1. Is Presenting Enough?
A Critical Review of the Ways That PowerPoint is Being Used in Lectures
You can access this presentation online at Slideshare:

2. Edward Tufte
The most devastating critique of PowerPoint's use probably comes from Edward Tufte (2003). In a highly critical essay he claimed that there was evidence that PowerPoint significantly reduces the analytical quality of serious presentations of evidence; that it corrupts statistical reasoning and that it often weakens verbal and spatial thinking. He lambasted it for its ‘Stalinist’ control of slide design which, often as not, results in a hierarchical bulleted list of phrases. The bulleted list is an impoverished way of communicating, he argued, and he illustrated his results with some examples (e.g. Norvig, 1999) where the inappropriate use of a slideshow leads to poor communication.
Tufte, E (2003) The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. Pitching Out Corrupts Within. Cheshire, Con: Graphics Press LLC Norvig, P (1999) The Gettysburg PowerPoint Presentation,
PHOTO CREDIT: Tufte, 2003

3. John Sweller
Sweller (Oates, 2007) claims that PowerPoint presentations make learning more difficult. Sweller maintains that displaying text on a screen, whilst a teacher is lecturing, makes excessive cognitive demands on students. “The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster it should be ditched,” he announced. Tufte and Sweller’s arguments form part of a vigorous debate in which contrasting claims and counter-claims have been made for the use of presentation software.
Oates, J (2007) “Official: Powerpoint Bad for Brains. Menace of Slideware”, The Register
PHOTO CREDIT:

4. Michael Alley
Alley proposes that an effective way of designing slides is to:
Place a sentence-assertion at the top of the slide.
Then below it comes the evidence to support the assertion – but in visual form.
Alley makes three key assumptions for using this structure:
Slides are an appropriate visual aid for presentations.
The success of a presentation hangs on the audience being able to understand the content of the slides.
The primary purpose of the slides is to help the audience understand the content rather than to provide talking points for the speaker.
Alley, M (2003) The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid, NY: Springer-Verlag
PHOTO CREDIT:

5. Catherine Adams
Adams (2006) argues that PowerPoint is a tool and as such it favours specific kinds of communication. Like every tool PowerPoint is an ‘evocative object’ and invites its users to employ it in particular ways. So what are these particular ways and what are the outcomes? The outcomes, according to Adams, are bulleted lists because PowerPoint ‘exerts invisible lines of force on the choices teachers make’.
Why is this so? Well, much of it is down to the software designers who wanted to make PowerPoint easy to learn and use. To support beginners, the designers added several features which make it simple to create a slideshow, e.g. the auto-content wizard which allows a presentation to be created by filling in blanks; the pervasive prompts such as, ‘Click to Add Title’ which automate the slideshow structure and slide design; the provision of professional-looking templates which automate slide design. The upshot of these – sometimes intrusive - support features is frequently a slideshow which consists largely or entirely of bulleted lists.
Adams, C (2006) “PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture”, Journal of Curriculum Studies 38, 4:
PHOTO CREDIT:

6. Garr Reynolds
Garr Reynolds is an influential designer and speaker on the subject of PowerPoint.
He suggests that the aim of PowerPoint is to enhance what the speaker is saying.
He argues that images can play an important role in supporting a speaker – and can be used effectively to generate an emotional response in the audience.
His slides are designed in the style of a billboard, i.e. the use of striking graphics combined with a small amount of text.
Reynolds, G (2008) Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, New Riders Press
PHOTO CREDIT:

7. Levasseur & Sawyer
In a recent review of the literature, Levasseur & Sawyer found that students liked PowerPoint to be used in lectures. They cited several reasons for this – among them, it helped with note-taking and it assisted some lecturers organise their material better. My own experience confirms that students do indeed expect PowerPoint presentations and further – they ask for them to be uploaded to the e-learning platform. However, the value of these uploaded presentations is questionable, since many contain only information in outline detail. Anyone absent from a lecture would be unlikely to gain much from reading the lecture PowerPoint.
This highlights a problem when designing PowerPoint presentations. Are they designed for use in a lecture OR for uploading on to the web? A presentation given during a lecture should contain little text since information is best communicated through the accompanying verbal gloss. A presentation for the web however, would have more value if there was more text on each slide since the verbal gloss is absent. Should lecturers therefore design two versions? One for the lecture and a different one for the web?
Interestingly, the authors could find no credible evidence that learning outcomes improved as a result of using PowerPoint per se.
Levasseur, D. & Sawyer, J (2006) “Pedagogy Meets PowerPoint: A Research Review of the Effects of Computer-Generated Slides in the Classroom.” The Review of Communication, 6:1- 2,

8. Discuss with your neighbour.
Recurring issues
Linear pedagogies favoured
Reduced engagement
Obsolescence of critical knowledge forms
Habit-forming?
Discuss with your neighbour.
Overcoming linearity
PowerPoint’s hyper-linking feature can allow a tutor to navigate the presentation more flexibly.
pptPlex ( from Microsoft labs allows a tutor to group slides into sections and to zoom in and out of a presentation. This makes it easy to locate a specific slide.
An alternative to PowerPoint is Prezi ( This program uses a ‘large canvas’ metaphor combined with flexible zoom features. It is easy to learn and (at the time of writing) free.
If PowerPoint slides are exported as individual images, then Cool Iris ( can be used to display them as a ‘wall gallery’. This provides fast and simple access to any slide.
Fostering engagement
Staff at the University Of Minnesota (2008) have identified a number of weaknesses in how tutors are using PowerPoint in lectures. They have published a range of materials on the effective use of PowerPoint for teaching and learning, e.g.
UoM (2008) Active Learning with PowerPoint,
Protecting critical knowledge forms
Many presentations comprise slides made up of bulleted lists. So what’s wrong with bulleted lists? Plenty, according to Adams (2006). Every subject domain has developed its own ways of representing the information it needs to convey understanding. The bulleted list is an impoverished substitute for native knowledge forms and PowerPoint’s hegemony is ‘rendering obsolete valuable, perhaps critical knowledge forms’. Teachers need to act vigorously against PowerPoint’s ‘soft determinism’ and design their own slides that go beyond the bulleted list.
Adams, C (2006) “PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture”, Journal of Curriculum Studies 38, 4: 389 – 411
Breaking the habit?
My experience leads me to suspect that one can all too easily slip into the habit of using PowerPoint. It can then become habit-forming.
Lodge, J (2008) Lecturing and a PowerPoint-centric Culture,

9. the cheap teleprompter
A problematic use of PowerPoint is as a ‘teleprompter’ or aide-memoire for the tutor.
Here the PowerPoint slides contain the lecture notes and they are read back to the students. An uninspiring approach at best.
REFERENCE
Ellias, S (2008) Take Your Slide Deck to the Next Level, (Accessed )
Source: Elias, 2008

10. not waving but drowning
Another example of questionable practice is to use PowerPoint to dump large amounts of information on a slide.
The audience has little chance of assimilating this information before the teacher moves on to the next slide.
Surely, there can be little value in this approach. Yet it is common enough in lectures and presentations.
Source: Elias, 2008

11. show and tell
Commonly used to show images – usually with comments, e.g. samples of students’ work. This model is especially helpful when material needs to be shared and a verbal descriptions would be inadequate.

12. audio-visual model
Donald Norman (2004) defends the use of PowerPoint arguing that it is an excellent tool and one can’t blame the tool if it’s used badly.
He proposes a model of use - akin to the way audio-visual aids were traditionally used. He assumes the audience will take notes.
A presentation – or talk – should use three resources:
Speaker’s notes on paper or cards. These contain brief points to guide the speaker.
Visuals which are displayed using PowerPoint.
A handout for the audience which contains references and suggestions to follow up the ideas discussed.
REFERENCE
Norman, D (2004) In Defense of PowerPoint, (Accessed )
PHOTO CREDIT

