Re: Life after Death by PowerPoint

An interesting video is shared on PIDP3240 forum "Life after Death by PowerPoint"

The video points out many common mistakes that many PowerPoint users have made unintentionally. As many other educational tools, PowerPoint has its advantages and drawbacks. Here is my point of view -

I would like to start my posting from answering these three questions:

Is power point over used? - I think so. Powerpoint is so regularly used these days in schools and workplaces. People or educators would think preparing a PPT is essential in every presentation - no matter how well these PPT are created. However we need to understand that PP is like all other presentation aids, it is just a tool, which suits certain purposes and the effectiveness depends on how we make use of it.

What is your worst power point experience? - As a science educator, it is really time-consuming to write all those equations into a PowerPoint. I switched to Explain Everything ( a screencasting app on iPad that you can "handwrite" on iPad and at the same time create a video based on it, or simply share it synchronously) I came to realize that, nobody is required to use PowerPoint all the times, there are so many other fit-into-purpose tools we should get to know, and make use of.
Does power point support learning? Why or Why not? - This is a thought provoking question. PowerPoint does a good job organizing lecture content. A well-designed PowerPoint not only helps the instructor to deliver the content in a pre-planned, and organized way, but also makes complicated materials more managable for learners. However a lecture heavily relying on PowerPoint may discourage actual student-faculty interactions. In a large class, often times the students focus on the big screen, instead following along with the instructor.Constantly students may just mentally turn off, and learn in a passive mode.

In "I'm ambivalent about it" The Dilemmas of PowerPoint, Hill (2010) pointed out more than half of the instructors surveyed use PowerPoint "very frequently". When the students were surveyed, over half of the responses claimed liking the software for its ability to outline lectures and point to important information, however a quarter of the responses point out the software being less useful for paper writing or engaging discussion. Nevertheless I have to agree that PowerPoint (maybe just like many other technology tools) is a tool for conveying information, which does not necessarily define what a lecture should look like. It doesn't hurt to turn off the screen when you want your students to engage in a discussion, or focus on high-cognitive thinking (instead of staring at the screen). Instead of mistakenly reading every word in a presentation (as shown in the YouTube video), and overwhelmingly present information in an ineffective way, PowerPoint is still useful showing pictures, and video clips, charts, numbers. Overall, it is us that teaches, not PowerPoint. The question when/why/how/whether we should use PowerPoint (or any other learning tools) in teaching would ultimately fall on the answer of "does it help or hinder learning".

I'm looking forward to everyone else's response to these questions. How do you like PowerPoint? Do you use any alternative tools for your presentation, that you find effective?

Reference: Hill, A., Arford, T., Lubitow, A., and Smollin, L. (2012). “I’m ambivalent about it”: The dilemmas of PowerPoint. Teaching Sociology, 40 (3), 242-256. http://tso.sagepub.com/content/40/3/242.abstract