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The other factor is the pacing. If the lecturer is writing, on a transparency or blackboard, you can take notes at the same pace. PowerPoint allows stupid amo

by rleigh 8y ago

The other factor is the pacing. If the lecturer is writing, on a transparency or blackboard, you can take notes at the same pace. PowerPoint allows stupid amounts of information to be delivered, which just washes over you--it's too much to transcribe, and too much to digest on the fly. Writing constrains the lecturer to delivering a reasonable amount of material, so that the participants can actually focus on it and retain it. PowerPoint might be good for business proposals, sales and marketing, etc. But I personally think it's a travesty for educational use; there are few lectures I've attended which I found better for the unnecessary use of technology.

magicalhippo 8y ago
Yes, pacing is a huge factor. Written notes naturally lend themselves to be written, and with the professor writing them live, you usually have time to write them down and think about what you're writing as you go. I caught many small mistakes, missing signs etc, while taking notes. I would not have caught that when looking at some slide.
extra88 8y ago
I has a number of faculty who would print "slides" on acetate sheets to display using an overhead projector, they had the same potential for being overloaded.
- rleigh 8y ago
  It's possible to be a bad lecturer and use acetates. But physical constraints still act against it: they are bulky, you can't easily manage a lecture with 100 acetates, they have a tendency to slide onto the floor and make a jumbled mess, and they also cost money to make and take up physical space to store and move around. While you can still abuse them, these factors limit how far you can take that abuse. PowerPoint knows no bounds. I only used to print diagrams and figures onto acetates, leaving writing for the blackboard/whiteboard/blank acetates. You would use one or two for an entire session. I try to do the same with PowerPoint (well, Beamer), but some organisations increasingly mandate the whole thing be word for word on slides and stored in Blackboard for students to get. I find this wholly detrimental to the purpose of giving and attending a lecture, since it constrains the lecturer to this terrible presentation style.

by rleigh 8y ago

magicalhippo 8y ago

Yes, pacing is a huge factor. Written notes naturally lend themselves to be written, and with the professor writing them live, you usually have time to write them down and think about what you're writing as you go. I caught many small mistakes, missing signs etc, while taking notes. I would not have caught that when looking at some slide.

extra88 8y ago

I has a number of faculty who would print "slides" on acetate sheets to display using an overhead projector, they had the same potential for being overloaded.

rleigh 8y ago
It's possible to be a bad lecturer and use acetates. But physical constraints still act against it: they are bulky, you can't easily manage a lecture with 100 acetates, they have a tendency to slide onto the floor and make a jumbled mess, and they also cost money to make and take up physical space to store and move around. While you can still abuse them, these factors limit how far you can take that abuse. PowerPoint knows no bounds. I only used to print diagrams and figures onto acetates, leaving writing for the blackboard/whiteboard/blank acetates. You would use one or two for an entire session. I try to do the same with PowerPoint (well, Beamer), but some organisations increasingly mandate the whole thing be word for word on slides and stored in Blackboard for students to get. I find this wholly detrimental to the purpose of giving and attending a lecture, since it constrains the lecturer to this terrible presentation style.