Is there power in PowerPoint? A field test of the efficacy of PowerPoint on memory and recall of religious sermons

The purpose of this study was to determine if the use of PowerPoint as an information communication tool would enhance recall of information presented in a non-classroom field setting. We examined the effect of PowerPoint on the recall of information presented in religious sermons. Three test conditions were examined: (1) PowerPoint slides containing words only, (2) slides containing visual images only, and (3) slides containing both words and visual images, along with a control condition in which information was presented without the use of the PowerPoint slides. In addition, we tested the type of information recall: information about the slides, information about the slide content, and general recall of information from the sermon. While there were limited differences in recall based on the treatment conditions and the type of information being recalled, overall the use of the PowerPoint slides did not appear to have a significant effect on subjects’ ability to recall information. We conclude that greater effort must be made to understand the effects of PowerPoint presentations on human memory and cognition.     

The role of interest and images in slideware presentations

With the advent of technologies that allow lecturers to develop presentations using software such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, and OpenOffice Impress (referred to generically here as “slideware”), lectures and meetings are beginning to resemble cinematic experiences rather than the text filled transactions that have been the norm for the last decade. Unfortunately, there has been little research on slideware use. Furthermore, literature on this topic indicates that lectures typically do little to encourage elaborative thinking. To address this gap in the literature, we tested 90 participants who each viewed a lecture on the visual system that consisted of three different styles of presentation: (1) Image Congruent: presenting images that were relevant to the target information, (2) Image Incongruent: presenting images that were relevant to the narration but not the target information and, (3) Text Based: presenting text summaries of the narration. Throughout each of these conditions, participants provided ratings of interest and then completed a quiz to measure recognition, recall and transfer. Our results revealed that participants were more interested in the image-rich slides than bullet points, and that accuracy (but not interest) depended on whether the images were relevant to the content of the lecture or not.     

In defense of PowerPoint

Some minor computing issues become major when repeatedly made public. The denigration of PowerPoint is such an issue, one that, like influenza, seems to come in seasonal waves. PowerPoint is no more responsible for bad presentations. Computing professionals who blame their machinery for their failures set a bad example for computer users already prone to using the computer as a scapegoat. Professionals, not the software packages they use, are responsible for the presentations they make. Countering silly arguments about PowerPoint requires a full appreciation of presentation technology and of the uses to which it might be put. PowerPoint is just presentation technology's latest iteration and will eventually be replaced by something else.     

Information retention from PowerPoint and traditional lectures

The benefit of PowerPoint^™ is continuously debated, but both supporters and detractors have insufficient empirical evidence. Its use in university lectures has influenced investigations of PowerPoint’s effects on student performance (e.g., overall quiz/exam scores) in comparison to lectures based on overhead projectors, traditional lectures (e.g., “chalk-and-talk”), and online lectures. Thus far, comparisons of overall exam scores have yielded mixed results. The present study decomposes overall quiz scores into auditory, graphic, and alphanumeric scores to reveal new insights into effects of PowerPoint presentations on student performance. Analyses considered retention of lecture information presented to students without the presence of PowerPoint (i.e., traditional lecture), auditory information in the presence of PowerPoint, and visual (i.e., graphic and alphanumeric) information displayed on PowerPoint slides. Data were collected from 62 students via quiz and questionnaire. Students retained 15% less information delivered verbally by the lecturer during PowerPoint presentations, but they preferred PowerPoint presentations over traditional presentations.     

Expressions of disciplinarity and individuality in a multimodal genre

Recent research has illuminated some of the ways in which multilingual writers project multiple identities in their writing, conveying disciplinary allegiances as well as more personal expressions of individuality. Such work has focused on the writers’ uses of various verbal expressions, but has to this point overlooked the ways in which they manipulate the visual mode as a means for identity expression. The present study examines expressions of identity in a corpus of multimodal texts written by four multilingual graduate student writers. I consider how the writers’ uses of various verbal and visual expressions in their Microsoft PowerPoint presentation slides project both disciplinarity and individuality and how each individual's habitus has been influenced by both the discourses they have encountered and their personal reactions towards those discourses.     

An Algebra for PowerPoint Sources

There are now millions of PowerPoint documents available within corporate intranets and/or over the Internet. In this paper, we develop a formal model of PowerPoint databases. We propose a relational style algebra called pptA (PowerPoint Algebra) to query PowerPoint databases. The algebra contains some new operators (such as the APPLY operator that changes properties of objects, slides and presentations) as well as interesting twists on relational operators (e.g. join and cartesian product allow different entities being joined together to share attributes whose values may be merged). We prove a set of equivalence results within this algebra. We have implemented a version of pptA—the paper provides a cost model and experimental results on the conditions under which these equivalences are useful.     

