http://norvig.com/Gettysburg/
That's so good I might just adopt it as a tag-line!
PowerPoint is the enemy of learning.
I’m a teacher at the college level. When I lecture, students engage (usually) and take notes. When I run a PowerPoint presentation, they put their pencils down and act like they’re watching TV.
This is what happens when you tie your hands behind your back to prevent yourself from winning.
If used properly, PowerPoint is a fantastic tool. Trouble is, most have no clue how to use it properly.
see, I knew there was a reason that Bill Gates was evil -g-
PP isn't as bad as the old fashioned overhead projector........................
McChrystal didn't say this. BG H.R. McMaster said it.
Ballad of the PowerPoint Rangers
(To the tune of “The Green Berets”)
Requests are made, from day to day,
Briefings held, and changes made.
Graphics slides, a must they say,
and PowerPoint is the only way.
Computers crash, and printers stall,
Overloading protocol.
Network’s down and soldiers cry,
Briefing’s late so heads will fly.
Pin PowerPoint Slides upon my chest,
Full-color slides, they look the best.
One Hundred Slides were made that day,
But only 3 were ever displayed.
A smile came on the General’s face,
Slides were done and looked just great!
T’was up all night, worked really late,
Just to hear, the General state:
My soldier son, your slides were great,
Briefing’s done, slides up to date.
One problem son, the color’s wrong,
One more chance, or you go home.
So tell my mom, I’ve done my best.
Pin PowerPoint Slides on my chest.
One hundred slides were made that day,
But only 3 were ever displayed.
bump for later
McChrystal’s probably one of those Apple zealots who just knee-jerk hate everything Microsoft. ;-)
“And military leaders make a valid point about the dangers of oversimplification.”
And leaders also may be the ones who force you to oversimplify:
-— The briefing will last no longer than (whatever the time limit is)
-— The number of charts is limited to (whatever). (Doesn’t matter if you’d spend 30 seconds or two minutes on each chart. It’s the number that matters.)
-— The font will be such and such, the size will be such and such, you will have so much white space, and it doesn’t matter if all that prevents you from putting coherent blocks of info on one chart.
I do IT training for a large company, 100,000+ employees. I am a certified professional trainer and have taught presentation skills for a number of years.
What I have seen is that FAR, FAR too many people use PowerPoint for everything and I think it’s because they have an almost Pavlovian response to being asked to speak at a meeting. They think speaking = PowerPoint. That they cannot get their point across without some sort of presentation. They think that way because bad habits have been drummed. What they need to understand is that the speaker or presenter is the focus of any speech or presentation. Not the tools. Not the flipchart. Not the overhead and certainly not the PowerPoint.
Unfortunately, most of these speakers use PowerPoint incorrectly. It’s meant as a visual aide. They use it in lieu of speaking themselves - so much so that many (at least at first) just read what the slide says aloud followed by “any questions”?
Breaking that habit only takes a few days. They need to see how PowerPoint is used correctly. They also need to see PowerPoint NOT used in situations where they’d naturally use it.
It goes back to the old saying - when you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Sometimes people need to be broken free from that shackle. When I teach about PowerPoint, that’s what I teach.
“I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by doing Power Point for his country. He won it by making the other poor, dumb bastard do Power Point for his country.”
-George S Patton
:-)
Probably my first big disappointment from the Bush Administration was the report that Bush and his team were “blown away” by a PowerPoint presentation that George Tenet gave after 9/11, securing Tenet’s position in the Bush Administration.
There has probably been more B.S. served up in PowerPoint presentations over the years than even all that served up in the past 15 months of the Obama Administration.
