5 Alternatives to PowerPoint: A Revolution to become more content-oriented and audience-oriented, #5 on the list

The 5th and final recommendation in the 5 Alternatives to Powerpoint series, is bringing us back to the old-school style of presentation. Simply put, NO POWERPOINT CRUTCH.

#5: Drop the PowerPoint and go ‘old school’ with a conversation

Excerpt from Edward Tufte’s Beautiful Evidence:


When Louis Gerstner became president of IBM, he encountered a big company caught up in ritualistic slideware-style presentations:

One of the first meetings I was asked for was a briefing on the state of the [mainframe computer] business. At that time, the standard format of any important IBM meeting was a presentation using overhead projectors and graphics that IBMers called “foils” [projected transparencies]. Nick was on his second foil when I stepped to the table and, as politely as I could in front of his team, switched off the projector. After a long moment of silence, I simply said “Let’s just talk about your business.”

“Let’s talk about your business” indicates a thoughtful exchange of information, a mutual interplay between the speaker and audience, rather than a pitch made by a power pointer pointing to bullets. Powerpoint is presenter-oriented, not content-oriented, not audience-oriented.


I hope that the suggested alternatives to Powerpoint over the past few days have given you some “food for thought” for your classroom environment.

For those interested, I will be giving a workshop on the use of Prezi as a presentation tool (and if time I will touch on the other alternatives) on Friday July 17th in SE 12 101 Q from 11:00 am-12:00 pm.

****Please register for this event by contacting Amanda Coolidge at Amanda_Coolidge@bcit.ca, or by calling 2282, OR drop by the Learning and Teaching Centre: SE 12 (beneath Tim Horton's, drop by after you grab your coffee!)


All alternatives are archived on the LTC Blog: http://www.bcitltc.com/

Beautiful evidence / Edward R. Tufte.
Tufte, Edward R., 1942-
Cheshire, Conn. : Graphics Press, c2006.
IN LIBRARY - Burnaby - 3rd Floor - P 93.5 T848 2006