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Subject: |
accu-general: Powerpoint... |
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Date: |
Mon, 15 Dec 2003 18:20:37 -0000 |
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OVER-RELIANCE ON POWERPOINT LEADS TO SIMPLISTIC THINKING
NASA's Columbia Accident Investigation Board has fingered the
agency's over-reliance on Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
as one of the elements leading to last February's shuttle
disaster. The Board's report notes that NASA engineers tasked
with assessing possible wing damage during the mission
presented their findings in a confusing PowerPoint slide so
crammed with bulleted items that it was almost impossible to
analyze. "It is easy to understand how a senior manager might
read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses
a life-threatening situation," says the report. NASA's
findings are echoed in a pamphlet titled "The Cognitive Style
of PowerPoint," authored by information presentation theorist
Edward Tufte, who says the software forces users to contort
data beyond reasonable comprehension. Because only about 40
words fit on each slide, a viewer can zip through a series
of slides quickly, spending barely 8 seconds on each one. And
the format encourages bulleted lists -- a "faux analytical"
technique that sidesteps the presenter's responsibility to
link the information together in a cohesive argument,
according to Tufte, who concludes that ultimately, PowerPoint
software oozes "an attitude of commercialism that turns
everything into a sales pitch." (New York Times 14 Dec 2003)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/magazine/14POWER.html
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