Power of PowerPoint: Is It in the User or the Program?, The

Childhood Education, Summer 2007 by Brown, Victoria

PowerPoint is widely used for a variety of purposes in today's university and public school classrooms. Many children in the elementary grades quickly learn to prepare PowerPoint presentations with ease. Sometimes, however, we believe that PowerPoint presentations are overused and ineffective, especially when one is subjected to viewing several of them in succession. We feel brain dead and bored. Yet, are we fully understanding PowerPoint's possibilities, or are we unjustly blaming thesoftware? Are we sure about how software and educational technology impacts learning, or are we making unfounded conclusions? This article addresses both the advantages and disadvantages of PowerPoint.

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND LEARNING

The debate about how technology influences the learning process surfaces in interesting ways. Does technology cause learning, or is it a delivery system for instruction? In the 1980s, educators began projecting how education was going to change as a result of technology. Some educators believed television and radio could be used effectively for educating students of all ages. Researchers set out to determine if instructional television was more effective than classroom learning activities. After extensive debate, Clark (1983) reminded educators that the best evidence indicated that media were merely the vehicles Undelivered instruction; only the content within could influence achievement.

The debate erupted again during the 1990s. The driving force was the development of interactive media. Some educatorsbecame excited about how these new forms of media would benefit learning in the classroom, believing that students could now interact with their computers and control their learning environment. New interactive technologies led education from the behaviorist method of instructional delivery to a more constructivist learning environment.

The new interactive media led Kozmo (1994) to challenge Clark's earlier statements that the form of media does not influence learning. Kozmo stated that the connection between the media's influences on learninghad not been established, because researchers did not understand the potential relationship between media and learning to sufficiently measure the influence. Each type of medium had attributes that could be defined, distinguishing it (the medium) as different from other media. Through the process of defining, researchers could identify attributes of the media that could best support different types of learning. Clark (1994) rebutted this claim, observing that identified attributes within one form of media can be replicated in other forms of media. Instructional designers examined each form of media, considering their costs as well as their effectiveness.

POWERPOINT'S LIMITATIONS AND POSSIBILITIES

The debate erupted again in the early 2000s as the presentation tool PowerPoint became widely available and used. This simple program now can be found on approximately 250 million computers worldwide; 30 million PowerPoint presentations take place each day (Mahin, 2004). The extensive use of PowerPoint has drawn criticism because of its linear format and the extensive use of templates for the presentations. With so many presenters using PowerPoint, some argue that our thought processes are gradually being "formatted" while discussion is eliminated or flattened and opinions devalued (Parker, 2001).

Tufte (2003) explained what he called PowerPoint's flattening effect on cognition, stating that PowerPoint is driving the content. Further, Tufte condemned PowerPoint for poorly designed presentations, stating that the program's templates limited the options that presenters have in communicating with their audiences. He focused his disapproval on four attributes of PowerPoint: 1) the use of bulleted text or lists, 2) the overreliance on templates and ready-made graphics, 3) the linear format, and 4) limited space for textual information. Tufte stated that these four attributes weaken verbal and spatial reasoning, with presenters focusing more on the design (e.g., the font size and backgrounds) of their presentations rather than on the content of their messages.

Tufte's criticisms of PowerPoint upset many users in business, training, and education. After all, PowerPoint is an easy program to use, allowing anyone to create visually rich presentations with integration of video and graphics. Visual information that once was presented through the use of 35mm slides or overhead projection transparencies now can be carried on a USB drive that fits into a pocket or on the end of a keychain. Could this simple, widely used program be limiting thought processes?

In response, Showm (2003) pointed out that PowerPoint does not create flawed thought processes, people do. PowerPoint is merely a communication tool. If presenters used good communication techniques during the development, then their presentations would be impressive examples of how to use PowerPoint. To underscore her point, Showm redesigned Tufte's example slides, using good communication and design techniques. Her redesigned examples communicate the authors' thoughts in an effective manner. Showm identified other programs that can be used to create visual images and graphics much better than PowerPoint. However, those programs are more expensive and complicated to use. PowerPoint allows the presenter to create images and graphics that are usable for most presentations. Showm's argument leads us back to Clark's (1983,1994) point that attributes of any medium can be replicated by using other forms of media, so we should select the methods or delivery based upon what is the most cost-effective.