Profound Knowledge Products, Inc. Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 2
For aficionados of improvement science...
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2010
| Copyright 2010 PKP, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
| The Gettysburg Address - with and without PowerPoint - |
In the 2009 winter issue of our newsletter, we covered some of the thought-
provoking work of Edward Tufte and his workshops on Presenting Data
and Information.
Tufte came to mind as I reviewed a video clip sent to me by my colleague,
Cliff Norman. In it, Peter Norvig presents the Gettysburg Address with and
without Powerpoint. Imagine Lincoln making his Gettysburg address using
PowerPoint. Talk about driving a point home as to the perils and pitfalls of
PowerPoint!
As you review the video, keep in mind some of Tufte's key points about the
failures of Powerpoint presentations as excerpted from his essay, The
Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Click here to see the clever cover. It depicts
the regimentation and mindlessness than can be associated with
PowerPoint.
JT
provoking work of Edward Tufte and his workshops on Presenting Data
and Information.
Tufte came to mind as I reviewed a video clip sent to me by my colleague,
Cliff Norman. In it, Peter Norvig presents the Gettysburg Address with and
without Powerpoint. Imagine Lincoln making his Gettysburg address using
PowerPoint. Talk about driving a point home as to the perils and pitfalls of
PowerPoint!
As you review the video, keep in mind some of Tufte's key points about the
failures of Powerpoint presentations as excerpted from his essay, The
Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Click here to see the clever cover. It depicts
the regimentation and mindlessness than can be associated with
PowerPoint.
- PowerPoint is presenter-oriented, and not content-oriented, not
audience-oriented. - PowerPoint convenience for the speaker can be both costly to both
content and audience. - By leaving out the narrative between points, the bullet outline
ignores and conceals the causal assumptions and analytic
structure of the reasoning. - PowerPoint will not do for serious presentations. Serious problems
require serious tools. Indeed, presenters may instantly damage
their credibility by using PP for serious problems - as was the case
for the NASA officials with their PP pitches and PP decks so naively
presented to the very serious Columbia Accident Investigation
Board. - For serious presentations, it will be useful to replace PowerPoint
slides with paper handouts showing words, numbers, data
graphics, images together. - PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector for low-
resolution materials. And that's about it. - Never use PowerPoint for arraying words or numbers. Avoid
elaborate hierarchies of bullet lists.
JT
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