Beyond PowerPoint: Trends in Presentation Technology

Scott Hamlin, Wheaton College, shares ideas using Prezi

In 1987, computer scientist Robert Gaskins, working with software developer Denis Austin, released the first version of PowerPoint. In the years since, the application has become ubiquitous across the educational and business communications landscape. At the same time,  a legion of detractors has emerged to decry the linear, canned, simplistic presentations that speakers seem to compelled to read, bullet point by bullet point, in lecture halls and conference centers throughout the country – and, indeed, the world.

Most famous among the detractors is surely Yale statistician Edward Tufte (“The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.”)  Even Gaskins acknowledged some of the unfortunate consequences of his invention n 2007, when PowerPoint turned 20, in an invited article for Communications of the ACM, concluding (with an implicit nod to Shakespeare), “The emphasis should be more matter, with less art.”

Presenters at two recent NITLE events, the Instructional Technology Leaders’ Conference and the Summit, fulfilled that directive by taking fresh approaches to put the emphasis back on “matter,” on their ideas rather than their slides. Some used conventional presentation software more creatively; others employed software with a different underlying concept.Among the directions that presenters took in New Orleans:

• The “Lessig method” of using any presentation software. Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons, has popularized this approach to presentation that relies upon quickly changing slides, often featuring a single word, image, or phrase. In her Summit keynote, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Pomona College, took this route. Most of her slides contained a well-chosen word or two (“insupportable economic model,” “scarcity is over”) or the image of a website: no bullet points appeared. Fitzpatrick’s approach enabled active listening, with audiovisuals as an appropriate backdrop rather than a primary focus for her audience.
• Prezi (http://prezi.com/), a web-based presentation editor that employs concept mapping as an organizing principle. Bryan Alexander utilized Prezi for his plenary presentation at the Summit exploring emerging technologies. Scott Hamlin, Wheaton College, also employed this editor for his presentation “Towards ‘Technologically Literate’ Graduates” during the Successes and Innovations Showcase at the Instructional Technology Leaders’ Conference. Zooming in and out among the key words and images that Prezi enabled them to spread across a continuous background, Alexander and Hamlin guided their audiences through their ideas rather than marching them lockstep down lists of points.
• “Pecha-kucha” (pronounced “pech-atch-ka”), an approach developed among designers in Japan in which a presenter organizes 20 slides and times each to be shown for 20 seconds. Planners of the instructional technology leaders’ conference challenged presenters in the Successes and innovations Showcase of that event to develop their presentations in pecha-kucha format: Mike Winiski of Furman University (“Using and Creating Visualizations for Teaching and Learning”), Trina Marmarelli of Reed College (“Affordable Videoconferencing: How We Did It”) and Eric Remy (“When a Pilot Flies Too Well: Streaming Video Reserves”) met the challenge with their engaging presentations. It’s difficult to get through many bullets in 20 seconds: Winiski, Marmarelli, and Remy relied on engaging images and graphics rather than words to reinforce and support their arguments.
• Ubiquitous Presenter, an approach to the use of prepared digital slides in the classroom setting that enables live annotation and interaction directly on the presentation. This application, developed at the University of Washington and refined at the University of California San Diego, frees instructors to adapt their class plans in response to student questions and discussion, and to make those adaptations a part of the saved record for students to review. Bill Junkin, Eckerd College, focused his Showcase presentation at the Instructional Technology Leaders’ Conference on this application and also demonstrated it in his Summit poster “Tablets (Laptops): A New Prescription to Strengthen Student Engagement.” A related approach for classrooms using dedicated hardware is the Smart board: Tori Waskiewicz, Ursinus College, offered a poster on the use at her campus of these interactive devices. When an instructor uses either of these approaches to make modifications during class, the resulting digital files can represent the class as interactive learning experience rather than merely the advance plan for that experience.

What new approaches are gaining strength at your campus for breaking out of the PowerPoint trap? Please add your comments.