Jamie Mckenzie describes powerpointlessness by referring to a Dilbert cartoon (August 16). He said it "portrayed a member of the audience collapsing from "PowerPoint poisoning." Too many bullets. Too much crummy clip art. Simple thoughts. One liners. Mind bytes. Mind candy. Death by power pointing!" Essentially, it is a poorly designed and overcrowded presentation. According to him, "the goal is the creation of a strong and charismatic relationship with the audience." If we fail to achieve this goal then we ourselves have just subjected our audience to death by PowerPoint.
I thought that "death by PowerPoint" was a term only used in the Navy. Anytime we had training we knew it was going to have a PowerPoint and drag on forever. Eventually leaders and trainers learned to simplify the slide presentation and use additional visual aids. An in depth review and lesson on creating proper PowerPoints can be found at http://www.fno.org/sept00/powerpoints.html. It is at this site that the author explains how we can teach students to learn to think and communicate thoughtfully with PowerPoint. Although he provides an extensive review I believe three of principles, if followed, will make anyone successful.
He writes that "students must master strategies to develop and maintain contact, engagement, credibility and trust." Therefore, students must maintain eye contact, know their audience and keep slides short. I agree with Mr. Mckenzie "that if the speaker is reaching the audience there are likely to be signs of approval coming from the eyes of the listener along with body language such as nods of approval, agreement or excitement." I often look to the cohort to see if what I am saying is making sense and then I continue or adjust as necessary. The same applies to my students during tutoring. If they aren't getting the lesson I stop and rephrase or give another example hoping it will make a difference to them. Not only does maintaining eye contact make that possible, but it also shows sincerity or interest on my part.
As an audience member I focus on the speaker. So if you ever want to use me as a guide; go for it. Occasionally when a speaker connects with me I wonder whether or not I am sending constructive signals. By knowing your audience and connecting with them it should be easier to use the PowerPoint slides as talking points and not mini novels. If I see a PowerPoint and the speaker just reads the slides, I get frustrated and end up missing the point or lesson.
If students master the points above they should be able to check off one last recommendation from McKenzie and that is to speak with conviction. I'd like to think I follow these guidelines, but look forward to the next project to see if I am right. I know there is always room for improvement.
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Hey Dena,
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your term...Death By Powerpoint! I think before REAL HELP arrived, we just didn't know what a powerpoint was for. I too am thankful for the guidelines set by McKinzie and hope I remember them when introducing these concepts to my students.
Pam
I am in agreement. I have seen PowerPoints done well and the good ones usually follow the guidelines which McKenzie sets forth!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dena. You reminded me of my own tendency of looking for affirmation from the one kid who is ALWAYS paying attention or understands. The same is true of throwing a question out to the class instead of direct questions to individual students, knowing that somebody, usually the same two or three, knows the answer. I found that in doing both of the above, I could feel good about how the lecture was going but lose a bunch of kids in the process. We should try to zero in on the kids who typically struggle as a gauge of how we're doing.
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