Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The Emergence of Presentation Software and the Prehistory of PowerPoint

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

Short post that looks at how PowerPoint shapes thought and asks about a future with AI-designed (and delivered) presentations. "Presentation tools have a cognitive style that encourages us to break complex ideas into chunks and then show one chunk at a time in a linear sequence." This is a natural design for an instructor-led presentation because it ensures that everyone stays on message. By contrast, as Edward Tufte's pamphlet The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint suggests, "a well designed handout or pamphlet can present a lot more information in a way that doesn't hide the connections." True. But the price you pay for that capacity is control. People interpret a visual presentation in their own way. Personally, I think this is better. But then, I don't seek to control what people know and learn.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 07:02 a.m.

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