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Is PowerPoint The Devil?
from the oh,-calm-down dept
Here is an insanely long article all about the emotional response people have to PowerPoint. It seems that most people fall into one of two camps: (1) those that absolutely hate PowerPoint and say it's sapping all creativity out of people and (2) those who say that it's a tool, and can be used for good or bad purposes. I, clearly, fall into group (2). While the article does discuss PowerPoint for business workers, it mostly focuses on its use in schools. The teachers and professors who are vehemently against it - often saying that it makes students lazy, strike me as being somewhat lazy themselves. Isn't it their job as the teacher to instruct them on how to present ideas, and how to challenge ideas? If the teacher feels the student is using PowerPoint in a way that stifles their creativity, why don't they call them on that fact? Clearly, for some types of presentations, PowerPoint can be very useful. For others, it isn't. Part of the learning process for students should be determining the difference. Outright banning of PowerPoint is an overreaction that confuses misusing the tool with poor presentation skills.
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I missed something here...
If I'd had a presentation tool to do slides for talks in high school and college, it wouldn't have made _that_ much difference. My focus was always more on what I wanted to say and how to organize it than making it look good.
Maybe that's obvious in scientific classes rather than english or history or to my students in the undergrad chem labs in grad school
Or maybe making those slides by hand was part of the process of learning...
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Re: I missed something here...
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Don't ban it but don't require it. It's suppose to be about the message, not the medium used to present it.
I'd personnaly rather not see powerpoint pushed in school. It's a good tool in the right hands but I've seen too many professional turn it into to a 'let me show you how kewl I can make this presentation' instead of how meaningful.
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Powerpoint
It is the devil.
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