Powerfully made point
I’m sure that it was in one of those barside battles between an inkstained journalist and a squinty eyed photograper that the quote “A picture is worth a thousand words” was born. As someone that has worked both sides of the fence, my sympathies has always been with Kid Kodak. But times changes and along came the bane of meetings, the powerpoint presentation.
Turns out that when it comes to giving the audience what they really need, you aren’t helping matters with your slides that echo your spoken text. Talking points would be better as illustrative images. New research from the University of NSW (look on the flip side of your local globe) “shows the human brain processes and retains more information if it is digested in either its verbal or written form, but not both at the same time.”
Is that clear enough? While the prisoners audience are busy trying to read your exquisitely prepared slides, complete with mixed font sizes and neato transistions from one to the next, and you are enunciating as best you can to make sure the message isn’t lost in translation, the retention level is dropping. Say it again. Reading and listening are complementary activities.
So, buy a great digital camera, like I did. Forget the text editor. In fact, why not forget the powerpoint presentation altogether, and return to the slide show. Pretend you’re giving one of those armchair explorer lectures. Learning goes up. More images are given the appreciation they deserve. The sale of bad font collections goes down. We all win.
