One of my most interesting experiences using a tablet PC was attending classes at a nearby university. I have two real passions at this stage of my life: the history of industrial technology in pre 1900's California; and,the development of new web-based businesses by college-aged entrepreneurs. Fortunately for me, I have a strong tie to a local Polytechnic University known for its philosophy of "Learn by Doing."
What I've discovered over the last six months is the growing use of PowerPoint presentations to distribute lecture material. And, not surprisingly, students have turned presentation graphics into two-way communications tools by annotating slides. This is far different model than your average high technology Presentation Graphics dog and pony show, where you, as an audience of one, are forced to hear a monotonous list of every item lon a landscape oriented page from a deck.
In my career, I had sat through so many tedious Power Point presentations that I had become enraged. I wanted to yell" "shut up and just tell me about your product" and one at least two occasions, I just closed the lid on an offending notebook, and asked the presenter to “tell me about your company and its product.”
I know it was rude of me to close that notebook, but the budding entrepreneur would not move off point. I ended up inviting the company to Demo 2000, and it was largely because I was able to get them off script and to tell me what they really wanted to do. It's been my experience that contract-marketing people from public relations agencies may be the largest single class of presentation graphics offenders. Most lack a thorough understanding of their client's underlying technology and revert to timeworn buzzwords and catch phrases.
So what I discovered at this little no-nonsense polytechnic university was the use of presentation decks that were clearly worded and not overloaded with information. The effect of this was to bring me back to the First Church of PowerPoint. My born again acceptance of this technology has been gradual. It started the first time I sat in a class, looking at a Power Point deck on my Thinkpad X41 tablet PC. With the Presentation deck open, I started making comments and noting questions using my own form of short hand and the onscreen keyboard.
At that moment I became aware that PowerPoint had gone from being a one-way conduit to a two-way thoroughfare. And most students who were using notebooks were doing the same thing. At the end of the discussion, the students presenting their business plan asked for questions and were immediately besieged by Microsoft OneNote files and copies of their PowerPoint presentation.
What the hell, someone wants to keep presentation graphics files? In my last year working I distinctly remember gleefully throwing away three trash baskets full of printed PowerPoint decks (representing one month's of meetings). Today, I have a neatly organized file of presentations that I've retained because of my intellectual involvement in the material.
But what has really made me a true believer in presentation graphics have been the pitches and explanations of proposed web-based businesses I’ve seen in college classrooms. Although the students I met were well versed in the concept of an "elevator pitches" their Power Point decks were incredibly lean and remarkably free of business school and technology jargon. One project in particular made a lasting impression on me: an agricultural products portal that covered everything from the roots up: weather reports and predictions, current crop prices, futures, links to transportation sites, fertilizer and chemical suppliers, seed and stock suppliers, bankers, and strong integrated email and chat functions. In short it had everything a smart young agriculturalist needs to manage their business and stay in touch with their partners. But what was most striking to me was the language. It was straightforward and business-like with none of the ambiguity that marks most technology PowerPoint decks I’ve seen over the last 15 years.
What I’ve seen in PowerPoint decks used in non business school university settings are slides that engage the audience. They don’t wear viewers down like a grindstone, they pull the audience in and turn what’s normally a one-way experience into an controlled dialog.
And that’s why I‘ve bought a pew in Reformed PowerPoint Congregation. But I had to get away from Silicon Valley to experience this rebirth. Part of the reason for my change of heart has been my migration to a tablet PC and my adoption of Microsoft OneNote. I rather like viewing PowerPoint decks on a tablet PC and I’ve become quite adept at using the pop up on-screen keyboard for entering queries and comments I have on material that’s being presented.
There’s another plus for me. As a result of my stroke my ADD has become more of a problem. By viewing only one page at a time on the screen of my little Lenovo X41 I’m less likely to wander off to intellectual fantasyland.
Anecdotally, I’ve noticed that tablet PCs are making gradual inroads on college campuses. While most of the machines I see in the business classes I’ attend are conventional 6-pound notebooks from HP and Dell, I have ounted two other X41’s, a Gateway tablet and a Toshiba M400. Over in the engineering school, tablet PCs are more numerous, most of those machines appear to be Fujitsu tablets or first generation HP 1110’s. But regardless of the manufacturer, tablet PCs are making their way steadily onto college campuses. Ands god knows, I’d rather tote a sub five pound computer to four classes a day, than hump a nine pound notebook and have to fight other students for the limited power supplies in the floor next to a hard college student desk.—Jim Forbes from plain old Azusa, CA, on a hot summer night (07/22/2006).
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