"Nobody should be surprised that PowerPoint does not measure up to the great speeches of history, such as Lincoln's Gettysburg address. And it is certainly a shame when a potentially interesting presentation is dumbed down by another formulaic over-application of PowerPoint. But when PowerPoint leads not just to boredom but to bad decisions, it is a tragedy, not just a shame."
~ Peter Norvig
Check it out. (Link)
4 comments:
We've used that "new nations" graph in our of our presentations here at Rose.
It was great.
Freaking enter key, didn't let me tag the above post!
I disagree.
I'm not a big fan of Powerpoint as an application, but I do believe that Multimedia Presentations and slide-based deliveries are the way for all the great speeches of the future.
We live in a day of edited CNN sound-bites and demagogic Fox News micro-clips.
Great speeches, like those of Lincoln and Kennedy, are no longer acceptable to the *average* audience. If anything, formal, eloquent, or even Bill-Clinton-layman-style speeches are edited and, as a consequence, horribly misrepresented to the ignorant audience.
A presentation on the other hand, is like a multimedia hatchet job - one that demands and captures the attention of Generation Ritalin.
Taking your point a bit farther, the future of great speeches in "Generation Ritalin" as you so aptly put it, is no longer live persona addresses -- the mass media of choice is most likely 30 second TV spots. They've got the flash and jerk in there, take a look at the White Lies and Target Market anti-tobacco ads.
I really get irked at those people who misuse a projected visual aide. Most of the professors who rely on PPT use it too much as a handicap, simply reading off the slides. Evil. Then they throw 300 words on each slide and expect you to understand their main point.
I think for those people who want to be spoken to, a podium with a mic and a few charts or photos may be good enough. There's no need for a full detailed outline on a screen, hand it out (or publish it on the web) instead!
For those people who do not have the patience to sit in a chair in a theater and watch a celebrity: watch TV. Those half-minute ad-spots are definately more effective sometimes than a longer verbal State of the Union address.
Post a Comment