Blame the User and Not the Tool

The Powerpoint backlash continues.  But I have an ally in the argument that the problem is not the software but the people who use it.

See, even bland powerpoint with the lamest stuff (as put together by Slate's Farhad Manjoo to demonstrate the point) can do the trick.  I will use less moving text in the future (I use it rarely).


And Majoo provides us with some tips:

• "Make sure the topic is right for Powerpoint"  Numbers, technical data--bad. And yes, presenting statistical analyses via powerpoint requires some practice.  The good news is that the new generation of grad students seems well-trained, mostly.  At least the ones I have seen interviewing at McGill over the past six years or so.
• "Skip the bullets."  I am ambivalent about this one--I use powerpoint as outline mostly.  I do not read my bullets and I try hard not to include too many on a page.  The article uses Steve Jobs as the exemplar of bullet-less presentation  But actually, he just has bullets--one page per bullet.  
• One observation I have that is omitted from this discussion is it is a lot easier making a single presentation that has big stakes rather than many presentations over the course of a term, like 30 or 40.  
• Another is that Jobs's presentations would be bad for the environment.  I upload my slides so the students can download them, print them, and then write on them as I go along.  My slides, again, are outlines of the lecture.  Printout out his 100 slide presentation would be bad for trees.

• "You can become a better presenter."  Indeed.  Again, the challenge for a prof is how to do a lot of presentations, rather than just a big one, that can help get the concepts across.  I could do the one or two lines per slide strategy (maybe when I teach this new revised version of Intro to International Relations), but I tend to prefer the presentation software mostly serving the purpose of keeping the students aware of where I am in the lecture and the major concepts and ideas that I am trying to explain.  I have, I think, improved over time.  I tended to use too many tricks after my Pentagon experience, but reduced them.  I tended to use too much youtube once that became widely available, but I am more strategic in using it now.
• "Slide software can make impenetrable subjects mesmerizing"  Well, I don't have to worry about that--International Relations is far from impenetrable.  It is inherently interesting.   

 But I will be more more self-conscious this fall--the question is then does this help or hurt my lectures?  Since I am changing the class significantly, it will be hard to tell.