PowerPoint: Medium vs. Message
In reading the articles for this week, I've come across theories that PowerPoint is evil, the devil, and makes us stupid. The level of overstatement in all of the articles almost made me laugh. Seriously though, what are these people talking about?
I will agree with the idea that PowerPoint can be meaningless and extraneous. David Byrne's mockery of the PowerPoint arrows actually made me think; people who are inexperienced in the use of the application tend to go crazy with useless word art, neon-colored arrows, and random clip art simply because the audience probably likes to look at pretty colors. And even more to the point, there are people who will look at one of those presentations and think it was good simply because it used every imaginable feature the application has to offer. However the confusion that has arisen is a result of mixing up the medium with the message, which PowerPoint certainly makes it a lot easier to do. However a bad speaker putting together a nice PowerPoint presentation does not suddenly revolutionize their abilities and it certainly doesn't make their argument come across any stronger. While people may make the mistake of the presentation seeming more professional, it doesn't mean they are going to be any more convinced by the actual content of the speech.
Julia Keller's anecdote about the football coach is similar; a good coach is not going to use PowerPoint to motivate his players at halftime. PowerPoint might be a great tool for scouting (showing your players what the other team looks like offensively and defensively) or for replacing the standard "chalkboard talk," and a good coach is going to understand the difference.
The basic theme of my opinion is that PowerPoint and all of its features are tools in the same way that hand motion, use of non-PowerPoint visual aids, and something as simple as intonation are tools. PowerPoint has as much potential to make a presentation more poingant as it does to ruin the effect. PowerPoint isn't evil and it doesn't make us stupid, but some of the people that use it need just a little more work.
I will agree with the idea that PowerPoint can be meaningless and extraneous. David Byrne's mockery of the PowerPoint arrows actually made me think; people who are inexperienced in the use of the application tend to go crazy with useless word art, neon-colored arrows, and random clip art simply because the audience probably likes to look at pretty colors. And even more to the point, there are people who will look at one of those presentations and think it was good simply because it used every imaginable feature the application has to offer. However the confusion that has arisen is a result of mixing up the medium with the message, which PowerPoint certainly makes it a lot easier to do. However a bad speaker putting together a nice PowerPoint presentation does not suddenly revolutionize their abilities and it certainly doesn't make their argument come across any stronger. While people may make the mistake of the presentation seeming more professional, it doesn't mean they are going to be any more convinced by the actual content of the speech.
Julia Keller's anecdote about the football coach is similar; a good coach is not going to use PowerPoint to motivate his players at halftime. PowerPoint might be a great tool for scouting (showing your players what the other team looks like offensively and defensively) or for replacing the standard "chalkboard talk," and a good coach is going to understand the difference.
The basic theme of my opinion is that PowerPoint and all of its features are tools in the same way that hand motion, use of non-PowerPoint visual aids, and something as simple as intonation are tools. PowerPoint has as much potential to make a presentation more poingant as it does to ruin the effect. PowerPoint isn't evil and it doesn't make us stupid, but some of the people that use it need just a little more work.
posted by Frederick at 1:15 PM
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