在PowerPoint中整合Flash动画技术全攻略

在PowerPoint中整合Flash技术可以为演示文稿加入动画效果和交互控制,使作品更加生动直观,增强其感染力和生命力。可是在PowerPoint中并没有提供直接插入Flash动画的方法和播放控制技术,利用FlashPlayer播放器和ShockwaveFlash Object的ActiveX控件,提出三种插入Flash动画的方法;利用ActiveX控件和Office中的VBA实现动画的播放控制。     

An assessment of student preferences for PowerPoint presentation structure in undergraduate courses

Studies have demonstrated that students prefer PowerPoint and respond favorably to classes when it is used. Few studies have addressed the physical structure of PowerPoint. In this study, students enrolled in several psychology classes on two campuses completed a 36 item questionnaire regarding their preferences for the use of PowerPoint in the classroom. Students preferred the use of key phrase outlines, pictures and graphs, slides to be built line by line, sounds from popular media or that support the pictures or graphics on the slide, color backgrounds, and to have the lights dimmed. It is recommended that professors pay attention to the physical aspects of PowerPoint slides and handouts to further enhance students’ educational experience.     

Comics: A Medium in Transition

More than any other popular art form, comics are sensitive to the formats, platforms, and devices that connect them to readers. How can this unique medium communicate content effectively when all assumptions about its form are up for grabs? Author and comics artist Scott McCloud puts a blizzard of new trends into perspective in a fast‐moving visual presentation.     

Slide presentations as speech suppressors: When and why learners miss oral information

The objective of this study was to test whether information presented on slides during presentations is retained at the expense of information presented only orally, and to investigate part of the conditions under which this effect occurs, and how it can be avoided. Such an effect could be expected and explained either as a kind of redundancy effect due to excessive cognitive load caused by simultaneous presentation of oral and written information, or as a consequence of dysfunctional allocation of attention at the expense of oral information occurring in learners with a high subjective importance of slides. The hypothesized effect and these potential explanations were tested in an experimental study. In courses about literature search and access, 209 university students received a presentation accompanied either by no slides or by regular or concise PowerPoint slides. The retention of information presented orally and of information presented orally and on slides was measured separately in each condition and standardized for comparability. Cognitive load and subjective importance of slides were also measured. The results indicate a “speech suppression effect” of regular slides at the expense of oral information (within and across conditions), which cannot be explained by cognitive overload but rather by dysfunctional allocation of attention, and can be avoided by concise slides. It is concluded that theoretical approaches should account for the allocation of attention below the threshold of cognitive overload and its role for learning, and that a culture of presentations with concise slides should be established.     

利用Application对象事件实现动态设定演示文稿放映内容

PowerPoint通过Application对象提供了作用于演示文稿、幻灯片和演示文稿窗口等非控件的对象的事件。但是对这些事件的编程与对其他标准控件的事件的编程不同,必须要先在类模块里用WithEvents关键字申明一个Application对象,并在另一个标准模块的初始化例程里实例化该类模块和Application对象,然后才能实现对Application对象的事件的编程。可以利用Application对象的幻灯片放映事件来实现在PowerPoint放映时动态设定放映内容。     

Tracking learners' visual attention during a multimedia presentation in a real classroom

The purpose of the study was to investigate university learners' visual attention during a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation on the topic of “Dinosaurs” in a real classroom. The presentation, which lasted for about 12–15 min, consisted of 12 slides with various text and graphic formats. An instructor gave the presentation to 21students whose eye movements were recorded by the eye tracking system. Participants came from various science departments in a national university in Taiwan, of which ten were earth-science majors (ES) and the other 11 were assigned to the non-earth-science group (NES). Eye movement indicators, such as total time spent on the interest zone, fixation count, total fixation duration, percent time spent in zone, etc., were abstracted to indicate their visual attention. One-way ANOVA as well as t-test analysis was applied to find the associations between the eye movement data and the students' background as well as different formats of PPT slides. The results showed that the students attended significantly more to the text zones on the PPT slides and the narrations delivered by the instruction. Nevertheless, the average fixation duration, indicating the average information processing time, was longer on the picture zones. In general, the ES students displayed higher visual attention than the NES students to the text zones, but few differences were found for the picture zones. When the students viewed those slides containing scientific hypotheses, the difference in attention distributions between the text and pictures reduced. Further analyses of fixation densities and saccade paths showed that the ES students were better at information decoding and integration.     

