When I first started reading this I wasn't exactly why. Even as the reading was drawing to a close I was fighting to stay awake. I do have to say that the story of how PowerPoint came about was kinda interesting, but not enough to keep me awake. I have to say that the whole idea has come a long way through the years. From Overheads and transparency sheets to the program that can put an organized project presentation together within a good twenty minutes.
The only thing that really caught my attention was what some people think about it. The whole experiment about the "fake high school student under consideration for a university football scholarship"(Parker) makes the truth appear out in the open. The three groups were given different visuals about the student, but each time they preferred the PowerPoint. It could be that it has something to do with PowerPoint being a piece of technology. I mean now days we have millions of technological advances that distract us and are made to do so. Though PowerPoint is a useful tool when it is needed. Many times it is not what is needed and what is might not interest the audience. For example, like the essay states, many students what to see how a professor or teacher thinks. PowerPoint makes this easy to do, but it is not the actual flow of thought. It is to organized to be so. When Clifford Nass brings up when he tells of his rant about "The Wizard of Oz" is that his students were able to see what he was thinking and possibly understand why he was thinking it. In many cases PowerPoint helps students more than harms them. As Nass says "What PowerPoint does is very efficiently deliver content... What students gain is a lot more information-not just facts but rules, ways of thinking, examples"(Parker).
To sum things up:
PowerPoint has made everything easier in many cases. Especially in learning, work, discussion, and meetings. There are always exceptions, and those exceptions can also be helpful to students or to people in general.
I really think the reason the group preferred the PowerPoint over any other visuals is because we, as a society, have had PowerPoint driven into our brains as the standard to presentations.
ReplyDeleteI can remember being in late elementary, early middle school making PowerPoints. I even went as far, as to mirror the mom in the beginning of the essay, to make one for my parents about Christmas presents I wanted that year. I included pictures, pricing, and even stores that carried the toys. (And what PowerPoint would be complete without transitions?!)
So yes, I feel that it does make presentations a lot easier and the templates are there to help calm the nerves of people who might have a little anxiety about presentations. But overall, I feel that people as a whole have become entirely too dependent on it and its easiness.
I agree with you. I, too, had trouble making it through the history lesson. It was interesting to see how it all started, but I don't think that I needed to know every detail about how it was transformed and changed and blah blah blah. I usually like reading the history of a program or company, but he always seemed to be so negative about it.
ReplyDeleteI like that you brought up the "Wizard of Oz" rant. I didn't quite understand his reasoning for including that. In my opinion, PowerPoint is meant to act as a tool to remind you to say something. If Nass was doing his lesson with a PowwerPoint, he could have just as easily been reminded about the ending of it. And it would have been the same interruption and shouting that the students so fondly remember. Don't you think?
I feel as though PowerPoint can be used in schools as a great teaching aid, to a certain extent. I think when teachers start putting their entire lecture on PowerPoint, or do less talking and more clicking, then PowerPoint can greatly harm students. I may feel this way because I have had some rather traumatic experiences with PowerPoint. At the same time I think that if PowerPoints are done right, with few words and used as more of a guideline, then they can be very effective.
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