There is a name for my pain

… and that name is PowerPoint.

Yes, I’m off again. Another cluster of speaking engagements approaches, which means another batch of PowerPoint preparation. Notwithstanding the success of my last PowerPoint sessions and the excellent advice of Sharon Colvin’s article [1], I still find myself dreading putting the slides together.

Now, new research is telling us that the human brain isn’t really wired for PowerPoint: “Humans just don’t like absorbing information verbally and visually at the same time – one or the other is fine but not both simultaneously.” [2]

This information provoked a complex reaction when I read it (originally in an article in Times Online [3]). It went something along the lines of “Thank goodness, I’m not mega-thick, most people find PowerPoint presentations difficult to follow … Wasn’t life simpler when we just stood there and talked as entertainingly as possible … OMG, I have three PowerPoint presentations to make over the next few weeks … How on earth can I demonstrate how I get data from our catalogue into our work blog without showing people …” You get the idea.

It’s times like this when being a librarian really comes into its own. Fishing further for more detailed information about the research, I found its press release on the University of New South Wales website:

John Sweller, from the School of Education, is the founding father of Cognitive Load Theory …

“Most teaching doesn’t take into account the way we think and learn, and so it fails,” said Professor Sweller, who developed the theory in the 1980s…

“Problem-solving places a great demand on working memory, so teachers are better off giving students solved problems so they have the learning to take home,” he said. “The reason is that the cognitive processes involved in learning and solving problems are different, so we need to cater to the way the brain works.

“Everything we are aware of goes through working memory, which has a limited capacity of only three to four items of information that can be held for only three to four seconds without rehearsal,” he said. “Almost all information goes after 20 seconds, unless there is rehearsal.” [4]

Fascinating stuff - and here’s where PowerPoint comes in:

Power-point presentations can backfire if the information on the screen is the same as that which is verbalized, because the audience’s attention will be split between the two. [5]

So, the key learning point is don’t put text on PowerPoints and read it back to people:

It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented. [6]

Surely this must be enough to put my PowerPoint fears to bed? It’s OK to use PowerPoints for illustrations. In my first-hand drug accounts paper in March, I had a couple of slides that were just space-fillers – pretty pictures that were relevant but not necessary to what I was saying – and these worked well. Those enthralled in my words could ignore the slides and those that were less enthralled had something nice to look at.

Even better – it’s good to talk. No need to find slides just for the sake of it – what I learned at uni all those years ago, as Colvin’s article suggested, still holds true. Times Online even reproduces the common top tips we were given when learning old-fashioned Scottish Rhetoric:

1. Talk at the same speed and in the same style as you would in a relaxed conversation.

2. Ensure silence after each key point or idea to allow listeners to digest the information.

3. Eye contact is most effective in the silence at the end of each key point.

4. Structure presentations around a few key messages, each one backed up by your evidence.

5. Use your hands to emphasise your words.

6. Use stories and anecdotes.

7. Ask rhetorical questions, framed by pauses. [7]

Rhetoric – you can’t beat it, and Michael Gove accurately pinpoints some of the reasons why:

It’s partly because pictures created by words are so much more memorable and moving than words appearing on a screen designed for pictures. And it’s also because classical rhetoric has developed, over generations, to fit arguments to the contours of the human mind. Classical orators have learnt how to shape their thoughts to rest pleasingly in our ears. The use of lists of three, the deployment of humour, image and metaphor, the way in which the tone of voice is varied, are all techniques every bit as sophisticated as any Microsoft program, and much more user-friendly. [8]

Now, with my faith in my old toolkit well and truly restored, I’m wondering, how much time will it save me just to have to create a flash demo of how I transfer catalogue data to our work blog and a couple of easy-on-the-eye PowerPoint slides? I might even get all the seeds planted in my garden this weekend …

Refs

[1] Colvin, Sharon (2007) ‘How to keep the audience awake and learning’. Information Outlook 11(2): 24-27.

[2] Oates, John (2007) Official: PowerPoint bad for brains. The Register, 4 April, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/04/powerpoint_bad/ accessed 26 April 2007.

[3] Waller, Mark and Gove, Michael (2007) PowerPointless. Times Online, 18 April, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article1666665.ece accessed 26 April 2007.

[4] University of New South Wales (2007) Help! My brain is overloaded! [Press release], 23 March, http://www.unsw.edu.au/news/pad/articles/2007/mar/Cognitive_load_theory.html accessed 26 April 2007.

[5] Ibid.

[6] John Sweller, quoted in Oates, Op. Cit.

[7] Templar Advisers Ltd., quoted in Waller and Gove, Op. Cit.

[8] Gove, Michael (2007) Why speechmaking is still the way to persuade. In Waller and Gove, Op. Cit.