When I was teaching back in Indiana, I used PowerPoint fairly regularly to present content to my students. It served as a record of what I had taught, so I could use it the next year; it allowed students who were absent to catch up on some of the material that they had missed; it helped students know what they were supposed to take notes on in class.
Since I’ve been in Hanoi, I’ve been able to take a step back and reflect a bit on all those PowerPoints, somewhat to my chagrin. As I sit in the theater with the other teachers and we watch a presentation from Operations, or Finance, or the Board of Directors, I remember what it’s like to see people reading off of PowerPoint slides.
Although there are many different metaphors that I find helpful when I think about teaching, one of them is performance art. It is a type of performance that should be more interactive than a movie or a theater performance, but perhaps less than a massive game of soccer. If teaching is a performance, then what is the metaphorical equivalent of reading text off of PowerPoint slides? Would that be akin to watching actors play out a scene before they are off-script?
Last November I read How to Deliver a TED Talk: Secrets of the World’s Most Inspiring Presentations, by Jeremy Donovan. Donovan has spent years studying what makes for an effective presentation, and is also one of the most avidly anti-PowerPoint presentation writers I’ve seen. In his mind, the majority of slides in presentations do the opposite of what was intended: rather than enhancing the presentation they distract from it.
Donovan points out that the most popular TED talk as of yet, Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do Schools Kill Creativity”, does not use any slides or images at all. Robinson is not the only one who has found power in stripping his presentation down to the bare essentials; another great example is Angela Lee Duckworth’s “The Key to Success: Grit”.
And yet, neither life nor teaching is a TED talk. Crafting a strong, clear message can not take a cookie-cutter approach, and different presentations require different elements. With that said, here are some thoughts about a few different presentation styles and what strengths each bring to the table.
| Style | Description | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Talk | This is the style described above, as used by Ken Robinson and Angela Lee Duckworth in their TED talks. | Focus on presenter Great for storytelling Zero distractions | Requires strong speaking Audience may forget points Words can be inadequate Difficult for dry subjects Relies on speaker credibility Difficult to take notes |
| Pictures only | This style is actually fairly uncommon, and consists of a slide show with all photos and no text. | Fosters careful observation Photos can add credibility Can compliment narrative Shows rather than tells Illustrates examples Shows other perspectives | Requires strong speaking, off-script Requires outstanding photos Can take attention off speaker Difficult to convey complexity with no narration Difficult for audience to take notes Hard to show non-visual topics Looks bad with stock photos |
| Pictures and Word Fragments | Elegant style, relying mostly on pictures with some supporting text. Examples include ISBs brochure and Daniel Pinks TED talk The Puzzle of Motivation | All of the Pros above, plus: Simple words can express abstract ideas Conceptual anchors for interpreting photos | All of the Cons above, EXCEPT: Hard to show non-visual topics Looks bad with stock photos |
| Pictures and Bullet points | This is one of most common styles of presentations; typically has text on one side and a picture on the other, or alternates text slides with pictures. An example is Gary Stagers TEDx talk on Seymour Papert. | Easy for speaker to focus on talking points Can be easily converted into notes Caters to audience that prefers to read instead of listen | Redundant - audience reading & being read to Focus is on the details, not the big picture Attention divided between reading and listening Often slides have too much text |
| Mostly or all text | The most classic example of this is reading a book out loud (perhaps showing pictures). This can also be found in comically bad PowerPoints, such as Peter Norvigs PowerPoint version of the Gettysburg Address | For book reading: Makes reading more social Presenter can practice reading out-loud Allows a story to be acted as well as read For PowerPoint: none | For book reading: Does not require reader to internalize the story Usually only the reader is engaging in the story For PowerPoint: everything |
One thought on “5- Shades of PowerPoint”
Love this table of different presentations styles – what a great resource! I wonder if there’s a way to make it visual rather than text based?