Death by PowerPoint

David Mulder | October 2008

When I first transitioned from teaching middle school math to science seven years ago, I lectured—a lot. I felt so much pressure to "cover" massive amounts of content; my teaching practice was mostly lecture. Of course, my students complained, but what was I to do? I had content to cover! At least there was one thing they didn't mind: I used presentation software to prepare my lectures. Presentation software—such as the ubiquitous PowerPoint and its slightly nicer, easier-to-use, Macintosh-flavored cousin, Keynote—offers a technological solution for producing visual aides for lectures.

With our school's newly purchased video projector, I began using PowerPoint on an almost-daily basis. As an "early adopter" in our school, I was quickly becoming known as a prolific user of technology. I even ordered a wireless clicker to control my computer from anywhere in the room. As time went on, our school purchased a few more projectors, and the one I had been using was moved from the cart to be suspended from my classroom ceiling, more-or-less permanently mounted.

Ironically, shortly after the mounting of the projector, I began to decrease my use of PowerPoint in the classroom. Why, you ask? I realized my students were not really interacting with the material presented in my lectures—they were just copying down what was written on the screen. Students in my classroom were suffering from an affliction sometimes called "Death by PowerPoint"—receiving an avalanche of content, but missing the meaning. I believe the purpose of teaching is much more than simply delivering content; we should be focused on helping our students understand new information, make meaningful connections, and apply it to novel situations. I began to discover that the good ol' whiteboard was actually a better tool for me—my frequent, technology-saturated lectures have since given way to more discussions, hands-on activities, demonstrations, and research projects.

Today, I do still use PowerPoint and my classroom video projector occasionally, but I've developed a few guidelines for their use in my classroom, which I share here:

  • I try to never lecture for more than 20 minutes in a stretch, whether using PowerPoint or not. My students don't seem to focus very well for any longer than that.
  • I don't type every word I plan to say on my slides. The slide show is a guide—a guide to students in what to write, and a guide for me in what to remember to say. If all the information in a lecture is written down, you might as well just run copies for students and read it aloud for emphasis. There will be far fewer errors due to illegible penmanship and rushed writing.
  • I try to use the "five-seven" rule—not more than five lines on a slide, not more than seven words per line. This is, of course, a guideline, but if I have more information than that, I split it into two slides.
  • I use a sound-effect based transition for each new item that comes up on a slide as an auditory cue for students who are not strong visual learners. I then don't use transitions between slides, as they seem unnecessary overkill.
  • I only use PowerPoint when there is a relative advantage for doing so. If I'm going to be using a number of graphics as part of my presentation, or including a streaming video clip, I'll use PowerPoint. If not, I'm more apt to just use the whiteboard in the front of the room.

The past two years, I've taken to using PowerPoint in a completely different way. I've begun developing "online lectures." The students are assigned to read a PowerPoint presentation online at home. Instead of writing notes on the lecture, students note their questions and comments. Then, in class, rather than lecturing and scribbling notes, we actually discuss the content of the presentation. I have found this to be a much more interactive way to get my students to discuss the content and make meaning, and at a far deeper level than was possible with me constantly talking and them writing furiously.

For an online lecture, I save the presentation as a webpage (easy to do in PowerPoint—just click on "File" and then "Save as Web Page…"), and upload it to my school website. Students must have PowerPoint viewer installed on their computer at home to view the online lecture, which is available for free at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads. (Just search for "PowerPoint Viewer," download the program, and install it.) If some students do not have Internet access at home, I simply print hard copies or give them the option of reading the lecture at school in study hall. If you'd like to see a lecture I used this past school year, visit http://www.scchristian.pvt.k12.ia.us/dmulder/8th_science/Nutrients.htm.

PowerPoint still has a place in my teaching practice, but now I've become more focused on students' understanding of the content, rather than the glitzy presentation of the content. That, I think, has made a difference; students in my classroom no longer suffer from "Death by PowerPoint."

David Mulder teaches 7th and 8th Grade Science at Sioux Center Christian School in Sioux Center, IA.