Pros and Cons of PowerPoint

Microsoft's PowerPoint slideware has recently come under criticismfrom educators, a segment on National Public Radio, and a piece in Wired magazine. PowerPoint's detractors suggest that slideware teaches children to think in "bullet points" rather than in depth and to value flashy effects over information.

Most students and educators can explain what can make many PowerPoint presentations bad- the speaker simply reading off of the slides, visuals such as graphs that don't actually convey information, and having to sit in a dark room while staring at repetitive slides.

I feel that PowerPoint can actually be one of the most helpful types of software used in the classroom. I wasn't introduced to the experience of a PowerPoint presentation until my science classes at Governor's School. I usually found that these presentations helped me to keep up with lectures my teachers were giving since I am a visual learner and my mind tends to wander while listening to a speaker with no visual cues. In college I have seen a clear difference in my own performance in lecture-based classes and classes that combined lectures and PowerPoint. I generally understand a lot more in classes with PowerPoint presentations because they help me know what information I need to put in my notes. PowerPoint could be a good way to guide elementary school students as they learn to take notes for themselves.

In high school we also had to give a PowerPoint presentation to teachers and students as part of our annual research project. I value this experience because it taught me about presenting information in a way that targets multiple cognitive styles and about how to determine which information was most important for my audience to take away from my research- a skill that will be valuable when I am a teacher. I also came to appreciate one of PowerPoint's features- the ability to print out slides onto overhead transparencies- when I was preparing my presentation for the Virginia Junior Academy of Sciences and they informed us that unlike other institutions that had hosted VJAS in the past, UVa was NOT supplying computers or projectors. Using PowerPoint, I was able to make transparencies that would hold the audience's attention.