The title is bold and direct, I know. I like it actually, because when a PowerPoint presentation sucks, it really, really sucks. So sometimes, we just have to call it what it is.

The bottom line is that we cannot escape PowerPoint in today’s business and/or academic world. And as Jessee Desjardins wrote, it’s really not a bad tool at all. In fact, I think it is a fabulous tool. One just needs to learn how to use it efficiently and effectively.

About 3 years ago, I read Edward Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint, and though he did not convince me to abandon PowerPoint completely, I did take into account his main criticisms of the tool—such as it being a tool used to support the presenter on what s/he wants to lecture about rather than supplement with supporting visuals—and try to find ways of working around them.

Reference:

• You Suck At Power Point | SlideShare | Jesse Desjardins | November 2010

Initially published on Brandon Hall’s Workplace Learning Today