Powerpoint is EVIL?!

Was anyone else "thrown" by the title of this article? My husband looked over my shoulder as I was reading and wondered aloud about the author's argument, and I have to admit it also made me curious! While the claim of Powerpoint as "evil" seems a bit dramatic, I did see the truth to some of what Tufte wrote. In fact, Tufte identified one of my own fears about the overuse of Powerpoint, that students become accustomed to writing in bite-size phrases on slides rather than fleshing out their arguments in complete sentences and paragraphs.

On the other hand, since Powerpoint is meant to be used as a presentation tool, I do believe that slides should be concise; we've all had to watch that presentation where the presenter read word-for-word directly from the slides, completely defeating the purpose. While I do not assign Powerpoint to my students (a Communications class focuses more on presentation skills than English), I do believe it is like any technological tool: the user must construct meaning through the USE of the tool and not simply RELY on the tool to make the message more interesting. If I now assigned a Powerpoint presentation to my students, I think I'd keep Tufte's concerns in mind. I would take time to instruct students on how Powerpoint can supplement a presentation, but that the content is still most important.

One thing about this week's second article really struck me and I imagine will continue to resurface in my blog discussions: I have made all of the excuses for why technology has not been a big part of my teaching, but it really comes down to the dominant social beliefs I maintain behind teaching and learning. The "seemingly marginal use of computers" in my classroom is not about inadequate funding or being unprepared as a teacher; instead, I think I've been holding onto the old perceptions of what learning to read and write involves. As a student, I was taught to write through drafting and editing; I felt a natural affinity to literature and therefore welcomed new stories and ways of examining life in fiction and otherwise.

This, I believe, is a major reason why this class is so important for me. I am already beginning to see how these ways of reading and writing, while still useful, do not meet the needs of all students and certainly do not engage everyone. Could blogging be one of the ways I engage my students? Absolutely. Do I think I could use Inspiration to determine whether or not students are making connections between themes in stories we've read? Undoubtedly. I need to let go of the ways that worked for ME and determine a variety of ways that will work for my students.