Bite Size Comms

“Death by PowerPoint”. A phrase that has been around for a couple of decades. Yet many of us still produce PowerPoint or Apple Keynote decks with loads of slides. I was just reading an article on FT Edit about the history of PowerPoint. Fascinating in itself and something to bore learners with, “Do you know when and where PowerPoint was first used….etc”. It got me thinking about how we use the tool, rather than the technology itself. In the article the author says a great talk starts with a message. Everything else should support the message. It doesn’t start with the 50 bullet points one should get across to an audience.

I rarely use PowerPoint/Keynote as I am not compelled to have slide decks and handouts. I rarely hold webinars nowadays. I prefer holding a focus group-like discussion in which I prompt and write on an online whiteboard (thank you Apple Freeform). PowerPoint seems so anti-immersive as a learning tool.

With fellow Cambridge Marketing College tutors on Wednesday, we used the backdrop of an air museum to re-examine how we teach learners. Some really fascinating ideas came out of the day. I think there is an important piece of work in revising the learning preferences/styles model to fit modern society and especially Gen Z. They are the future (that sounds like a political slogan!). We need to move away from PowerPoint presentations in the same way that some of us reduce our dependency on email. Next person who sends me a “Did you receive my email I sent yesterday” will get a rude response! Gen Z prefer direct messaging. It is quicker and more direct. Enough rambling, I hope this has given food for thought to anyone who got this far in reading. Brevity is another trend!

[Image: Unsplash]