The Death of PowerPoint (or at least, text slides)

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From University of New South Wales, research that shows you should stop creating text slides in PowerPoint. Bold=my emphasis added.

If you have ever wondered why your eyes start glazing over as you read those dot points on the screen, as the same words are being spoken, take heart in knowing there is a scientific explanation.

It is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you in the written and spoken form at the same time.

The Australian researchers who made the findings may have pronounced the death of the PowerPoint presentation.

They have also challenged popular teaching methods, suggesting that teachers should focus more on giving students the answers, instead of asking them to solve problems on their own.

Pioneered at the University of NSW, the research 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.

It also questions the wisdom of centuries-old habits, such as reading along with Bible passages, at the same time they are being read aloud in church. More of the passages would be understood and retained, the researchers suggest, if heard or read separately.

The findings show there are limits on the brain’s capacity to process and retain information in short-term memory.

John Sweller, from the university’s faculty of education, developed the “cognitive load theory”.

“The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster,” Professor Sweller said. “It should be ditched.”

“It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented.“

The findings that challenge common teaching methods suggest that instead of asking students to solve problems on their own, teachers helped students more if they presented already solved problems.

“Looking at an already solved problem reduces the working memory load and allows you to learn. It means the next time you come across a problem like that, you have a better chance at solving it,” Professor Sweller said.

The working memory was only effective in juggling two or three tasks at the same time, retaining them for a few seconds. When too many mental tasks were taken on some things were forgotten.

I don’t agree with the statement, “the use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched.” This implies, 1.) all PowerPoint is text slides, and 2.) one will never use a PowerPoint presentation as a stand-alone document. As it were, if you are building your presentation correctly with the right mix of text charts and graphics, this shouldn’t be an issue at all.

All the things that were wrong…

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… with my 1995 Dodge Avenger ES:

  • Because it was so low to the ground, the front bumper cracked hard. Twice. I didn’t spend the $400 to get it fixed the second time.
  • The weather stripping on the left window did not fully cover the left window. If I didn’t lay my arm against the back edge when going through a car wash, I would get sprayed on the side of the head with soapy water.
  • To turn activate cruise control, you had to press a button to turn it on, then set it on the steering wheel. The button was tricky though. It often took me 7-10 tries of pressing it “just so” to get the light to stay on. All the while I was driving on a highway and avoiding traffic.
  • The fuel tank door stopped popping open when I pulled the lever. To get the tank door to open, I had to hold lever while someone else pushed the door open. Every time.
  • In spring, to switch to air conditioning, I had to: 1.) turn the knob from red to blue, 2.) press the “AC” button marked with a snowflake, and 3.) shift another knob near the central vent from red to green.
  • The car was unnecessarily long. And the doors were incredibly heavy, as there were only two of them.
  • And, my favorite. About 4 years after we bought the car, it started making clicking noises underneath the dashboard somewhere when I drove on the highway. Very loud clicking noises, about 4 seconds apart each. I could never find the source of that noise.

Dodge stopped making the car in 1998 or so. I learned recently that they have decided to re-release the Avenger. Guess who will not be in line to buy one.

Poor in America

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From The Economist – Free Exchange:

  • Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
  • Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
  • Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
  • The average poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
  • Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
  • Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
  • Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
  • Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.

. . . Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family’s essential needs. While this individual’s life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.

Fascinating. I’ve always been interested in what constitutes “poor”.

Forgetful

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I was a nightmare traveling this week from M-Th. The whole week I was forgetting things/accused of making others forget things.
  1. I forgot to pack three shirts Sunday night. I only packed two. I had to reuse a shirt on the last day.
  2. Monday morning, I forgot to wear a belt. Which is odd, because almost all of my pants require me to wear a belt.
  3. Also Monday morning, I wore my thick jacket to head to San Antonio. Not good, given that my contractor badge was in the pocket of my thin jacket.
  4. Wednesday I forgot my laptop bag, complete with laptop and notes, in a client’s office for over an hour.
  5. After the meeting Wednesday, my manager was driving, and even with three of us in the car we managed to go for 20 minutes in a direction before realizing we were on the wrong road.
  6. That Wednesday night we went to a downtown gym with a trial membership, but they wanted to charge us $15/person instead of the $10 that would have allowed us to expense the gym costs. Bad decision on their part, as we may have come back three times per week for the next few months. (Note: I technically didn’t forget anything here, but I was forced to waste about an hour nonetheless).
  7. Thursday morning we couldn’t find the car in the garage. We went to floors 6, 7, 8, 7, and 6 before realizing that it was on 5.
  8. I left my notebook in my room in the Westin. I only realized this after getting to the client, 20 miles away, and after #7 above.

The week isn’t over yet, so cross your fingers for me that I forget nothing else.

UPDATE: 8 forgets was enough for one week.

Santa suit

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Yesterday we noticed today that the city had put up signs that prevented street parking on our block and the next block up. Today we decided to go out for coffee in the freezing wind and snow, and noticed a large number of trailers the next block up, near the park and the old Park District building. We decided to change course and investigate.

It turns out that the trucks were movie trucks. We noticed a tall man outside, smoking a cigarette and chatting with a security guard by the Park District building entrance. The tall man was dressed head to toe in a Santa outfit. Another guard told us that that that man was Vince Vaughn, and the movie was Fred Claus.

Wish I had a camera with a good zoom lens on me.

Untraceable, uncensorable documents

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Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis.

I was just thinking about how I would post something anonymously for the world to see yesterday. Good timing! More nefarious/criminal/profitable uses: posting insider information on a company to affect the stock price in one direction or another (does anyone have a Wikipedia aggregator?)…

Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations.

Site link here.

Personalized highway billboards

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MINI USA, the company that makes Mini’s, is doing something very cool.

The idea is simple, first give MINI USA some irreverent information about yourself (nothing too personal). Then MINI USA then sends out a special keyfob (4-6 weeks after sign-up) that identifies you to each of the Motorboards you pass. When the boards detect that you are about the drive by, they deliver a personal message based on the information you originally gave.

So, if I have a Mini and drive past one of their billboards, I can have it say, “Jason, you are one handsome man!” for the world to see. In Chicago, the billboard is on 294 near O’Hare.