powerpoint

i dont really have that big of a problem with powerpoint, i never really thought it was that horrible. After the class discussion, i was surprised to find that so many people had so much hatred for this program. I feel pretty indifferent towards it. I dont see why it's so horrible to use it as a tool for lectures- my modernism and after teacher always uses it for her lectures, and i think that usually works out pretty well. But maybe I'm just missing out on something. I dont know.

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Powerpoint Essay

When I first read this essay, I felt that it focused only on bashing powerpoint. After our class discussion, however, I came to the conclusion that it isn't powerpoint that it was bashing, but a certain method of using the program. I was able to relate to the author's distaste for powerpoint because of my own experiences with it. After being forced to sit through countless powerpoint presentations in high school, and also having to create countless presentations, it was a relief to hear that I am not the only person to loathe the program.

PP

While reading The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint I found that the most interesting part was on the first page when the author includes the anecdote of the man turning off the projector in order to force the presenter to talk about his business without the crutch of his PowerPoint presentation. This reminded me of the artist Wynne Greenwood who would interact with multiple pre-recorded projections of herself. When she would choose to directly interact with the audience without having a dialog amongst her projections she would say "Hey, could you pause that for a second". She did this so that the viewer would have a chance to realize what reality was. The images would become so real to the person they would forget that every action between the artist and the projections had been predetermined and rehearsed. The pausing of the projections brought the audience back to the fact that she was presentation... not the projections. She was saying everything even though the projected characters were taking different stances in the discussions they had.... she we was the projections. I thought about that a lot.

I agree that the world has become overly time efficient with such things as faster internet, gadgets to make everything easier and shorthand.. I believe the author has the same opinion but then he goes on to use "PP" as an abbreviation of PowerPoint throughout the writing. He urges the reader to present facts in full statements but I feel most people who use PowerPoint as a tool do use full sentences as they speak on the topic. The slides are used as a visual example of the potential notes the audience may choose to jot down as they listen to the speaker. I see nothing wrong with that.

powerpoint

This article made a lot of sense, and I'm also really happy we weren't asked to make a power point presentation after or before reading it. It is interesting, though, to think about the way we porobably would have utilized power point if we were asked to use it for an assignment. Although this may not be ur presentation method of choice becausewe are so used to using our creativity, I'm sure there would be a lot of the random bullets, changing fonts, and the use of lists simply because power point seems to bind the presenter to show evidence in those limited ways. It seems important that presentations find a better tool for showing evidence, but is that possible? We already have things like photoshop, illustrator, and web browsers but none are nearly as user friendly as power point. Presenters also have the very effective tool of talking which often seems the best way to communicate, yet so many companies stress the power point aspect. This could mean people are lazy in construcitng presentations, or maybe businesses don't trust their people to pull off a presentation and think they need a slideshow to talk beside. It seems businesses are going to have to dig deeper tof ind better ways to create presentations rather than relying on power point or any other program to do thier job.

Why did power point come to be this standard of a presentation? Is it because it is the most accessable tool dedicated to showing evidnece. If it weren't created would businesses have better marketing strategies all together without ever being introduced to the terrible formatted power point presentation.

Okay, so I was pretty sure that I was going to hate this reading. I mean, its about PowerPoint, but overall it wasnt bad at all. It raised a lot of interesting points that I had never stopped to consider. For example, I have has to bs my way through so many pwoerpoints in school, especially in high school, and I never once stoped to think about how much information I was glazing over instead worrying about wether to left or right justify, knowing all along that as long as it looks nice the information doesnt have to be quite as important. I really liked the suestion that on days in school when kids would be presenting powerpoints that they go to the Exploraorium instead, it makes so much more sense, especailly since I cant, off the top of my head, recall anything that I have ever learned in a power point presentation.
Some of the other questions that I was left with:

What would happen if we spoke in the same tounge as PP, in the reading it mentions that it would be "unwise and arragoant" but, I think that it would be more than that, because if people spoke in a simplified hierarchical bullet list there would be a huge shift in how much information was transfered.
also
The idea that the "more intense the detail the greater the clarity and understanding." I agree that for the most part it is better to have a detailed approach, but in a society where information overload is such problem allready can there be such a thing as too much?
also
What are peoples favorite PP effects? I think mine has to be the typewriter sound as it individually places each letter on the screen, for sheer entertainment value it wins.

