Christina VarvisAs soon as a presenter opens a beautiful Powerpoint, I cringe.
Powerpoint and its hyperactive child Prezi are intended to supplement a teacher’s instruction. But given these programs’ frivolous features (and the emergence of getting marked on how a presentation looks), young instructors and especially students rely too heavily on visual aids in class presentations. Rather than memorizing points and engaging an audience with one’s body and voice, Powerpoint acts as a wheelchair for able legs — it encourages anti-social presentation skills and all too easily sucks the presenter into the pedagogical black hole of reciting material off of slides everyone can see.
The instructor’s job is to convey information to students. Before technology was so effective, instructors had to get creative. Now, dependence on technology has allowed the increasing acceptability of simply flashing information on a screen, reciting it and having students copy it while pretending it’s an effective method of learning. It’s painfully ironic when Psychology profs simply read from their slides, knowing best of all that passive learning is the least effective teaching method.
There’s also a problem when slides are too distracting. I’d love to learn about feminism, but it’s difficult to focus on what the presenter is saying when there’s a life-sized Beyonce on the screen.
I don’t accuse first-time instructors because memorizing a course’s content is an awesome task and takes years to perfect. But there’s a risk of new instructors sitting in their wheelchairs so long they forget what walking feels like.
If you’re giving a 10-minute presentation, please use an unadorned Powerpoint, and only if necessary. If an instructor is in class solely to supplement a Powerpoint, pull the plug.
