A recent article in the Armed Forces Journal discusses the destructive use of PowerPoint — in terms of thinking and decision making. Here is a short excerpt and a link the full article called “Dumb-Dumb Bullets” by T.X. Hammes (Retired Marine Corps)

Every year, the services spend millions of dollars teaching our people how to think. We invest in everything from war colleges to noncommissioned officer schools. Our senior schools in particular expose our leaders to broad issues and historical insights in an attempt to expose the complex and interactive nature of many of the decisions they will make.

Unfortunately, as soon as they graduate, our people return to a world driven by a tool that is the antithesis of thinking: PowerPoint. Make no mistake, PowerPoint is not a neutral tool — it is actively hostile to thoughtful decision-making. It has fundamentally changed our culture by altering the expectations of who makes decisions, what decisions they make and how they make them. While this may seem to be a sweeping generalization, I think a brief examination of the impact of PowerPoint will support this statement.

The last point, how we make decisions, is the most obvious. Before PowerPoint, staffs prepared succinct two- or three-page summaries of key issues. The decision-maker would read a paper, have time to think it over and then convene a meeting with either the full staff or just the experts involved to discuss the key points of the paper. Of course, the staff involved in the discussion would also have read the paper and had time to prepare to discuss the issues. In contrast, today, a decision-maker sits through a 20-minute PowerPoint presentation followed by five minutes of discussion and then is expected to make a decision. Compounding the problem, often his staff will have received only a five-minute briefing from the action officer on the way to the presentation and thus will not be well-prepared to discuss the issues. This entire process clearly has a toxic effect on staff work and decision-making.

For the complete article, go to http://www.afji.com/2009/07/4061641.

How are you using PowerPoint? What affect is your use of PowerPoint having on the thinking and decision-making skills of those who experience your presentations? What recommendations do you have for effective use of PowerPoint in teaching and learning?

“An April 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project shows that 56% of adult Americans have accessed the Internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player. The most prevalent way people get online using a wireless network is with a laptop computer; 39% of adults have done this.”

“The report also finds rising levels of Americans using the internet on a mobile handset. One-third of Americans (32%) have used a cell phone or Smartphone to access the Internet for emailing, instant-messaging, or information-seeking. This level of mobile internet is up by one-third since December 2007, when 24% of Americans had ever used the internet on a mobile device. On the typical day, nearly one-fifth (19%) of Americans use the Internet on a mobile device, up substantially from the 11% level recorded in December 2007. That’s a growth of 73% in the 16 month interval between surveys.” . . .

Wireless internet access using other devices, though much less common than with laptops or handhelds, has a foothold among some Americans. The April 2009 survey found that:

• 45% of adults have iPods or MP3 players and 5% of all adults have used such a device to go online.
• 41% of adults have game consoles and 9% of adults have used it to access the Internet.
• 14% of adults have a personal digital assistant (PDA), and 7% of adults have used it for online access.
• 2% of adults have an e-book (i.e., a Kindle or Sony reader) and 1% of adults have used it to get online.

The complete study is available at http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-Wireless-Internet-Use.aspx

What opportunities does an increased access to the Internet on mobile devices afford teaching and learning in higher education? Leave a comment with your ideas!

NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center has been offering online faculty development programs now for nearly a year.  Not only can faculty/staff or TAs from any institution participate in these free online workshops, but archives are made available for on-demand viewing online.

With the recent upgrade of the Wimba Classroom collaboration tool that powers these online workshops, archives are now also available in podcast form and available for download from iTunes for viewing offline on a computer or a mobile media player, such as an iPod Touch or iPhone.

Now, in addition to faculty/staff and TAs being able to view any of our recorded online programs online at http://www.niu.edu/facdev/programs/archives.shtml program archives are available in iTunes by subscribing to the podcast at  http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=326308196

Soon, anyone searching “NIU Faculty Development” in iTunes on either their computer or iPod/iPhone will be able to subscribe and download any of our archived online programs.

NIU Media Services will offer training on the use of the audiovisual equipment in Provost-sponsored smart classrooms. Both new and returning faculty and graduate teaching assistants should benefit from these brief seminars, which also will include information about any recent changes to the equipment in the rooms.

The training will be held from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 19, and Thursday, Aug. 20, in DuSable Hall, Room 348, or by appointment Friday, Aug. 21 – call (815) 753-0172.

These seminars are open-ended and run continually so you won’t miss a thing no matter when you drop by. A complete demonstration with hands-on practice could take 30 minutes. If you cannot attend one of the above sessions, contact Keith Bisplinghoff at (815) 753-0172 for other training opportunities.

While RSS is nearly ubiquitous across the Web today, many people unfortunately are still unfamiliar with how feed readers can save time and be used to stay updated on news from favorite sites. For those who aren’t ready to use a feed reader, they can still reap the benefits of having news from RSS-enabled sites delivered to them via email using a free service like FeedMyInbox.

FeedMyInbox is a very simple service that attempts to bridge the gap between feeds (RSS, XML, Atom) and email. Click here to read more how it works.

For anyone who isn’t yet ready to make the jump to an RSS reader but still wants to receive updates from a blog, news site, twitter feed, or any other RSS-enabled site, give FeedMyInbox a try.

Have you found another RSS to email tool that you recommend? Leave a comment with your suggestion!