13. Alley’s assertion-evidence model
This model uses a sentence-assertion at the top of the slide.
Below it comes evidence to support the assertion – but in visual form.
Alley makes three key assumptions for using this structure:
Slides are an appropriate visual aid for presentations.
The success of a presentation hangs on the audience being able to understand the content of the slides.
The primary purpose of the slides is to help the audience understand the content rather than to provide talking points for the speaker.
REFERENCE
Alley, M (2003) The Craft of Scientific Presentations: Critical Steps to Succeed and Critical Errors to Avoid, NY: Springer-Verlag
PHOTO CREDIT

14. Reynolds’ billboard-style model
Slides are designed in the style of a billboard, i.e. graphics with a strong visual impact and only a small amount of text.
The aim is to enhance what the speaker is saying.
Images can play an important role in supporting learning – or in generating an emotional response.
REFERENCE
Reynolds, G (2008) Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, New Riders Press

15. Atkinson’s narrative model
This model is based on the idea that speakers should use the power of narrative in their presentations.
Atkinson (2005) suggests that an effective presentation should be organised on the lines of the classic three act story structure.
Act1: Identify the setting, the protagonist (usually the audience), the imbalance, the balance, the solution.
Act 2: The action is developed culminating in a crisis.
Act 3: The crisis is resolved.
Slides are designed with text and graphics tightly linked, but less emphasis is placed on creating billboard-style screens.
REFERENCE
Atkinson, C (2005) Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire, Microsoft Press
PHOTO CREDIT:

16. active learning model
An assumption of this model is that a PowerPoint presentation can induce passivity in students. This model is designed to keep students actively involved in their learning.
For this reason, ‘active learning’ slides are inserted at key moments in the lecture. The aim is to encourage students to think actively about the lecture content – either individually or through discussion in pairs or small groups. A wide range of practical activity slides are demonstrated.
This model gives importance to the design of PowerPoint handouts. These might contain questions for students to answer before the start of the lecture to help them prepare – or blank slides where students are expected to take notes during the lecture.
REFERENCE
Centre for Teaching & Learning (2008) Active learning with PowerPoint, Univ. of Minnesota (Accessed )
PHOTO CREDIT

17. teacher immediacy model
Two assumptions underpin this model, i.e. that PowerPoint can:
reduce ‘teacher immediacy’ and thereby harm the quality of teaching.
sometimes sideline other – often more appropriate – teaching tools.
This model is similar to Norman’s ‘audio visual’ model. It uses a minimal number of slides – and only where it is judged to be necessary for learning.
When not needed, the presentation is blanked out on the screen. This causes students to turn from the screen towards the teacher and helps maintain teacher immediacy.
PowerPoint is not given paramount position; other digital tools are used as needed, e.g. the interactive whiteboard is called up and used when writing is required; a browser is used to display web pages; video and audio are played through Media Player and so on.
This model creates ‘space’ for the teacher to engage more easily with students and vice-versa. The ‘tyranny’ of the PowerPoint screen presence can inhibit some students from asking questions in a lecture.
REFERENCE
Lodge, J (2008) Keeping PowerPoint in its (rightful) place,
(Accessed )
PHOTO CREDIT

18. e-learning
model
This model includes a written commentary on each slide. It uses the Notes section in PowerPoint to type up the commentary.
Such a model can be useful when a presentation will be uploaded to the web for students to view (rather like this presentation).
It can also be useful when several tutors are teaching the same module. The Notes can contain background information needed by the teaching team. Especially practical for visiting lecturers who have to play catch-up when they come into college.

19. Is Presenting Enough?
A Critical Review of the Ways That PowerPoint is Being Used in Lectures
Many of the models described here show PP being used to support teacher talk. Whilst the lecture presentation has a valued place in our range of teaching strategies, overuse of this strategy diminishes the quality of our teaching. Using PowerPoint in lectures carries risks. We need to be aware of these and act intelligently to reduce them, so that presentation technology enriches our teaching rather than impoverishes it.