PowerPoint电子讲义的"迷航"问题及其解决策略

PowerPoint电子讲义(下简称PPT)是如今学校课堂教学中非常常用的媒体形式和教学资源整合工具,许多学科教师的教学从某种程度上已十分依赖这一软件工具,但其对教学内容以页面为单位的呈现方式,却容易使学生在听讲过程中出现"迷航"现象.本文结合自身的教学实践,对PPT制作和使用中的"迷航"问题提出了几种解决策略和实用的建议.     

Visual programming with analogical representations: Inspirations from a semiotic analysis of comics

Analogical representations based on pictures of domain objects can be used in visual programming to provide a close mapping between the program and the resulting runtime display, which can make programming easier for children and other users. The use of graphical rewrite rules with before and after pictures is an example of this approach. Graphical rewrite rules have some similarities with comics strips, which also use picture sequences of graphical objects to describe dynamics in a static form. However, the visual language of comics is not used to its full potential in visual programming. We discuss how a semiotic analysis of comics can be used to address some of the limitations of graphical rewrite rules. We use a visual programming system we have designed to illustrate that comic strips can express more general computations and be more intuitive and flexible than traditional graphical rewrites. Our conclusion is that the visual language of comics has a strong potential for increasing the expressiveness and flexibility of visual programming with analogical representations of domain objects, while maintaining a direct mapping between the program representation and the runtime representation.     

Personalized presentation annotations using optical HMDs

It is difficult to adjust the content of traditional slide presentations to the knowledge level, interest and role of individuals. This might force presenters to include content that is irrelevant for part of the audience, which negatively affects the knowledge transfer of the presentation. In this work, we present a prototype that is able to eliminate non-pertinent information from slides by presenting annotations for individual attendees on optical head-mounted displays. We first create guidelines for creating optimal annotations for HMDs by evaluating several types of annotations alongside different types of slides. Then we evaluate the knowledge acquisition of presentation attendees using the prototype versus traditional presentations. Our results show that annotations with a limited amount of information, such as text up to 5 words, can significantly increase the amount of knowledge gained from attending a group presentation. Additionally, presentations where part of the information is moved to annotations are judged more positively on attributes such as clarity and enjoyment.

     

Notebook与Word的通信及其在教学中的应用

本文介绍了Microsoft Word与Madab Notebook之间的通信过程,M-book模板的创建和启动,以及Notebook的功能和使用方法,通过Word和Notebook的交互,可以在Word中实现可视化编辑,并方便地在电子讲义中实现文本和图像结合,丰富教学内容.     

The dynamics of IT boundary objects,information infrastructures,and organisational identities: the introduction of 3D modelling technologies into the architecture,engineering, and construction industry

In recent years, more companies engage in collaborative cross-organisational practices to achieve their business objectives. To cooperate effectively across boundaries requires organisations to overcome the tension between their distinct backgrounds and the need to create shared understandings with their partners for collaboration. This requires the creation of shared artefacts such as boundary objects. Whereas the past work on boundary objects has highlighted their role as translation devices, we examine them in relation to the information infrastructures within which they are embedded, and the identities of the organisations that use them. We propose a model that outlines the relationships among the three concepts and illustrate its dynamics by presenting two case studies that describe the introduction of three-dimensional modelling technologies into the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. Based on the case studies we suggest that boundary objects, in addition to facilitating cross-organisational communication, also help to form organisational identities. We further suggest the occurrence of a process whereby changes in boundary objects enable changes in information infrastructures and identities in one organisation. These changes, in turn, create the conditions for change in bordering organisations through shared boundary objects and boundary practices.     

计算机辅助教学实时圈点系统的设计与实现

在计算机辅助教学过程中,教师们经常会用到教学课件的实时圈点功能。该文设计了一个计算机辅助教学实时圈点系统,并利用VB加以实现。该系统能使PowerPoint课件在演示时用规则的图形(如直线、方框、圆圈、椭圆等)进行实时圈点,有效的弥补了在PowerPoint软件中只能进行涂鸦式画线圈点的不足。并且,该系统还能实现作为多媒体教学课件有效补充的其他常见类型文档(如Word文档、Excel文档、Acrobat文档、文本文档、图片文档等)的规则图形实时圈点。