Lack of critical thinking endemic in our society leads to facism

[cap]

One of the leading authorities on design: Edward Tufte

PowerPoint Is Evil

Power Corrupts.
PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely.

Years before today's slideware, presentations at companies such as IBM and in the military used bullet lists shown by overhead projectors. But the format has become ubiquitous under PowerPoint, which was created in 1984 and later acquired by Microsoft. PowerPoint's pushy style seeks to set up a speaker's dominance over the audience. The speaker, after all, is making power points with bullets to followers. Could any metaphor be worse? Voicemail menu systems? Billboards? Television? Stalin?

AP/Wide World Photos
AP/Wide World Photos
Tufte satirizes the totalitarian impact of presentation slideware.

Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials. Elementary school PowerPoint exercises (as seen in teacher guides and in student work posted on the Internet) typically consist of 10 to 20 words and a piece of clip art on each slide in a presentation of three to six slides -a total of perhaps 80 words (15 seconds of silent reading) for a week of work. Students would be better off if the schools simply closed down on those days and everyone went to the Exploratorium or wrote an illustrated essay explaining something.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

[cap]

1. include in this the assault on rationality from the religious right

intelligent design
degrading and corruption of scientific studies

[valerief]

3. Don't forget The Onion's Intelligent Falling Theory

Oh…never mind…satire.

[madeline_con]

2. Don't rely on the schools to...

teach your kids everything they need to know to succeed.

Kids can and should get a lot of education at home. Parents need to be parents again, and make time for their kids.

[bluedawg12]

4. Interesting concept:

*Is it ludite?
*Is there an agenda at work?
*Is there an intrinsic falacy here?
*Over simplied?
*Are full parahraphs overrated?

** Discuss.

hehheh...did I make my powerpoint?

[JohnnyBoots]

5. No Child Left Behind teaches kids to study for big tests, not

formulate and defend an opinion or to question and think for themselves. There is a generation of sheep coming and I think it is just what the Right wants.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Thanks for the laugh

I had never thought of PowerPoint as a fascist tool!

I'm a teacher. PowerPoint is no different than years of bulletin boards, posters, flip charts, etc., that help you teach facts in a linear fashion.

Remember that what you see of PowerPoint student work online is a product. You don't see the process that goes into it. The child has to distill which facts most important to highlight, and what order to put it in, and how best to display it, etc. The fact that he/she gets to share it online is a motivator, not an end.

And the best products are the ones that rise to the higher levels of thinking: past application and into analysis, synthesis and evaluation. So for example comparing and contrasting population of two countries, or perhaps writing a poem about an experience, or taking a poll about opinion of something. These are just a few examples of higher level thinking. But regardless, you have to get the facts across first.
And PowerPoint is just a tool.

[bluedawg12]

7. I agree grannie-

Powerpoint and bulletts are a form of outlining.

If only kids could formulate a thought and outline it.

Public education needs to be a priority in this nation, and not the support of religion based, sectarian, politically motivated, ideologically driven American madrassas.

[cap]

8. Tufte would agree with you to a point

in that a good presenter can overcome the limitations of power point. I think he's trying to say that because Powerpoint can hide some of the connections made in critical thinking that it is not good to rely on this one tool.

[cap]

9. however, this is more than just the crisis in education

it is a crisis in corporate America. Too many decisions are being made by fluff.

[DesEtoiles]

10. yup

[recycledindi]

11. that' my newest bumpersticker

Critical Thought.
The other national deficit.