Well, not quite but according to Aussie researchers it’s official: PowerPoint is bad for brains. "Death by Powerpoint" – that glazed and distant feeling that overwhelms you when some sales droid starts their presentation – has biological reasons.
Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia found
the brain is limited in the amount of information it can absorb – and
presenting the same information in visual and verbal form – like
reading from a typical Powerpoint slide – overloads this part of memory
and makes absorbing information more difficult.Professor Sweller said: "The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.
I don’t use words in my slides and recently have stopped using any if I can help it. It is sad that any conference organiser will automatically ask you for a presentation, usually months in advance. I always feel uncomfortable about them ’serving’ their audience potentially out-dated stuff.
