[TigerLikesRooster]

It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written...

I can agree to this theory. I sort of had the same impression. From now on, I will only present diagrams with a few words when doing PowerPoint presentation

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[KarlInOhio]

Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

[LikeLight]

Fascinating. I’ve recently been pondering a gut feeling just like what this study indicates. There is a certain raw power in the spoken word (or for that matter, the written word). But dribbling them out together seems to diminish the impact of both.

[untenured]

I use PP all the time, originally at students’ request. But I only use the stuff on PP as the skeleton (or visuals extending some point made in the lecture), and the lecture as the primary substance. The drawback is when students complain after doing poorly on a tset that such-and-such “wasn’t on the slides.”

[Poser]

PowerPoint is purely evil. The only excuse for using it is to project color graphics. Anyone who has had to live through more than a few PP presentations knows this.

[ArtyFO]

And its corollary, taking notes during a lecture is counter productive.

[ClearCase_guy]

I remember teachers using overhead projectors. They would scribble things while they talked. Often their handwriting was hard to read. They sometimes made mistakes (I remember math teachers frequently going off the rails).

A good Powerpoint presentation is easy to read, easy to understand, and contains no errors.

Of course, I've seen a great many bad powerpoint presentations. But they can be done well.

[Wheee The People]

...retain information in short-term memory.

I was gonna says something, but I forgot.

[Bouchart]

[LibKill]

From what I see where I work, the main problem of PowerPoint is that everyone spends about 500-600% too much time trying to make their presentations the best in known history.

I've seen a PhD spend 20 hours on a 20 minute presentation. He could have gotten his point across with 1-2 hours work. The rest was wasted effort spent polishing an already effective presentation.

[Duke Nukum]

My first thought is, this is a study. Wait five minutes and there will be another one refuting it. Studies are like busses. If you miss one another one will be along in about 45 minutes.

[DaGman]

I have said for over 10 - 12 years now that anyone that gives flashy Powerpoint presentations full of effects has entirely too much time on their hands.

[LibFreeOrDie]

This little cartoon could be titled “Death by PowerPoint”

http://www.lowmorale.co.uk/lm9.htm

[SamAdams76]

Limitations of PowerPoint Presentations

• Difficult for brain to understand spoken and written words at same time.

• Better to give answers than to ask people to solve on own.

• More effective to speak to diagrams.

• PowerPoint should be ditched.

[xzins]

This interpretation of the research is obviously flawed.

One doesn’t read Ppt slides. One speaks to them. That makes them visual aids.

Otherwise, one concludes that TV & Movies cannot educate.

[earglasses]

Two productive ways to use this information without throwing out the metaphorical baby: The is to use the Lessig method for preparing a super-stripped-down presentation when you’re addressing an audience. For more on this exciting departure from convention, see http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/10/the_lessig_meth.html.

And the other way is to use conventional methods when your presentation is to be self-delivering. Powerpoint has become a fairly powerful authoring tool and can be used quite effectively as a standalone multimedia communications carrier with an inherently high bandwidth.

[bubman]

bump

[Old Sarge]

The Australian researchers who made the findings may have pronounced the death of the PowerPoint presentation.

Thisi alone will bring the American military to a screaming halt...

[an amused spectator]

John Sweller, from the university's faculty of education, developed the "cognitive load theory".

I call it "brainmelt" - happens along about 3 o'clock daily at the IT seminar...

[LouD]

I agree. I try to use diagrams and charts whenever possible, rather than eye charts full of verbage.

One tool that I use a lot is a Flash based program called Xcelsius that turns Excel spreadsheets into interactive simulations. It is an amazing tool that adds a lot of value, particularly as an alternative to dozens of slides full of quantitative data, or in situations where "what if" scenarios are the order of the day.