The document discusses criticisms of PowerPoint presentations and provides strategies to improve their effectiveness. Edward Tufte argues that PowerPoint can dilute thought and be overly focused on formatting over content. The document then lists strategies like using visual literacy principles, aligning content, limiting repetition and bullets, and leveraging multimedia. It notes the rules change for online presentations, where interactivity and file sizes are more important.

1. “ Visual clutter for $200” Help Stop PowerPoint Abuse! Patrick R. Lowenthal School of Education and Human Development University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center [email_address]

3. The PowerPoint Critic Edward Tufte Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

8. Strategies to Improve PowerPoint #1 Sound Instructional Design #2 Visual Literacy & Message Design

9. CARP CARP: Contrast Bad Good

10. CARP: Alignment Good Today I went to the store to buy an apple for my grandmother. Bad Today I went to the store to buy an apple for my grandmother.

11. CARP: Repetition & Proximity Bad Introduction xkdkdkdkdkd Body kdkdkdkd Good Introduction xkdkdkdkdkd Body kdkdkdkd Conclusion kdkdkdkd

12. Font Matters Bad FONT Good Font

13. Non-linguistic Representations Good Bad

15. The Rules Change Online This slide is an example of what a PowerPoint slide online might look like: More content is better online When developing PowerPoint presentations for online learning, the rules change. The number one reason is because your audience is now sitting right at a computer screen. Therefore, while the two central principles (i.e., sound instructional design and sound message design) remain important because learners often skim instead of read content online, the actual development of the PowerPoint presentation changes and becomes more like designing a webpage. Implications The number one way this impacts faculty is by the fact that one presentation cannot and should not be used for classroom and online courses—that is, unless you are going to include audio or video to supplement the slides.

16. The Rules Change Online This slide is another example of what a PowerPoint slide online might look like: Interactivity When developing PowerPoint presentations online, it is important to recognize and take advantage of the fact that your learner is now able to interact with your presentation. Therefore, including URL’s, video, audio, games, quizzes, can all strengthen your presentation as a learning experience. Bandwidth The size of your files, images that you use, and any video components takes on new importance. As a general rule of thumb, it is hard to email anything over 4mb so you should strive to keep your PowerPoint presentations under 4mb. Home :: Week 1 :: Quiz 1 :: Week 2 :: Quiz 2 :: Week 3 :: Quiz 3 ::  Back | Home | Next 

18. Resources Resources: PowerPoint Viewer http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=428D5727-43AB-4F24-90B7-A94784AF71A4&displaylang=en PowerPoint Producer http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=1B3C76D5-FC75-4F99-94BC-784919468E73&displaylang=en Articulate http://www.articulate.com/ Impatica http://www.impatica.com/imp4ppt/index.html Games http://it.coe.uga.edu/wwild/index.html or http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_powerpoint.htm Digital Stories http://www.storycenter.org

19. Selected References Gall, J., & Lohr, L. L. (2005). Dancing with the Devil: Can Good People Still Use PowerPoint? Retrieved April 30, 2006, from http://www.coe.unco.edu/JimGall/DevilDancing.pdf Lohr, L. L. (2003). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall. Norvig, P. (n.d). The making of the Gettysburg PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved May 5, 2006, from http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html Norvig, P. (n.d.). The Gettysburg PowerPoint presentation. Retrieved January 1, 2006, from http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/ Norvig, P. (n.d.). PowerPoint: Shot with its own bullets. Retrieved April 1, 2006, from http://www.norvig.com/lancet.html Tufte, E. (2003a). The cognitive style of PowerPoint. Cheshire, CN: Graphics Press Tufte, E. (2003b). PowerPoint is evil: Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. Wired Retrieved 11.09, from http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html Wineburg, S. (2004). Must it be this way? Ten rules for keeping your audience awake during conferences. Educational Researcher, 33(4), 13-14. Winn, W. (1993). Perception principles. In M. Fleming & H. W. Levie (Eds.), Instructional message design: Principles from the behavioral and cognitive sciences. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.