One of my roles when I was president of International Pacific College in New Zealand was to make remarks at our opening ceremony at the beginning of the academic year. Students spoke also. I previewed their comments before the event not to in any way check on what they were saying but rather how they were going to make their presentations. Many of them had been told that they should type up their comments and put them on power point slides and then read them as they were flashed on the huge screen on the stage. They usually had typed their comments in 12 font so it was difficult to see the letters. When I asked them whether they enjoyed it when speakers read aloud what the audience could read 3 times faster silently they all said they did not. But they had been told this was the way to make a presentation. (I just attended the Japanese TESOL affiliate conference and saw that the bulk of the people in most sessions were like the students at IPC; they read aloud what was on the slide at a pace much slower than we in the audience could read it silently.)

I suggested alternatives and I shared with them previous remarks I had made to suggest different models. I attach one.

John’s comments

There are websites with articles addressing “the tyranny of power point” that are worth checking.  Some of them:

http://www.christianrenaud.com/weblog/2006/11/the_tyranny_of_.html

http://talkingteaching.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/the-tyranny-of-powerpoint/

http://homepage.mac.com/lesposen/blogwavestudio/LH20070403124024/LHA20051013155921/index.html

http://betterppt.typepad.com/betterpresentingcom/2008/06/a-blast-from-the-pastand-the-tyranny-of-powerpoint.html

http://www.mendeley.com/research/against-tyranny-powerpoint-technologyinuse-technology-abuse/