I just returned from a talk where the speaker read the slides to the audience. She may have had a Phd but she gave no credit to the audience for being as smart. I wanted to leave, instead, I took a nap.

http://www.johnpla.net/index.php?p=25

I very much enjoyed Aaron Swartz's take on Tufte's presentation, redone in PowerPoint format.

...children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Elementary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet)...

It is falacious reasoning to imply that this is a trend in elementary schools. His data is incomplete in that it does not include written essays, non-powerpoint oral reports and other related school exercises that are not fitting with the internet as a medium. Poor assertion.

I like the idea of going to the exploratorium instead of class.

But does Absolute Powerpoint corrupt absolutely?

I never understood the massive amount of "powerpoint h8" on the net. I had a class in college where a prof used powerpoint to poor effect, but I also had one where it was invaluable (japanese). It seems to me the quality of the presentation is dependant on the quality of the presenter. A nation of crappy powerpoint users isn't powerpoint's fault. If people want better presentations, they should demand required speech classes in college. Demanding a recall of all slideware isn't suddenly going to make these inept speakers brilliant -- they're just going to be even more incoherent, resulting in probably even less than 40-80 words of understanding transmitted.

This is all just blaming the tool, as if not using Power Point will suddenly improve the quality of presentations. At least I can generally read the PP slides.

I can't wait for the Powerpoint version of Moby Dick to come out.

I don't understand the powerpoint haters either. Sure a lot of people use presentation software badly, and the automated "presentation building" features of MS PowerPoint are a good example of good intentions gone wrong, but it is a lot handier than making a bunch of slides and using an overhead projector. Owen is right about presentation skills, and illnumeracy should be added to problem.

One thing that I can see in powerpoint haters is that the learning or cognative style typically associated with powerpoint doesn't appeal to them. ". . .[W]ould be better off if . . .went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay . . . ." These activites speak to certain learning styles too but don't necessarily invalidate an instructor using powerpoint as a learning tool.

I think the reason for the PowerPoint hate is the homogenization it causes among bad presenters. Let's face it, giving an interesting talk is a skill, and a rare one at that. The ubiquity of PowerPoint makes all of those bad talks very similar, and reinforces many bad habits. Perhaps the difference is that when you had to draw your own overheads, or make your own slides, you were starting from scratch and had to actually think about what you were making. With PowerPoint, you're really just filling in the blanks. It's quicker and easier, to be sure, but that may not necessarily be a good thing.
My pet peeve is presenters who don't preview their slides on a projector. Colors look very different projected than they do on a computer screen. As someone who sits in the back of most lecture halls, the color combinations chosen by so many speakers amazes me. Turns out yellow type on a white background is kind of hard to read.

/m8 Well how about the Gettysburg address?

Mark-Jason Dominus has a presentation called 'Conference
Presentation Judo' that is a good read for avoiding many of
the common problems.

The URL is:
http://perl.plover.com/yak/presentation/

But I can't reach that site right now. Here's a movie of it
being presented which I have not tested (25megs):

http://www.perl.org/tpc/2002/movies/mjd-co...o/mjd-conf-judo.mov

If Tufte's article impressed/interested you, check out his two books Envisioning Information and Visual Explanations. I bought them and was amazed at their quality and insight.

The Byrne piece in the same Wired struck me as not necessarily the point to Tufte's Counter(Power-)point, but a traipse through ppt's art-technique.

Also, a comedian who does ppt stand-up comedy is Don McMillan, http://www.technicallyfunny.com, who does great geek comedy. I saw him at QuakeCon. Good, good stuff.

There's been a bit of buzz lately regarding PowerPoint use, misuse, and overuse.

Methinks it started with pieces in the NYer & WSJ, gathered steam at some other mags and rags, then Tufte's essay, then Wired, then every third blog.

Truth is, time has been ripe for a PPT backlash: we create 35 million presentations per day on this planet according to MSFT, and I know for a plain fact that several, maybe dozens, have graphic designers or information designers or presentation experts involved in their creation. We're shooting the messenger because of poorly crafted messages and deliveries.

Tufte has some good points, but so do Byrne and many others. Links to several of them are here:
http://tonyramos.com/Presentations%20Weblog.htm