Guidelines to using PowerPoint
Why do schools love to teach PowerPoint? Because they can? Is that the best use of computer education dollars? More than learning how to create a nice document using styles? Wouldn’t teaching them the finer points of inserting pictures into a document benefit them more? How about starting a blog, programming, creating a picture slideshow with music, understanding how to use email effectively, guarding against SPAM, forwarding email after cleaning them up and removing CC lists. I would choose a dozen other things before teaching a kid in Elementary school how to use PowerPoint. Is my daughter going to create a powerpoint slideshow explaining the benefits of increasing her allowance? What does a kid need PowerPoint for? It reminds me when I was volunteering at SeniorNet and was sadden when I saw the syllabus. They were teaching 70 year olds that never used computers, Access Database! How about teaching them an alternative to double-clicking which to some was very difficult to do? I digress.
If you have a legitimate need to use PowerPoint. Here are some tips: