PowerPoint is just a tool, same as a word processing program (or a marker and a white board). Death from PowerPoint comes not from the tool, but from the person wielding it. Poor communication, slide design, presentation skills and a lack of understanding of how people learn when presented with both verbal and visual inputs are the real weapons in death by PowerPoint - just as they were when it could be called death by 35mm slides or death by overheads.
PowerPoint is just a tool, but it sounds like the military's using it for everything. The point the article seems to be making is that it shouldn't be used for everything.
I agree, the title of the article is misleading. It seems the people using the software need some kind of training to understand how to use it without numbing people's brains.
PowerPoint is an information delivery medium. Would you get rid of paper? Disallow pie charts? These are all just ways to convey information. They would be giving people the same information no matter what program they used, powerpoint merely allows them to format and deliver the data in rapid fashion. Someone would still have to make 2 breifings a day for General McChrystal to get the latest info on Kabul. They can merely assemble said briefings in an organized more quickly because of a piece of software.
Quick, simplified data is important. Sometimes descisions can be made on minimal datasets, but sometimes they can't. That's not the fault of the data medium, that's the fault of the person making all of their descisions based only upon information that will fit in an 8.5 x 11 inch space.
If you are being serious then I think you missed the point. How does Keynote prevent the user from the same mistakes he is making with PowerPoint, they both do the same thing.? Oh wait, it is an Apple product, he can make the same mistakes but the slides will have more style.
Rumor has it that Obama will use powerpoint slides to explain to the public exactly what the healthcare bill says. That way, nobody (including the politicians who signed it) will know what it actually does.
Yeah, I'm sure that nobody hid anything in the 906 pages of lawyerese. 906 pages. Nothing to see here. If it takes 906 pages to describe, and especially if the government wrote it, ITS BAD!
Powerpoint's convenience to create the appearance of content without the substance is a deep deep flaw in information and knowledge sharing. The irony of have PPT in a Knowledge Management system is palpable.
However, I defy anyone to find this problem restricted to DOD or Government. This is a deeply ingrained in to business processes for commercial, academic, and not for profit communities to their great detriment.
It is a tool that has been so abused that the mere word of a powerpoint briefing sends chills down anyone in the audience, who immediately take out their smart phones and start doing useful work.
Oh by the way this is not news, read Absolute Powerpoint Can a software package edit our thoughts? by Ian Parker NewYorker 2001.
The only change is we are not on Office 2000, not Office 2003, not Office 2007, but Office 2010 is about to launch to perpetuate the misery. 4 Generations of non-improvement.
Leave it to Seaspray to turn a totally benign article into a flaming political discussion. As for PowerPoint, I wish it and it's dirtbag cousing Publisher would just go away altogether. Both of those programs are frequently used by "wannabe" graphic designers to design for printing, and it causes major headaches for the professionals on the other end who must produce what they have "designed". I work with 26 major printing companies around the world. NONE of them will accept Power Point or Publisher files in native format for printing.
Talk about fighting the last war: Haven't the military guys -- or CNET readers -- ever heard of Richard Feynman (on the role of PowerPoint in the 1986 Challenger disaster) or Edward Tufte (The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint; PowerPoint Does Rocket Science)?
they forgot to add in the military it all started with Harvard Graphics, that is what we used before power point, but same principle - slide them to death
As UC Berkeley students, the co-founders of "Back to the Roots" discovered they could grow mushrooms using recycled coffee grounds. Now their mushroom kit sells at grocery stores across the country.
Tommy Jordan, the man who shot his daughter's laptop for YouTube, gets a visit from police and child protection services. Oh, and Good Morning America.
For people who don't have time to tend a Zen garden, the Zen Table will handle the work for you. The table is filled with silicone beads and a robotic system that "rakes" images into the sand.
The Washington State Senate passed a bill that would charge electric car owners $100 per year to compensate for not paying gas taxes. The bill still has to pass the House.
Reminds me of an episode of "The Tic".
"Science boring....losing consciousness....."
Quick, simplified data is important. Sometimes descisions can be made on minimal datasets, but sometimes they can't. That's not the fault of the data medium, that's the fault of the person making all of their descisions based only upon information that will fit in an 8.5 x 11 inch space.
Real men use Flash for presentations.
Welcome to a new decade.
Try Keynote.
If you are being serious then I think you missed the point. How does Keynote prevent the user from the same mistakes he is making with PowerPoint, they both do the same thing.? Oh wait, it is an Apple product, he can make the same mistakes but the slides will have more style.
However, I defy anyone to find this problem restricted to DOD or Government. This is a deeply ingrained in to business processes for commercial, academic, and not for profit communities to their great detriment.
It is a tool that has been so abused that the mere word of a powerpoint briefing sends chills down anyone in the audience, who immediately take out their smart phones and start doing useful work.
Oh by the way this is not news, read Absolute Powerpoint Can a software package edit our thoughts? by Ian Parker NewYorker 2001.
The only change is we are not on Office 2000, not Office 2003, not Office 2007, but Office 2010 is about to launch to perpetuate the misery. 4 Generations of non-improvement.
Zing.