‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?' Teachers using information technology in Higher Education

1. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?'Teachers using information technology in Higher Education How often have you been harassed and assailed by countless PowerPoint slides, one after another, packed with too much text, on snazzy templates and with whizzy graphics or animations, but which actually told you very little ? The record for me (as a participant) is seeing over 80 slides in two forty minute sessions ! How often do you put PowerPoint slides up on the screen and read out exactly what is on them ? Why don’t you just give your audience the copies and let them read the slides ? This session will help us discuss our own experiences of ‘PowerPointlessness’, but will also consider how you can use the Power to help others get the Point, and to decide for yourselves if PowerPoint is Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk

2. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?‘Learning Technology in H. E. Is PP evil ? Edwarde Tufte (2003) .. ‘elevates format over content, betraying an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch.’ ‘a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. ‘ Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk

3. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?‘Learning Technology in H. E. Or good ? David Byrne (2003) … ‘I could actually create things that were beautiful. I could bend the program to my own whim and use it as an artistic agent. ‘ ‘even without text, I could make works that were "about" something, something beyond themselves, and that they could even have emotional resonance.’ Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk

4. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?‘Learning Technology in H. E. What in your experience has made using PowerPoint Good or evil Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk

5. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?‘Learning Technology in H. E. Have you suffered from PowerPointlessness ? ‘Too many bullets. Too much crummy clip art. Simple thoughts. One liners. Mind bytes. Mind candy. Death by powerpointing … We can do better.’ We need to ‘avoid Mentalsoftness™ and learn to think and communicate thoughtfully.’ (McKenzie 2000) Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk

6. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?‘Learning Technology in H. E. • What ways do we use it ? • Source of whole lecture – lecture and handouts • Starting point of lecture – key points • Prompts ideas / activity – tasks, questions • Visual reinforcement – images, audio, video • Change of stimulus – offers variety • Tool for students to use – peer presentations etc • Reinforcement of ideas – available on web pages Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk

7. ‘PowerPoint – Good or Evil ?‘Learning Technology in H. E. Sources Byrne, D (2003) Learning to Love PowerPoint Wired 11.09, Sep 2003 at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt1.html (accessed 3/5/04) Mckenzie, J (2000)Scoring PowerPoints From Now on Vol 10, No 1, Sep 2000 at http://optin.iserver.net/fromnow/sept00/powerpoints.html (accessed 3/5/04) Sutherland, A (2002)The Good, the bad and the rather unpleasant TechDis presentation at http://www.ltsn.ac.uk/application.asp?section=generic&app=resources.asp&process=full_record&id=132 (accessed 3/5/04) Tufte, E (2003) PowerPointis evil Wired 11.09, Sep 2003 at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html (accessed 3/5/04) Jim Crawley - j.crawley@bathspa.ac.uk Visit the Itslifelonglearning web site at www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk