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Running head: IS POWERPOINT EVIL?
Is PowerPoint Evil? Lessons in Visual Literacy
Abstract
The use of PowerPoint has become ubiquitous. It continues to invade our schools and
lives. Expanding on Tufte’s and other critiques of PowerPoint, this paper will elaborate
on the use and proliferation of PowerPoint in Teacher Education classrooms and
programs, summarize current criticisms of PowerPoint, address strategies to improve the
use of PowerPoint, and conclude by offering some alternatives ways of using PowerPoint
in the classroom.
The use of PowerPoint has become ubiquitous; whether in a corporate board
meeting or a classroom, PowerPoint is commonplace. In fact, it is estimated that over 30
million PowerPoint presentations are given each day . This rise in popularity has attracted
supporters and critics alike. Supporters can be found in every school, college, and
university throughout the country; critics are few and far between, but steadily growing.
The most notable critic of PowerPoint is Edward Tufte. In The Cognitive Style of
PowerPoint , Tufte (2003a) spends 27 pages highlighting various shortcomings of
PowerPoint. In a later article, Tufte even compares PowerPoint to a prescription drug
whose side effects “induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and
degraded the quality and credibility of communication” (2003b, para 1). Despite Tufte’s
outspoken opposition to PowerPoint, the field of Teacher Education is relatively unaware
of the shortcomings of PowerPoint.
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With the increased use of PowerPoint in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities,
it is imperative for Teacher Education to acknowledge, to teach, and to respond to the
critics of PowerPoint. Thus, the question remains, is PowerPoint evil? Or in, other words
can PowerPoint decrease learning? This paper will attempt to answer these questions and
more by looking at the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding the use of PowerPoint in
classrooms today and the possibilities it holds as an instructional tool for tomorrow.
Teacher Education and PowerPoint
Teacher preparation students are enthralled with PowerPoint and other slideshow
tools. When teacher preparation students think about integrating technology into the
classroom, often PowerPoint is the technology of choice. Students credit PowerPoint with
making learning interactive, interesting, professional, and fun. While beyond the scope of
this paper, commonly held beliefs such as these need to be investigated; further, it is
important to investigate teacher preparation student’s attitudes and motivations regarding
the use of PowerPoint in the classroom. For instance, is part of PowerPoint’s appeal as a
teaching tool due to its relation to a “whiteboard?” The focus of this paper, though, is not
to investigate why teachers are using PowerPoint; rather the focus is on addressing the
strengths and weaknesses of PowerPoint as an instructional tool and the implications for
Teacher Educators and teacher preparation students alike.
Every piece of technology has its strengths and its weaknesses. Fundamental to
integrating technology into any lesson is knowing when and how a certain tool should be
used to support learning. It is pedagogy, not the technology, that makes the difference in
student learning (Reeves, 1998). However, in order to make sound pedagogical
decisions, it is imperative that educators are educated on the affordances of the tools they
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choose. Therefore, at some level Teacher Educators are obligated to teach students the
good, the bad, and the ugly about the tools they use.
Critiques of PowerPoint
Bad PowerPoint presentations are commonplace in the field of education.
Whether it is the speaker who reads off the slides line by line or the speaker who is not
sure how to advance each slide or the speaker who cannot align what is being said with
the slides, it seems everyone has had the experience of sitting through a bad PowerPoint
presentation. Critiques of PowerPoint, though, suggest that PowerPoint might be as much
to blame for these bad presentations as the presenters themselves. In fact, in The
Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, Tufte (2003a) suggests that the shortcomings of
PowerPoint are more than the result of bad presenters but rather something more cultural
and systemic.
Tufte is the primary, or at least the most vocal, critic of PowerPoint. It is difficult
to identify each of Tufte’s main critiques of PowerPoint; Tufte does not clearly identify
each of his points with the use of bullets, numbers, headings, or lists (See Gall & Lohr,
2005, for a brief summary of Tufte’s critique of PowerPoint). Tufte’s criticisms, though,
focus on the following main ideas:
1. PowerPoint’s low resolution is inadequate to display rich content
2. PowerPoint’s low resolution encourages bulleted outlines which dilute
thought
3. PowerPoint’s deeply hierarchical and linear structure decontextualizes and
hides information
4. PowerPoint has a tendency to fragment narrative and data
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5. PowerPoint encourages a preoccupation with format, conspicuous decoration,
and phluff rather than content
Low Resolution
Tufte’s belief that PowerPoint is a poor medium for information transfer fuels his
abomination of PowerPoint. Tufte argues that PowerPoint’s low resolution makes it
difficult to display information rich data – content (2003a). In support of this claim, he
points to how PowerPoint often ruins traditional rich data, by turning it into
chartjunk(Tufte, 2003a, 2003b). Unabashed, Tufte continues his assault by explaining
that “chartjunk” (which for Tufte is basically any chart or graph generated by
PowerPoint) “is a clear sign of statistical stupidity” (Tufte, 2003a, 2003b). It is important
to note Tufte’s use of the word “statistical”; Tufte makes a living selling books that
illustrate how to display quantitative data visually. Therefore, when Tufte refers to
information rich data, he is most likely referring to quantitative data. While Tufte takes
his point to an extreme and in the process reveals some of his bias, regular PowerPoint
users are very familiar with running out of room on a slide (i.e., the low resolution of a
PowerPoint slide).
Bullet Outlines
Related to PowerPoint’s low resolution, Tufte (Tufte, 2003a, 2003b) and others
(Norvig, n.d.-b) contend that PowerPoint encourages the use (and overuse) of bullet
outlines which dilute thought, narrative, and data. Elaborating on the problems of bullet
outlines, Tufte makes one of his only claims about the use of PowerPoint in the
classroom. Tufte explains,
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Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our
schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being
taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Elementary school
PowerPoint exercises … typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art
on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides—a total of perhaps 80 words
(15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work. (Tufte, 2003b, para 4)
This critique of bulleted outlines is not new. Although her criticisms are unrelated to
PowerPoint, Cross (1998) too cautioned against the over-reliance on “bulleted
distillations” (p. 6). Therefore, while Tufte fails to demonstrate convincingly that the use
of bullet outlines make people stupid or children illiterate, the use of bulleted outlines can
encourage oversimplification and decontextualization of material; the use of multiple
layered bullets can further decontextualize material by blurring connections and
relationships between points.
Further, Tufte argues that the low screen resolution and the over-reliance on
bullets tend to fragment narrative and data. Peter Norvig (n.d.-a) brilliantly illustrates
this point in his satirical PowerPoint presentation, “The Gettysburg PowerPoint
Presentation.” Inspired by a USA Today article, Norvig tried to imagine what the
Gettysburg Address would have been like if Abe Lincoln had PowerPoint. Eloquently,
Norvig explains just how easily PowerPoint can fragment narrative:
I started up PowerPoint and let the "Autocontent Wizard" help me create a new
presentation. I … figured … I'd be creative in adding bad design wherever
possible. I was surprised that the Autocontent Wizard had anticipated my desires
… All I had to do was take Lincoln's words and break them into pieces, making
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sure that I captured the main phrases of the original, while losing all the flow,
eloquence, and impact. (Norvig, n.d)
While Norvig’s Gettysburg Address presentation is an extreme example, it is a perfect
example of how PowerPoint can fragment narrative and data; the presentation can be
viewed online: http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm.
Figure 1
It is important to note that Tufte or Norvig do not appear to dispute the process of
synthesizing material—instead, they oppose the “cognitive style” of bullet outlines that
PowerPoint produces and encourages. The process of synthesizing material can be very
useful if done carefully and thoughtfully. In fact, Bloom has already illustrated the
importance of higher order thinking skills like synthesizing information. Yet, in support
of Tufte’s argument, the person synthesizing the information (i.e., the presenter) typically
benefits the most, not the audience getting the final bulleted list; in other words, it is the
process of synthesizing information that makes the difference, not the final product. In
addition, Norvig (n.d.-b) encourages presenters to design presentations
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to take advantage of the people gathered there …Use visual aids to convey visual
information: photographs, charts, or diagrams. But do not use them to give the
impression that the matter is solved, wrapped up in a few bullet points. (para 8)
Hierarchical and Linear Structure
Tufte also criticizes PowerPoint for being deeply hierarchical and linear in
structure. It is difficult to counter this point. By default, PowerPoint is a very linear tool.
