Re: PowerPoint is art
Somehow I'd managed NOT to send this to the list:
Well, I read the article.
I don't think PowerPoint if broken. It does what it's designed to do and
does it... well, okay. I especially appreciate the ability to instantly
change the font colours and background to fit the lighting conditions
and projection equipment of various venues. What's broken is the idea
that one training model fits all: that simple points are adequate for
conveying both simple and complex concepts.
People who have something they need to teach have to ask themselves a
qestion we do everyday as technical writers: what is the best way or
ways to get the desired end result from the target audience.
I think you're getting to the crux of the issue. What's wrong with PowerPoint (aside from the worse-than-usual clunkiness of Microsoft's design for the product) is who we allow to use it. This is essentially the same complaint that we have about desktop publishing programs: Anyone with a PC can get their hands on the tools, despite their lack of training, and turn out a real piece of garbage.
Before PowerPoint (okay, before Harvard Graphics), if you wanted to present graphics you had three choices: You could take photographs of stuff (or people or scenery) on your 35 mm camera and use a Carousel projector; you could use grease pencil on recycled X-ray film while standing in front of an overhead projector or you could spend significant bucks to have a professional graphic artist prepare either overheads or slides. In all of these cases, there were barriers--time, cost, the mediation of another person's professional input--that mitigated against laziness. (For one thing, if you're going to stand in front of an audience and draw freehand with grease pencils, you damn well better know your subject matter cold.) But with PowerPoint, there is no such barrier. Any idiot can, and any idiot does, do whatever they please, with no help from you or me, and this is what galls us.
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RE: PowerPoint is art: From: Laurel Hickey
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