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Slide Notes

"Since Microsoft launched the ... program 22 years ago, it’s been installed on no fewer than 1 billion computers; an estimated 350 PowerPoint presentations are given each second across the globe... no field of human endeavor can defy its facility for reducing complexity and nuance to bullet points and big ideas to tacky clip art. On June 18, the Iranian government made the case for its highly contested nuclear program to world leaders with a 47-slide deck. ... A few weeks later, scientists ...announced the momentous discovery of the Higgs boson, or “God particle,” using 52 PowerPoint slides ... the New York Knicks tried to woo LeBron James with a PowerPoint pitch, which may explain why James won his first NBA championship in Miami."
-Fobes,
http://tinyurl.com/forbesdeathtoppt

"What is the price we pay for PowerPoint overload? Ineffective communication at every level presents a major strategic risk for every organization... PowerPoint-based miscommunication can be toxic to an organization’s bottom line. In addition to strategic risk, PowerPoint overload commonly impacts an organization at many other levels including diminished productivity, lost intellectual assets, and degraded relationships."
-Atkinson & Mayer
http://tinyurl.com/po4n5ml

Powerpoint has been blamed for killing people and companies. In part this is a tribute to how ubiquitous it has become to our lives.

Inherently it is not "evil" or "broken" but it does take a lot of thought and careful use to overcome its inherent liabilities...
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Powerpoint Alternatives

Published on Nov 19, 2015

Emerging alternatives to Powerpoint for effective classes & meetings

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MORE DECKS TO EXPLORE

PRESENTATION OUTLINE

1.

Powerpoint

Not EVIL -- But NOT Good Either
"Since Microsoft launched the ... program 22 years ago, it’s been installed on no fewer than 1 billion computers; an estimated 350 PowerPoint presentations are given each second across the globe... no field of human endeavor can defy its facility for reducing complexity and nuance to bullet points and big ideas to tacky clip art. On June 18, the Iranian government made the case for its highly contested nuclear program to world leaders with a 47-slide deck. ... A few weeks later, scientists ...announced the momentous discovery of the Higgs boson, or “God particle,” using 52 PowerPoint slides ... the New York Knicks tried to woo LeBron James with a PowerPoint pitch, which may explain why James won his first NBA championship in Miami."
-Fobes,
http://tinyurl.com/forbesdeathtoppt

"What is the price we pay for PowerPoint overload? Ineffective communication at every level presents a major strategic risk for every organization... PowerPoint-based miscommunication can be toxic to an organization’s bottom line. In addition to strategic risk, PowerPoint overload commonly impacts an organization at many other levels including diminished productivity, lost intellectual assets, and degraded relationships."
-Atkinson & Mayer
http://tinyurl.com/po4n5ml

Powerpoint has been blamed for killing people and companies. In part this is a tribute to how ubiquitous it has become to our lives.

Inherently it is not "evil" or "broken" but it does take a lot of thought and careful use to overcome its inherent liabilities...
Photo by zoomar
2.

IT MAKES...THESE!

(what *IS* this -- really?)
"PowerPoint slides ...simply present too much information for the human mind to handle. Typical slides filled with busy backgrounds, endless bullet points, and a tangle of diagrams clearly shut down understanding, instead of opening it up."
-Atkinson & Meyer
http://tinyurl.com/po4n5ml

"PowerPoint affects not only the way we present and teach, but also the way we think, learn and understand. The program carries an inherent tendency to create fragmentation of thought and
cognitive overload. In order to avoid this we should stop thinking in terms of technology and begin to think rhetorically."
-Jens Kjeldsen
http://tinyurl.com/rhetppt

The default "sales pitch" framework of PowerPoint creates incoherent and overwhelming thoughts and information that create many more problems than it solves.

Key points on relevant relationships get separated in time by a sea of slides either sparse enough on information to be insulting or so impossibly crammed with abbreviated and small font gibberish as to be meaningless.
3.

tools should *help*

(and be fun!)
"That's what I have meant all along by saying 'the medium is the message', for the medium determines the modes of perception and the matrix of assumptions within which objectives are set. All of my recommendations ... can be reduced to this one: study the modes of the media, in order to hoick all assumptions out of the subliminal, nonverbal realm for scrutiny and for prediction and control of human purposes."
- Marshall McLuhan, McLuhan: Hot and Cool, ed. George Stearn, 1967

With all of the liabilities of the default PowerPoint paradigm, teachers and presenters everywhere are hungry for options that offer better support for the learning process.

Likewise, part of this is tools that support and encourage creativity in the classroom on instructors' terms and not the tools.
Photo by bolandrotor
4.

prezi

*showing* meaning of relationships
PREZI
Free Ed account
http://prezi.com/

DEMO:
http://prezi.com/tjox-igm6rv5/barbra-streisand/

Why it is better than Powerpoint:
"Prezi works very well with talks that 1- refer to complex visuals, particularly those with different elements you will want to focus on at different points in your talk 2-illustrate relationships between different visual or textual elements; 3- deal explicitly with issues of scale, either literal or conceptual."
-Ryan Cordell
http://tinyurl.com/preziconv

Prezi is an excellent tool for creatively *SHOWING* relationships or exploring complex visuals particularly with multimedia. It also can create a nice "canned" web presentation as well as

Where it Can Be "Evil":
* Gratuitous "zooming" without any rhetorical or logical significance -- this is just as bad as powerpointing and "gimmicky" which will make your class reach for Dramamine and the door.

* While it will import existing PPT files, to get paths and optimized meaningful Prezi, will take some time.
Photo by Edd Dumbill
5.

Beedocs

elegant oriented timelines
BeeDocs
$9.99 iOS App
http://www.beedocs.com/

DEMO:
http://www.beedocs.com/ios/introVideo.php

Why it is better than Powerpoint:
* Creates a dynamic and elegant linear connection between multimedia artifacts/ concepts etc.

Where it Can Be "Evil":
* iOS only :(

* lack of a well thought out and through timeline or overwhelming.
Photo by Jinho.Jung
6.

PowToon

Entertaining free standing mini lecture videos 
PowToon
Free
http://www.powtoon.com/

DEMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op8dZuYUcR8

Why it is better than Powerpoint:
* Engaging pro looking "edutainment" approach to presenting "canned" lecture material to support flipping the classroom.

* Easily shared via 1 click Youtube

Where it Can Be "Evil":
* Can take time to create basic 'toon.

* Stand-alone, not necessarily aimed at a live class presentation tool.


7.

PDF!

not just for ebooks!
PDF
Free Reader
http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Why it is better than Powerpoint:
* Light and scalable to actually allow you to zoom into a high density medium vs powerpoint slide.

*Portable/ more lightweight than PPT

* Same format students can access before/after

Where it Can Be "Evil":
* Drilling down too deeply on minutia students can/have read themselves.
Photo by Richard 'Tenspeed' Heaven
8.

Haiku Deck

Just good.
Free
https://www.haikudeck.com/

DEMO:
this presentation :)
http://tinyurl.com/pptalthaiku

Why it is better than Powerpoint:
* Supports powerful and engaging visuals first and emphasizes minimizing on-screen text

* Creates a rich online artifact you can embed/present etc. from

* Leaves a very ADA accessible and rich hard copy with images credited.

Where it Can Be "Evil":
* Too much reduction

* ??
Photo by teamstickergiant
9.

Don't Kill!

Brains of yourself or others!
“Rather than starting with the technology, start with the intellectual problem to be solved…. the computer industry overflows with technologies desperately looking for some kind of problem to solve.”
-Edward Tufte
Photo by Leo Reynolds

Mike Welker