Educational Leadership - February 2011

gathers information, eliminates extraneous points, and selects the direction and duration of the presentation.

The role of the audience is to sit and absorb the information. Yes, they may ask questions, but typically only those queries that directly relate to the slides are deemed worthy of responses. What happens to thoughts and ideas that are not part of the presentation? This approach does little to promote creative thinking—or any thinking at all.

In fairness, teachers must always edit information when creating a lesson, simply because there would be no end to it if we fully examined each discipline’s nearly infinite breadth and depth. However, more than an “ old-fashioned” lesson, a PowerPoint presentation conveys to students that there are only two types of information: things we need to know (what is on the slides) and things we do not need to know (everything else). Faced with that visual cue, only the bravest—or brightest— students will challenge the rigidity of the presentation. Thus, facts travel from the teacher, to the PowerPoint slide, to the students’ notes with little or no opportunity for discussion, analysis, or evaluation.

While students mindlessly copy the slides’ bullet points into their notebooks, teachers frequently lecture. Who can blame them? It would be incredibly boring to watch students copy notes. Inevitably, the slower students negotiate for more time to copy, while the speedier kids (or those who don’t even bother to work) sit idly by. The teacher must now select among the following three undesirable options: create down time for some, speak while students are otherwise engaged in copying, or move on to the next slide, leaving the slower students behind.

of the six chalkboard panels covered with chart paper. The bell rings and the teacher begins his lesson on cell reproduction. As he speaks, he tears off the first piece of paper to reveal the definition of mitosis. The students, in true Pavlovian fashion, scramble for their pens and begin copying.

The teacher then removes another
piece of paper, which reveals a display
of the various steps of mitosis. This
time, he makes a cool “vroom!” sound
as he takes down the paper. Perhaps a
hand-drawn diagram accompanies the
and perhaps the easiest target of all, is
the era of high-stakes testing. It started
long before No Child Left Behind,
although that legislation poured
gasoline on the fire. PowerPoint is a
very effective tool for deftly “covering”
material.

The root problem of PowerPoint presentations is not the power or the point, but the presentation.

bulleted text. The teacher repeats this pattern (alternating sound effects) until all six panels are exposed and the day’s class notes are fully visible. By the dismissal bell, the teacher has explained cell reproduction, and the students have filled several pages with notes.

How would you rate this lesson? Allow me to help out: This is essentially a poorly constructed PowerPoint presentation without the computer. It has not encouraged students to investigate, inquire, or engage in critical thinking. The teacher may erroneously believe that he has somehow injected life into the monotony of copying bulleted information by using gimmicks, such as sound effects. Unfortunately, far too many lessons now unfold in this manner.

complex directives to a handful of
bulleted slides. Brigadier General
H. R. McMaster called PowerPoint an
internal threat. McMaster told the Times
reporter,
It’s dangerous because it can create the
illusion of understanding and the illusion
of control. Some problems in the world
are not bullet-izable. (p. A1)

Vroom!

Imagine the following scenario: You, a school administrator, enter a high school biology classroom and find each

“Covering” Material
or Dumbing It Down?
Why have so many lessons, in so
many classrooms, in so many schools
devolved in this fashion? One reason,
Many classroom teachers are making
the same errors that corporals and
generals are making—attempting to
convey convoluted and difficult infor-
mation without first teaching learners
the skills required to comprehend these
higher-level constructs. Whether they
are learning about cell reproduction or
the strategy for securing the Swat Valley,
people need to understand concepts.
Dumbing information down promotes
less understanding, not more.