuse of powerpoint that I detest.