Microsoft Poked Me in the Eye

I've always thought there was something fishy about PowerPoint—even Microsoft products in general. Now I've got something to back me up.

I loved Tufte's essay. Period. I find it maddening that people could still use PowerPoint as a credible tool to convey information. It's a format that naturally condenses things (in the vein of Campbell's Condensed Soup) and fills the space with clip art and pixel fades. Thank you that someone finally said this! It must be some sort of hegemonic monopology that causes corporations—even government institutions like NASA—to believe that bullet-point culture is a good thing.

I really don't have many questions. Frankly, I've never liked Power Point. I've used Power Point, and I don't like it. I've been forced to use Power Point, and still I don't like it. When you get down to it, it's just cheesy, and the cheeseness usually outweighs the content even if you try to make an informative "presentation". It's amazing that some people—some people in Boeing, for example could think that a "presentation" literally means "Powerpoint slideshow."

Now, I don't think what Tufte is saying is that PowerPoint caused the Columbia accident. First of all, right out, he didn't say that. That's an extrapolation. What he is saying, however, is that bad ways of conveying information are… well… bad ways of conveying information. And as far as he is concerned, PowerPoint is a bad way for expressing the complex ideas of rocket science (ex: you're a rocket scientist. You deal with really big numbers in your craft—exponents. Problem: PowerPoint doesn't have a way of showing exponents. So you have to resort to 10^10 to convey 10 to the tenth power. Multiple layers of these examples and you get jargon. Multiple layers of jargon and your information gets mangled—it becomes indecipherable.) So, for the rocket scientist, use a program that has exponents as a feature (like Word, but Word has its own issues…) and can accurately portray your complex data.

I agreed with his main points that the overall format of a slideshow in-itself has to condense information to be anything worth doing, and I found his humor in the essay (especially the front cover) to be especially delightful. I agree with the point that a basic slideshow, made entirely of illustrations, for example, is fine. Powerpoint can do that, sure. But so can any other Piece Of Software. It seems that the only reason we settle for this is because we don't have or don't know of anything better.

The only questions I have then is…

1. Why do we still use PP?

2. What point is there in using something that is ungainly and unsuitable for conveying even basic information (beyond the level of the six-year-old)?

I think there is only one answer…

Bill Gates is the Antichrist!

3 ways Power Point can be used well...

According to the required reading, I felt the author wasn't so much saying Power Point was a bad medium, but the way in which its used can relfect negatively on its audience. Therefore, I've been trying to think of ways where Power Point is a good tool of presenting information. This is what I cam up with:

1. Digital Images- In the current art world, digital images are become the typical way to submit one's work for scholarships, grants, competitions, galleries. I think if one's work is good, it'll come across just fine in Powe Point.

2. Add campaigns- Well, the point of an add is the influence one to buy the product. Using a power point, can help the customer see what he or she is buying through visuals, exemplars, and facts. The adverister also must use other means besides Power Point, such as handouts and a good preach to sell the product.

3. Other- Really I think any kind of information can be presented successful via Power Point, however, it should only be used as a tool to enchance the presentation, not be the presentation.

Powerpoint Questions...

In our generation, information is thrown at us, to the point and simple. Do we, the millennium generation really care to think critically about the information/educate given to us? Do we confuse learning and absorbing information as the same thing?

Is the issue at hand Power Point, or our cultures lack of creativity and that it is a good form just used too much in a monotonous manner?

Would Tufte agree with getting rid of PowerPoint altogether even when it can be helpful for shows with images especially(relating it back to MICA) with scholarship reviews of portfolios?

Why does Tufte blame some of the wording on PowerPoint when people creating the PP are responsible for what they put on the slides?