In fact, this is possibly part of PowerPoint’s appeal for educators. However, despite the
default hierarchical and linear structure, PowerPoint does not have to be used in a linear
hierarchical way. For instance, by typing in the number of the slide and hitting enter, a
presenter can advance to any slide in a PowerPoint presentation.
Hence, with careful planning, PowerPoint can be used as an effective hypertext
tool. William Horton illustrated during an ISPI-FRC Gala event how PowerPoint can be
used not only in a non-linear but more of a hypertext manner; he created a home page (to
borrow a term from Web development) from which he was able to jump to different
topics and segments in his PowerPoint presentation at the audience’s request. Horton
polled the audience to see what topics they wanted to cover and then he would jump to
that part of his PowerPoint.
Thus, Tufte’s criticism of PowerPoint’s hierarchical and linear structure has more
to do with the way presenters think about and plan presentations than with the
PowerPoint itself. However, PowerPoint the tool does enable and encourage this practice
through its default settings and auto wizards.
Preoccupation with Format, Conspicuous Decoration, and Phluff
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Tufte is very critical of PowerPoint’s preoccupation with format, conspicuous
decoration, and phluff. This criticism is perhaps the number one transgression of
Teacher Preparation students. Teacher preparation students tend to spend more time
looking for the right background, font, and slide transitions than focusing on the content
or purpose of the presentation or lesson. The nearly millions of PowerPoint templates
available online alone illustrates Tufte’s point that PowerPoint or, perhaps better put,
PowerPoint users are preoccupied with format and decoration.
A second example is the infatuation with clip art. Richard Mayer illustrates that a
picture is not always worth a thousand words. A picture or an image needs to be related
to the topic at hand (i.e., relevant), or it can actually detract and distract from the
presentation and learning. Yet, PowerPoint users continually include unrelated clip art or
obnoxious slide transitions, typically in the name of fun.
Rejoinder to the Critics
The work of Tufte (2003a; Tufte, 2003b), Norvig (n.d.-b), and others is powerful
and persuasive. Any novice PowerPoint user should be required to read the work of
Tufte. In fact, Sam Wineburg (2004) states that educational researchers should not use
PowerPoint until they have read The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint (Tufte, 2003a) and
the work of Norvig (n.d; , n.d.-a; , n.d.-b). Therefore, Teacher Educators need to ensure
that teacher preparation students and K-12 teachers are aware of some of the criticisms
and shortcomings of using PowerPoint in the classroom. Nonetheless, the critiques put
forth by Tufte and others have some shortcomings of their own when applied to
education or learning environments.
Focused on Presentations
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Tufte (Tufte, 2003a; , 2003b) and Norvig’s (n.d; , n.d.-a; , n.d.-b) primary
audience is not educators. In fact, both of them focus more on the use of PowerPoint as a
presentation tool than a learning tool. While the distinction between presentation and
learning might be minor, it is important. When someone does a presentation, whether in
the boardroom or a conference (or possibly even in the classroom), it is more about
presenting material than it is about teaching and learning. Persuading and entertaining
are often the purpose of a presenter; that is, the typical presenter is more concerned with
getting buy-in than with ensuring that the audience learns something new. When was the
last time you were in a presentation in which the presenter actually assessed the audience
to see if they learned anything? This is not to suggest that educators are not interested in
persuading or entertaining their learners but rather that an educator’s primary purpose is
different than a typical presenter’s.
Blames the tool
Critics of Tufte think that he focuses too much on the tool. He seems to blame a
piece of software for the way that humans are using it. The argument goes, PowerPoint
does not give bad presentations, people give bad presentations. Wineburg (2004)
supports this when he recalls countless bad conference presentations long before the
advent of PowerPoint. Occasionally a presenter or an educator uses PowerPoint in a very
effective manner. While Tufte does not come right out and say it, he seems to suggest
that PowerPoint is more than just a tool. PowerPoint is so engrained in our culture that
there is an unspoken expectation that in certain environments, one must use PowerPoint.
