Captured by PowerPoint

“PowerPoint makes us stupid” – Gen. James N. Mattis

When we create presentations we combine multiple sources of information and reinterpret them in new ways. Presenting demonstrates more sophisticated learning. Yet as we we organize and categorize we fit the reinterpreted information into models and these models themselves impose their own logic. Models are defined by their own rigidity of organization and thinking that can straightjacket both the viewer and the creator of the presentation.

PowerPoint is a ubiquitous and powerful tool. Most of students favor it for their presentations. However, PowerPoint’s model requires breaking things down into bulleted lists, a hierarchical array of topics and subtopics. It makes it harder to show interconnections.

The U.S. military is becoming worried that their extensive use of PowerPoint is making their job harder.

“It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,” General McMaster said in a telephone interview afterward. “Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” – Bumiller (2010)

Elizabeth Bumiller has an excellent article in the New York Times about the effect of PowerPoint on the military titled, “We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint“. It’s a great reminder of why students need to practice a variety of different presentation techniques.

slides impart less information than a five-page paper can hold, and that they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writing to convey an analytic, persuasive point. – Bumiller (2010)

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