I’ve been reading anti-Power Point posts at University Diaries for months now. Nevertheless, I started using PowerPoint presentations in my survey class last semester and they proved very popular. An article from the Guardian Margaret Soltan linked to over there explains why:
Does anyone else hate PowerPoint? At conferences and meetings, I inwardly groan as speakers load up their ponderous projections. I don’t mind maps and pictures, but all those words of text drive me crazy. “And now for my introduction …” and up comes the word “introduction”. ‘”There are four main points” and we see “four points”.
Exactly. I use PowerPoint like a slide projector – pictures with almost no text. That way the presentation adds to the lecture rather than replaces it. Indeed, there are so many fantastic pictures readily available on the Web with which to teach modern American history, I think professors are committing educational malpractice if they don’t use PowerPoint for this topic.
But don’t write out everything you want to say on the slides. It puts me to sleep just thinking about it.
Powerpoint is a great tool, but the speaker must know how to use it correctly. If they just read off the slides, it does no good to the listeners. The best way is to use it as more of a guide than the complete presentation.