Over the last few years, comments have popped up on how PowerPoint ruins many presentations. That’s backward. Presenters ruin presentations by using PowerPoint. PowerPoint isn’t the criminal here.
The crime comes from people not using creativity in designing their presentations. Weird Is Good took an ingenious approach in a lecture on the Civil War. Here’s a quote:
Now I had the leisure to ramp up my presentations. I clicked on the PowerPoint icon and wandered into the realm of digitally enhanced oration. Most historians consider images, bullet points, and film clips show-biz flash. If old-time audiences could sit and listen to Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas discuss slavery for hours without photos or outlines, why can’t modern students endure a lecture about their debates without the indulgence of eye candy?
I sympathize with those retro sentiments. We have all watched computerized slide shows induce brain-deadness in otherwise vibrant human beings. They stare blankly at the screen and repeat every word that pops up there like zombified parrots. Instead of revolutionizing academic presentations, PowerPoint has — and this is a true miracle — dulled them further.
Jon T. Coleman, the professor who wrote the article, put “punk” in the PowerPoint as he discussed facial hair. Yes, facial hair.
I use the tour of Civil War facial hair to teach two lessons. The tour is a fun way to demonstrate how to raise a historical question, find a thesis, and formulate an argument. It’s an exercise in essay writing.
But it’s also a goof. I’m not really interested in discovering why generals and politicians on both sides of the most deadly struggle in American history grew such fabulous whiskers. I wanted to do something strange and pointless with PowerPoint. And in so doing, I hoped to make academe a little better.
Not weird. Imaginative!
How to Do Presentations Right
Maybe it would help to treat every presentation as if the computer or device that contains the presentation will die minutes before the presentation begins. Do you have a backup computer? OK, what if that backup dies, too? Not likely? Regardless, the point is to avoid letting PowerPoint be the presentation. If you need inspiration, Metaphorically Selling is a great resource for coming up with innovative ways to present information.
Good speakers use PowerPoint or whatever application as a complementary tool for their presentation. But too often, presenters succumb to PowerPoint like a boss I had in the past would read the slides and then add a little commentary before moving to the next slide.
Edward Tufte declared PowerPoint is evil because of presenters like my boss. Bloomberg’s Andrew Ferguson shares his beef with PowerPoint.
How often do we get to use creativity? A presentation offers the opportunity to exercise our imaginations and put it to good use.
Next time you need to do a presentation, rather than thinking of how much work it is and how it interferes with your busy day — consider it an opportunity to do something different and stand out.
Awwww, I love Powerpoint! I created an awesome slide show (complete with her favorite song) for my niece’s graduation party and she was duly impressed!