Why all-glitz and no know-how is the kiss of death

Ever watched a speaker hovering nervously by his PowerPoint comfort blanket? Jonathan Osborne has seen a few in his time...

To PowerPoint or not to PowerPoint - that is the question. You can hardly sit down at a conference these days before the lights dim, the speaker rises and you realise you are in for another PowerPoint presentation. Invariably my heart sinks. Why? Because if ever the medium obscured the message it is with the fumbling attempts to use this technology.

The lecturer has often spent hours preparing a glittering visual display. Each slide has a carefully crafted background - usually with an institution logo - and points slide into view with a monotony that dulls engagement with what really matters - what the lecturer has to say. The presenter's nervous preoccupation with the technology often leads to a lack of concentration on the message.

Presenters can be seen glancing nervously between their notes and the bullet points on the screen - at best on the portable before them, and at worst, turning their head to the screen behind them. Either way, eye contact between the lecturer and his audience is constantly interrupted.

This does not happen with the tried and trusted technology of the overhead projector because the lecturer does not have to look backwards to the screen to see what they next have to say - it is there in front of them. This technology is simple, visual contact is maintained and the presenter can concentrate on what they have to say rather than the uncertainties of the technology.

For those engaged in the presentation business, the message is simple, if you want your message to have maximum impact, apply the Kiss principle - Keep it simple, stupid. Only grapple with new technology if you are confident that it will work and that your speech can be delivered unfalteringly without reference to a screen that has suddenly dimmed because some screen saver has decided that you have not given your computer the attention it deserves.

Granted, PowerPoint does have some advantages. It forces people to put titles on their overheads. These are psychologically important as advance organisers of what is to come. It forces people to use large fonts that are readable. No longer can anybody produce those execrable, scrawled OHPs that invariably were produced by senior people who should have known better, and which were often held up by education lecturers such as myself as examples of how not to use the technology.

The electronic nature of PowerPoint presentations also has the advantage of not using expensive resources. But it has its disadvantages. For instance, it is a frame that forces a homogeneity on every presentation, and its various bells and whistles are simply visual distractions from the message. It is difficult to go back if someone in the audience asks you to put up the third OHP, which had that interesting point about "x".

If you must use PowerPoint:

* Print out the pages of slides reduced to three a page and look at the audience

* Use the printed pages to tell you what is coming next and trust the technology

* Have the computer in front of you and do not look back - maintain visual contact

* Try to get one of the devices that allows you to operate the computer at the push of a button so that you no longer have to hover within arm's length of the computer as if you were attached to it by some kind of invisible umbilical cord.

However, do not forget that the simple OHP has got a lot going for it. It is simple and it works.

After all, if you have spent Pounds 500 on an air fare and Pounds 300 on a hotel bill just to present your seminal research, what would you rather do - spend Pounds 8 on 20 colour transparencies or risk an untested technology in some foreign land with an untried computer system?

Jonathan Osborne is a senior lecturer in science education in the School of Education, King's College London.