[KLUG Advocacy] Re: Power Point makes you dumb [??]

[Adam Williams]

> Interesting idea:
> "Power Point make you dumb"
> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/14POWER.html
> Not so much critical of Power Point as such, more a comment
> on the shortcomings of the meduim.

Reading a presentation is a great deal like reading a book review - you
often learn more about the creator/reviewer than you do about the actual
topic/text.

If the creator is confused/biased/etc... the result mirrors this - I
think in the case of something like a PPT it is often simply much more
obvious than in a more formal document like a white paper.

The article is interesting but overlooks cases where -reduced- data
density is a good thing.  "Power Point" (can we say "Open Impress") is a
very good teaching tool - since you have no choice but to break things
down into simple elements.  But it is a lousy way of communicating
real-word data and all its subtlies.

Take the LDAP presentation for example.  It lays out the rudiments of a
concept like "objectclass" in a way that (hopefully) someone with no
concept of "objectclass" can wrap their head around pretty quickly. 
Then it moves into examples of real objectclasses.  Compare this to
reading the *chapters* on "objectclass" in McGraw Hill's "Designing and
implementing directory enabled networks".    But one is naturally meant
to lead into the other.  Reading Mcgraw's D&IDEN is still essential, but
MUCH easier when you already have a basic idea of "objectclass".  The
text will explain the myriad interrelationships of schema elements
better than a slide show, but can also be really confusing as it uses
those interrelationships, in part, to define what a schema element is
(which is more "truthful" but also more intimidating).