Mega Technology, Advanced Science, and Term Paper

If any question receives a yes response then a PowerPoint presentation is on the "con" group:

Do the slides have more than 15 words per slide and are all slides in bullet point form?

Are the slides emotionally empty and without a presenter personality?

Do the slides encourage a deeper understanding of the topic?

Are the slides not memorable?

Do the slides distort the data and material being presented?

Do the slides encourage cognitive weakness (Tufte, 2003)?

An answer of yes to any of the above stated questions then a PowerPoint presentation is not an instructional tool that has much merit. In the end most PowerPoint presentations lack flexibility, oftentimes put an audience to sleep, are presented too fast and contain no persistence of information - not to mention possible power failures that completely destroy a presentation, lecture, or seminar.Not all PowerPoint presentations are as obtuse and debilitating as what has been presented above. Some PowerPoint presentations can motivate, encourage, and inspire an audience to think, to understand, and to problem solve, provided that the presentation delivers information that cannot usually be conveyed by any other instructional means. For example, PowerPoint presentations are an excellent way in which to visually present data that requires concept building and design formatting. PowerPoint presentations are also effective when data must be shown by way of graphs and charts. Lastly, PowerPoint presentations help to keep a speaker on track, thus avoiding possible insignificant ramblings. However, PowerPoint presentations should only be used to augment learning.

References

Atkinson, Cliff (2003). Beyond bullet points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to create presentations that inform, motivate, and inspire. Columbus, Ohio: Microsoft Press McGraw-Hill Books.

Tufte, Edward R. (2003)......