
Research points the finger at PowerPoint - noisemaker
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/04/03/1175366240499.html
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BrandonM
This reminds me of Paul Graham's comment about Powerpoint,

"the stated purpose of Powerpoint is to present ideas. Its real role is to
overcome people's fear of public speaking. It allows you to give an
impressive-looking talk about nothing, and it causes the audience to sit in a
dark room looking at slides, instead of a bright one looking at you."

(from <http://paulgraham.com/hiring.html)>

I for one would be happy to see it go by the wayside. In most cases, it makes
for boring, formulaic presentations. When used properly, it can serve a good
purpose, but most people use it for the purposes that pg stated. I preferred
the time where people would instead focus on the speech itself, memorizing
much of it. That made talks seem much more dynamic and interesting, in my
opinion.

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Elfan
They have also challenged popular teaching methods, suggesting that teachers
should focus more on giving students the answers, instead of asking them to
solve problems on their own.

I don't understand how this connects to the rest of the study.

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BrandonM
I think their overarching hypothesis was that sensory overload decreases
learning. Supposedly, by requiring students to listen to a lecture and view
Powerpoint slides at the same time, the information actually gets shoved into
short term memory and forgotten, because it is too much to remember all at
once.

By the same token, apparently, asking students to solve the problem forces
them to focus on a specific problem, and it makes learning the concepts (or
even remembering what methods went into solving the problem) more difficult,
because of the same brain overload.

At least that's what I took from the article. I personally find that I learn
best in a class when I listen closely to the professor and take very minimal
notes. In doing so, I can focus on remembering what's being said instead of
trying to read slides or write quickly. That's why I appreciate professors who
put their notes online; I can listen closely in class and then review the
notes later on to reiterate what I learned.

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johnm
Two good resources: PresentationZen blog (<http://www.presentationzen.com/> )
and Beyond Bullet Points book (<http://www.beyondbullets.com/> ).

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noisemaker
I feel the title is too much of a pun, than a good indicator of what the story
is about. But has some nice tips about how to use and compose a visual
presentation.