Although Tufte makes some interesting points about PP and the ineffectiveness of it, I don't agree with some of his thinking. PP sould be used not by itself but with reports as well. I think PP can be helpful if the point of the presentation is a summary of points especially with images. I know that with my personal experience PP has been helpful when I need to present a presentation with images in such classes as art matters and phenomenon of color. I think Tufte goes a little far in his bashing of PP when he relates the structure of PP to other structures such as Stalin. Stalin?! I mean I don't think PP is that bad where it's dictating a country and killing people, that's a little ridiculous. And as for his point about children in school only doing PP and not knowing how to do a real report, well it's up to the teacher to be responsible for making the children do a report as well, that's not PP's fault. The purpose of PP is not to replace a real report and if people are substituting that for a real report that is their fault, not PP's. I don't think it's plausible to base the Columbia accident on PP, that is an engineers fault and the creators of that slideshow for giving conflicting views on the reason for the accident. I think Tufte could have made his points much more consicely than he did. He repeated himself often, saying the same points over and over. All in all Tufte had some good points but he was a little dramatic in his hate for PP that I don't think is reasonable.

The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

I disagree with some of the points made by Tufte. He makes an argument that the introduction of PowerPoint into schools is “disturbing.” From my experience, I’ve had to write a report almost every time I made a PowerPoint. The point of PowerPoint was to help the students organize and gather their thoughts during the presentation of their report/research. I think the PowerPoint exercises that “typically show 5 to 20 words and a piece of clipart on eat slide in a presentation consisting 3 to 6 slides” are good guides that help students practice their speaking skills during presentations. After all, we learn PowerPoint because we use it many times in our lives.

I’m still not sure what to think about using PowerPoint for business purposes. It seemed like it was unprofessional and inexcusable to be brief, according to Tufte. As long as the presenter knows what he’s talking about, isn’t it better to have a brief outline rather than a long report?

Also, I find it very funny that Tufte said, “By using PP to report technical work, presenters quickly damage their credibility—as was the case for NASA administrators engineers pitching their usual PP decks to these 2 very serious review boards.” It sounds true, and as long as they get all their information across, does it matter what format they use for their work?

1. Tufte quotes George Orwell at least three times saying: "The English Language...becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts." Granted, I don't actually know any other languages, but English seems pretty tidy and a substantial tool for communicating complex thoughts, if necessary. If Tufte is so critical of English and its shortcomings, why is this entire report in English (not to mention the report's overall comprehensive nature, its richness of content, and its density of words per square inch)? Isn't then his frustration with the Power Point format slightly discredited; couldn't an intelligent mind make an excellent and enlightening set of slides if they really tried?

2. Although it is obviously absurd to imagine NASA making cute slides for eachother, is it really fair to blame the entire Columbia disaster on Power Point?

New Knowledge

So today I learned how to copy a website as an image. This may be helpful to some people in the future if they don't already know. All you do is press shift, apple and 3 at the same time and there you have it. Easy as pie.

New Walt Disney Campaign

While coming up with project #2, my group and I can up with stratgies we find in adds to entice the customer. We came up with:
1. Everyone's doing it, you should to-
2. Celebrity Endorsement-
3. Picture you here- don't you look cool

While looking in the latest Vaniety Fair, photogrpaher Annie Leibowitz's new Disney Campaign uses all three of these stratgies to entice customers. If you're still figuring out how to sell your product you might find some ideas from Leibowitz's adds.

http://www.rm116.com/2007/02/annie_leibowitz.html

Whole Foods

As of last week, Whole Foods Market bought Wild Oats Market, making Whole Foods the world's largest natural and organic Supermarket. Because project # 2 has everything to do with marketing and selling an product, I thought Whole Foods would be a successful example on how things are done well. For instance, Whole Food's image is strictly about variety of foods brought to you in "natural and clean" presentation. To them and maybe to us, it seems presentation is more important than having a product be natural and/or organic. The Whole Food Market in Boulder, Colorado grosses over 1 million dollars per week, where at a given time 2/3 of its produce are organic. Boulder's Wild Oats on the other hand, grosses half that in a month, using 100% organic produce. It is obvious that presentation sells more than honesty and health.