In our last week class discussion, the professor mentioned that some people think that PowerPoint shouldn't be used when people are presenting important information. They think PowerPoint could cause people to make bad decisions and even lead to horrible consequences.
In the beginning, I thought those people are just too extreme about hating PowerPoint and didn't think that PPT could cause harm. However, after the professor gave the example of NASA's Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster and I read the PPT(6 provocations for big data) of this week, I rethink about the impact and effect that PPT could bring to the audience.
On reading that PPT, I had the feeling that some information need to be illustrated more rather than just had a few bullet points listed there. Because of the succinct bullet points, I am not sure whether I fully know what the presenters want to present. I understand why the presenter did so because s/he wanted to make the PPT simple and readable. But this also means that some important detailed information would be left out in this PPT; audience must fully concentrate during the lecture or they would miss those points and probably jump to wrong conclusion just like the decision makers in that Columbia space shuttle disaster case. Like what the professor stated in class, some data can not be completely presented on the slides. Sometimes, this important and detailed information need to be presented in paper so that full elaboration and information can be shown there. And experts can make better decision based on the comprehensive information.
Speaking of being pro or against the use of PowerPoint, I have a neutral stance. Sometimes, I do feel that PPT works for both the presenter and the audience. As a more visual person, I would prefer the presenter to show me some PPTs instead of doing all the talk the whole time. Visualization helps me grasp the concept or the content of the talk better. However, this benefit would cause some problems for me from time to time. For instance, I might rely too much on the PPT and so concentrated on reading the words from the slides which I turn off my ears. In this case, I would miss some information which isn't listed on the slides but explained by the presenter. But if you ask me whether I'm still for using PPT after hearing the example of NASA's tragedy, I would still say yes because it's friendly for both presenter and audience. But to avoid tragedies like NASA's, I would say that probably it would be best for presenters to prepare both slides and paper which could be referred to after the presentation.
One more thing on my mind is that we talked about some alternatives for PPTs like Prezi. Personally, I am not a fan of Prezi. In fact, I kind of dislike it. When I first used it, I thought it's kinda cool and more dynamic compared to PPT. Prezi allows your slides to move around, zoom in and zoom out. As a presenter, I like this animation. But as an audience, I really don't like it because the movement of the slides makes me feel dizzy and uncomfortable. If the presenter keeps moving on his slides and zooming in and out, I think I might pass out very soon. And some people say that PPT presents information in a linear way. However, in my opinion, presenters can add some links to the PPTs (link one ppt to another) or add some other special animation effects to make it more dynamic and interactive!
I found out an website that is totally "Anti-PowerPoint". It's called Anti-PowerPoint Party. I don't even know there's such thing until I goolged some related info and found it. It's quite interesting to see what these advocates have to say about PPT.
*** Week 3 reading
I found the reading "The Reader-to-Leader Framework" pretty interesting.
It talked about that social participation can be categorized as "reading, contributing, collaborating and leading". When I looked back on my online social participation pattern, it's pretty much like it. I still remembered that when I was in 5th grade, there was a trend of creating "online clubs" which were a kind of online community supported by Yahoo in Taiwan. In the beginning, I joined different clubs like western music club, English learning club, etc. People would post pop music in the club or share related information about the singers. At that time, I just read through the information and listened to music recommended by other online members of the group. But after a few weeks, I had the thought that I wanted to create my own club and be the chief of the club who is in charge of the online community. So I did create my own online music club. I started to post stuff there and organize people's postings in my forum.
My own experience of social participation wasn't exactly following the linear pattern. But it got all the elements there. I first did the reading and then contributing, collaborating and leading happened altogether. I felt motivated to manage my own online club because I want to have this "ownership"--that something I own it, not other people who own the online club. And the reason why I kept posting things in my club is because I received good comments or responses from my club members. It's very motivating whenever you see that your hard work pay off just by reading a few positive lines made by other online members.
It's a pity that Yahoo online club grew out of favor as time goes by. When I went to junior high, that stuff was no longer popular. In the end, Taiwan Yahoo decided to take out that stuff. Many years later, blogging became popular in Taiwan, too. And that's another story for me.
Hi Evelyn,
ReplyDeleteI think we have the same idea about the use of PowerPoint, as well as the Reader-to-Leader Framework in this week's reading.
First of all, I also have experience with several PowerPoint-like software before. I found them very fascinating, like Prezi, at first, but I finally returned back to PPT in my study and work. I had to admit the design and operatin experience of PowerPoint, with its linear, synthesizing and simple logic, it can express the speaker's idea in a very comprehensive and straighforward way. However, there are some inevitable problems of it, like the one happened to NASA, its concised headline and misleading information ended up in wrong vital dicision. I really this that with any kind of technology, we should know clearly about its advantage and drawbacks, and in what kind of situation may cause problems. Only apply this technology under the proper circumstances, can we truly maximize its positive effect.
Also, I had similiar online experience of the Reader-to-Leader Framework as you do. I do enjoy having my own blogs online to put my writings and share with strangers who have the sam interests with me. I am glad to know that you are keeping a personal club too.
Hi Jingshan,
DeleteI "used to" have a personal online club. Unfortunately, that kinda thing died out and was closed. haha
I wondered if you still keep blogging these days. I'm asking this because I used to do that when it's a trendy thing to do in Taiwan. But after a while, I stopped doing that probably just because I was kinda bored with it or too lazy to write too much stuff.
I agree with the PowerPoint stance. I think it works for some things and doesn't for others. I also think it's based on the user cause some rely too heavy on ppt and it results in just dry reading off of it. I think there are bad and good ppts but it's pretty subjective. My stance on the nasa tragedy? I dunno. That's hard to say. I don't think it's completely the ppts fault since the user could have did it differently.
ReplyDeleteI also thought the reader to leader framework fascinating and wrote about my experiences in it. I never got to leader of anything tho.
I rethink about what you just said (not completely ppts' fault). I think you are right about it. The user did have a choice to present the data more carefully on his/her slides. Apart from that, I also think that "the audience" should also take on their own responsibility in taking in what is right or wrong. Maybe they relied too much on what they had seen from the slides and did not question the content which also led to the wrong decision and tragedy!
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