Try to imagine doing a paper presentation at a conference without PowerPoint; it seems
the only alternative offered these days is reading straight from the paper. While it can be
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done, the audience will most likely assume that the presenter is not technologically adept.
Or imagine doing a PowerPoint presentation where you do not hand out or make
available the PowerPoint slides? When a tool becomes this deeply ingrained in a culture,
it becomes more than just a tool. However, this does not dismiss the fact that how people
use PowerPoint is still very much in one’s control.
Over-emphasis on content
One of Tufte’s fundamental problems with PowerPoint is its inability to display
content adequately; however for Tufte, content is more often statistical data than text.
Further, Tufte suggests that more content on a slide is a good thing. Despite his analysis
of words per slide in education, educators (especially teacher preparation students) tend
to put too much text per slide. This is not to mention the fact that content alone is not
enough for learning to take place. So in learning environments, educators must realize
and be reminded that more content on a slide, especially in the form of text, is often a
recipe for disaster at least in learning terms.
Single mindedness
Tufte suggests that there is no hope for PowerPoint. His single mindedness is
perhaps his only main downfall. Tufte’s only advice is essentially to abandon the use of
PowerPoint. He does not make an effort to offer any guidelines to improve the use of
PowerPoint. However, the inverse of each of his criticisms could be turned into a best
practices list for the use of PowerPoint. For instance, Table 1 illustrates some guidelines
implicitly found in Tufte’s work.
Table 1
Tufte’s Criticisms and Possible Guidelines
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Tufte’s Explicit Critiques
1. Low Resolution
87
Tufte’s Implicit Recommendations
1. Use more useful visuals or give
handouts to display information-rich
data
2. Bullet Outlines
2. Rely more on clear headings with few
bullets or numbered lists
3. Hierarchical and Linear Structure
3. Design and leverage PowerPoint’s
nonlinear and nonhierarchical
4. Preoccupation with Format,
Conspicuous Decoration, and Phluff
capabilities
4. Use plain, non-distracting backgrounds;
use images that are information rich and
relevant
PowerPoint in the Classroom
Tufte (Tufte, 2003a, 2003b), Norvig (n.d; , n.d.-b), and many others have
accurately identified a number of shortcomings of PowerPoint—namely, its low
resolution, its over-reliance on bullet outlines, its hierarchical and linear structure, and its
preoccupation with format and decoration. However, very few of the critics of
PowerPoint directly address or concentrate on the use of PowerPoint in the classroom as
a learning tool. In addition to the aforementioned shortcomings of PowerPoint, there are
three remaining shortcomings of PowerPoint to consider—namely, PowerPoint tends to
be teacher centered, technology centered, and screen centered. These three aspects
appear to be in direct conflict with the four components of learning that Bransford
identified (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 1999)
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Teacher centered
PowerPoint encourages a teacher centered approach to learning. By displaying
content on a screen, PowerPoint basically serves as an electronic chalkboard or a fancy
overhead projector. However, unlike a chalkboard, PowerPoint does enable teachers to
plan and re-use their lessons which can often be a time saver. There are also occasions
when a teacher centered approach is very useful, valid, and appropriate. It is important
though to recognize that regardless of its benefits, the use of PowerPoint by a teacher
maintains a teacher centered learning environment.
Technology centered
The use of PowerPoint in a classroom often creates a technology centered
learning experience as well. In education, with few exceptions, it is difficult to
completely ignore the technology. Whether it is the teacher who cannot seem to get the
LCD projector to work, problems advancing from one slide to another, or the challenge
of aligning the presentation and the slides, it is hard to ignore the technology completely.
Often the goal of the use of technology in learning environment is to make it transparent.
Screen centered
This last criticism of the use of PowerPoint is due in part to the physical space
PowerPoint presentations are given. The average classroom is not designed as a SMART
classroom. Thus, often the lights have to be completely turned off to view a PowerPoint
presentation. And what you end up having is a room full of learners in a dark room
staring at a bright screen on the wall. The audience ends up being like a bunch of bugs
attracted to a bug light. It is difficult to turn away from the screen and focus on much
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else, let alone take notes in the dark. So before educators rush to put their next lesson on
PowerPoint, it is imperative to recognize the shortcomings of PowerPoint.
Can PowerPoint be Saved?
Despite the shortcomings of the day-to-day use of PowerPoint in our board
rooms, schools, and universities, PowerPoint is not inherently evil. There is a person
behind every poor PowerPoint presentation, and this person is ultimately to blame for
making some bad decisions. It is time for educators and speakers alike to take
responsibility for their poor use of PowerPoint and to take back control over their
presentations and lessons. The first step to taking back control is by adhering to some
basic instructional design principles. The second step is to recognize and leverage the
multimedia capabilities of PowerPoint by following some basic message design and
visual literacy principles.
Instructional Design
A great deal has been written about instructional design and different instructional
design models. A thorough analysis of instructional design models is beyond the scope
of this paper. But to improve the use of PowerPoint in the classroom, nearly any
instructional design model can suffice. The key issue is to think begin thinking carefully
about why and how you use PowerPoint. For simplicity, the ADDIE model will be used
to illustrate the point.
ADDIE is an acronym that stands for analyze, design, development, implement,
and evaluate. The ADDIE model is used as framework or a systematic process to develop
instruction, learning tools, and learning environments. While different instructional
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design models contain different steps and processes, all instructional design models tend
to consist of these basic components.
Purpose
The first step in the ADDIE model is to analyze the learning task and
environment. This involves analyzing and identifying the purpose or goal. Typically in
learning environments this involves asking the question, “What do learners need to know
and be able to do?” However, if your purpose is to get buy-in or to present a paper at a
conference, your purpose or goal is often more of persuasion than learning. Regardless of
the purpose, it is during this stage that a presenter or a teacher must identify whether or
not PowerPoint supports the purpose or goal. In the case of a classroom setting, teachers
need to ask how PowerPoint is going to help students learn.
Audience
Related, intertwined, and inseparable to identifying the purpose or goal is to
analyze and truly understand your audience. Understanding your audience will help
decide whether and how PowerPoint is to be used. For instance, a group of first grades
might not respond to sitting for an hour PowerPoint presentation.
Environment
Last but not least, it is important to understand the learning environment. Scholars
have identified a number of rules or heuristics about using PowerPoint, but a shortcoming
of each of these lists is that the authors make some assumptions about the use of
PowerPoint as does Tufte. For instance, the strategies on how to use PowerPoint
effectively depend on the following: whether it is going to be used for a presentation, to
teach a class, as a computer-based learning or centers, or as student products. Further,
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whether the presentation is for 10 people or 500 people will also change the strategies
needed to be used.
Therefore, understanding your learning environment, as well as what you want
your learners to know and be able to do is key and should inform if and how PowerPoint
is used. If you are giving a round table discussion at a conference with five people,
PowerPoint might not be the most appropriate tool in this intimate environment.
However, if you are giving a keynote presentation to hundreds of people, a PowerPoint
might be very effective. There is not a simple answer. But understanding your audience,
your purpose (i.e., is learning the goal or persuasion), and your environment can help …
Visual Literacy & Message Design
Common problems with the use of PowerPoint involve visual literacy and
message design. Nearly everyone has seen a PowerPoint Presentation with unreadable
slides. This common mishap is due in part to the lack of emphasis and thought placed on
the design of the message (or in this case the slides). This is problematic because the
typical use of PowerPoint relies heavily on the ability of the learners (i.e., the audience)
to see and read each slide. Academics (Lohr, 2003; Winn, 1993), as well as graphic
designers (Williams, 1994) , have identified some insightful and academically grounded
perspectives on visual literacy and message design. Robin Williams offers a very userfriendly heuristic for message designers with the acronym CARP, which stands for
contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity.
Contrast
The first component to William’s design model is contrast. The lack of contrast is
often the number one message design problem PowerPoint users face. If you cannot see
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or read the presentation, it does very little good. In fact, it can often cause more problems
because the audience is focusing all their energy on making sense out of the slides rather
than listening to the presenter/teacher. While it might seem obvious that a yellow font on
a white background is a bad idea, it is often less obvious how a black font on a blue or
green background might look. Further, LCD projectors vary a great deal; a PowerPoint
presentation might look good on your computer monitor but very differently displayed on
a screen. Therefore, to help ensure PowerPoint presentations are readable, simple
approaches like a white background and a black font or a black background with a white
font can yield the highest contrast.
