Kicking PowerPoint to the Curb
In a meeting I had on Friday, we discussed with a client whether we should design a facilitation course in a way that doesn’t encourage the use of PowerPoint for the participants. One side of the discussion says that we should not encourage PowerPoint because it just puts people in a “presentation” mode rather than one of a facilitator. The other side says that’s all well and good, but let’s visit reality for a moment and recognize that we’re never going to win that battle.
I came across a facinating article in The Chronical of Higher Education highlighting a college dean who has taken computers out of the classroom and forced professors and students to view their classroom experience differently. As I read the article and watched the accompanying video, I saw several applications to the corporate world:
- The assertion is that if you just need to do an information dump – record podcasts or other documents for the participants to complete before class. That way the live session focuses on lively debate and discussion. This is something that could very easily be implemented in a corporate environment. Many organizations have some sort of LMS, whether complex or Moodle. These tools allow for a blended approach that can be both time and cost effective. (Even a common tool like MS Sharepoint can be used to manage some of that information.)
- They are not advocating a complete removal of technology, but rather using it in the way that makes most sense. So, the rooms are wireless if participants need to collaborate on something and professors will bring laptops to play games or show examples to the students. I would love to see more instructor-led courses in a corporate world that are focused on having students use their own laptops to find and discuss information. I wonder why I so rarely see that approach in organizations?
- Last, the issue of resistance. Resistance has come from both professors and learners. “Strangely enough, the people who are most resistant to this model are the students…Students have been socialized to view the educational process as essentially passive. The only way we’re going to stop that is by radically reconfiguring the classroom…” And here, I think, is the root of the problem. If we want to move from PowerPoint driven information dumps that we call “training”, then it requires a change on both the facilitator and participants’ part. Our corporate participants are not much different from college students – even if they wouldn’t admit it, many of them want to be spoon-fed the information. For an organization to successfully make the transition to truly participant-centered learning, it requires managing the resistance of both groups…which can feel almost impossible.
What do you think? Is it even worth the fight to get the PowerPoint out of the classroom and into pre and post work? Have you had any success in those efforts?
Tags: blended learning, PowerPoint
August 31st, 2009 at 4:55 pm
I’ve never hated PowerPoint, but I’ve seen far too many woefull applications of it — including at a conference organized by Microsoft for its “solution providers.”
As with so many tools, “default” turns into “standard.” In other words, unproductive results are partly de fault of de user.
I would question Dean Bowen’s implication that removing computers will create classrooms full of rich discussion. That ain’t the default, particularly in a world where folks have tenure.
As a developer, I find myself recommending to my clients a more and more spare approach to PowerPoint. For a half-day workshop I just finished, I have 11 slides in all. One’s a welcome/title slide, two recap the steps for group activity. Two are “school answer” slides for the end of discussions (here’s how some experienced professionals like you see Topic X)…and one of those appears twice, so the non-professional facilitator doesn’t have to learn any clever PPT technique.
I very much agree with the depressing notion that many organizational / corporate learners seem to want information-dump, bullet-laden “facts.”
Dick Carlson has a very pertinent “letter to my soon-to-be-ex client” at his Tech Herding blog.
September 1st, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Dave – you should check out http://www.prezi.com to see a cool alternative to PPT. I saw someone use this tool at the Indiana Blogging Conference a couple weeks ago – and I was impressed.
It offered the presenter a way to really enhance with visuals – rather than just killing people with slides.
And yes, I agree that many organizational/corporate learners seem to WANT information dump….I sense a laziness in learning. Is it only learning professionals that actually get excited by learning new stuff?