PowerPoint and the The Death of ReadingIf you're a "Baby Boomer", PowerPoint will likely not appeal to you. Perhaps you will even feel it is evil. But I'll give you two good reasons you ought to understand and appreciate PowerPoint. Your children and grandchildren. There’s no better way to reach the listening and learning style of the under 30 crowd. Short attention spans, visual learning preference, little or no reading skills required, and short sound bites. The generation of the 7th Millennium rules! Good bye Moby Dick! Farewell Crime and Punishment! Adios National Geographic and Readers Digest! Public speakers pay heed. This could be your greatest audience challenge. Power Point is the Way PowerPoint is the way the Generation of the Seventh Millennium and beyond will cope in this fast-paced, frenetic world of iPods, search engines and micro-minute attention spans. (If man came on to the scene in the year 4026 B.C.E. according to the Bible, then 1975 A.D. would mark the beginning of the Seventh Millennium.) Yes, if you were a teen in '75’, you remember reading novels and composing essays for your teachers and professors. On the weekends, you caught movies like Dog Day Afternoon, Mahogany, The Man Who Would Be King, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Love Story, The Stepford Wives, Three Days of the Condor and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. A good plot, drama, and wit (ok, we weren’t perfect then either) ruled the big screen.
But times have evolved. What was a "New York Minute" then is a New York milli-second today. The big screen stars born in that notable year include Drew Barrymore, Angelina Jolie, Charlize Theron, and Kate Winslet. In '75’, there were five notable deaths -- Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle), Susan Hayward, and two of The Three Stooges, Larry Fine and Moe Howard. The fifth death, at the birth of the 7th Millennium, was not noted for almost 20 years.
The death of which I am speaking is the death of Reading. Many college professors trace the decline of student reading and retention to those born in 1975, the beginning of the 7th Millennium. This is manifested by students who take no notes and wear stylish headsets that re-play lectures recorded by professors. Look at the popularity of PowerPoint presentations with handout copies of the slides. They are the students study guide. Do you really think students have time to read in the lightning-quick fashion life goes on? Why are newspapers folding, libraries closing and reader's club subscriptions falling? Perhaps the biggest indictment is the Internet. Yes, the industrial age has ended and the information age is alive and well. That is, if you like looking at pictures in shades of PowerPoint blue. Delivering and receiving information has changed. There are a new set of rules for writing and reading on the web.
One sentence paragraphs are acceptable. None are longer than three sentences. On the better sites, articles are generally no longer than 750 words. That's because reading is done by scanning. To engage a reader (or scanner as the case may be), psychological tricks like connectives are used to tie one paragraph to the next.
The Key to Educating The key to educating 7th Millennium students is PowerPoint. The challenge facing educators, speakers and presenters is creating a lecture that can stand on its own merit, utilizing Power Point as a visual aid rather than making Power Point the presentation.
The generation of the 7th Millennium becomes easily bored. Stimulating students' gray matter neurons requires using our own little gray box of tricks, using word illustrations and probing questions to elevate thinking. Along with questions, not just PowerPoint, but a whole new generation of Ultimate Power Point will evolve. Psychological use of colors and attention capturing design presentations combined with effective speaking tactics are a dynamic one-two punch in the lecture hall. The future will remember non-predictions of the past as was the case with Jules Vern’s novel conception of a facsimile machine several decades before its creation. Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and The Max Headroom Story will be ‘novel’ predictions of the future. Moving forward, we will no longer look for 15 minutes of fame. No more New York minutes. On the web, things happen in seconds. Our future will soon become our past. Everybody Will be Somebody For 27 Seconds Perhaps the best we can hope for is that everybody will be somebody for 27 seconds. In a world of sound bites, images flashing before our eyes and action movies, the reality is that 27 seconds is an eternity on the net. Capturing the attention of the mind of the generation of the 7th Millennium requires pictures, images, and attention-grabbing devices. PowerPoint is the solution. It is the salvation of tomorrow's classroom. May we use PowerPoint Presentations wisely and never forget, the true power point it the place between our ears.
Art work Copyright 2005 Jonathan Steele (Sorry, I am not in the PPT business. I am an advocate of using art for it's ability to move people.)
Go to Main Power Point Tutorial Directory Power Point Design Basic Rules is a guide to creating a great presentation? Power Point Basics is a condensed version of the same information. Psychological Aspects of Color could affect color choice? Meanings of Colors might be a factor in your color choices? The Rule of Three and the Upside Down e for things you see is a basic rule of design. Do this and increase your chance of a winning presentation. Back to top of PowerPoint / Go to Home Page.
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