Alignment
The second component to William’s design model is alignment. Williams
(Williams, 1994) and others (Lohr, 2003) point out the importance of alignment when it
comes to readability. For instance, fully centered text, especially multiple lines of it, is
harder to read than a left justified text. Therefore, to help make your slides more
readable, simply strive to maintain a left justification. This is perhaps the hardest
component to learn because it seems that centering text is deeply ingrained in our DNA.
Repetition
The third component to Williams’s model is repetition. This is the idea that the
brain recognizes patterns so it is important to be consistent and repetitive with headings,
titles, font, as well as backgrounds, when creating instructional materials. This becomes
a challenge with PowerPoint because PowerPoint will automatically change the size of
your font at times (e.g., to accommodate more text on a slide, PowerPoint will reduce the
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font size automatically). A storyboard or a design guide can be helpful to keep track of
the font size of the heading and body of each slide.
Proximity
The fourth and final component to William’s model is proximity. The principle
of proximity is important because it helps a reader quickly chunk related information
together. Chunking items that are related together spatially helps the viewer. This can
become a challenge in PowerPoint because PowerPoint wants to equally space ever item.
Font Matters
There is an entire field of study called typography or typology. Whether you are
going for aesthetic appeal or readability, font matters and makes a difference. Teacher
Preparation students are drawn to fonts like “Comic Sans MS.” However, while there is
inconsistent research on this, research suggests that a basic Serif font (e.g., Times
Roman) or Sans Serif font (e.g., Arial or Verdana) are the most readable. Further, studies
have shown that using all caps is harder to read. The brain recognizes patterns and words
and sentences in all caps are harder to read because there are not any ascenders or
descenders of the font for the brain to quickly identify.
Visual learners
Anecdotally, when asked about the appeal of PowerPoint, students often comment
on how PowerPoint helps visual learners. It is true, PowerPoint is a visual tool. In fact,
the strength of PowerPoint lies in its visual capabilities. However, the day-to-day user
rarely capitalizes on PowerPoint’s visual capabilities. Instead, the average PowerPoint is
filled with too much text and distracting clip art. In addition, it is important to understand
and unpack the idea that PowerPoint helps visual learners. Why the literature is
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inconsistent, there is agreement that visual learners often learn better from doing or
seeing visual things. Therefore, when using PowerPoint, educators should ask
themselves, how am I leveraging and capitalizing on PowerPoint’s visual and multimedia
capabilities?
Using PowerPoint Differently
When introduced to new technology, educators often try to simply use the
technology to continue doing what they have always done. Therefore, PowerPoint is
typically seen and used simply as an electronic chalkboard or a digital overhead. While
PowerPoint can be effective when used in this capacity, it is time to start thinking of
other ways to use PowerPoint as a learning tool.
Many educators have students develop PowerPoint presentations in the classroom.
While this can be a pedagogically appealing alternative to the teacher giving a
PowerPoint presentation day after day, typically student PowerPoint presentations are
susceptible to all of the previously mentioned shortcomings as teacher PowerPoint
presentations. Therefore, we need to start thinking of other ways to use PowerPoint in
the classroom to engage students. Two examples of using PowerPoint differently are the
creation of digital stories and games with PowerPoint.
Digital Stories
Digital storytelling is rapidly infiltrating schools. While there is very little
conclusive evidence on the value of creating and / or viewing digital stories in the
classroom, initial experience and research suggests that digital storytelling can be a very
effective learning tool. Digital stories …
Games
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PowerPoint can be a very effective tool to create learner centered games for the
classroom. Whether it is Jeopardy or Who wants to be a millionaire, PowerPoint games
are being developed and used in the classroom. Loyd P. Rieber and Gretchen Thomas
have begun collecting different examples of PowerPoint games online:
http://it.coe.uga.edu/wwild/pptgames/
Conclusion
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