Evaluation of New Media-Based Public Health Programs at International Technology Conference

Renata Schiavo, PhD, MA, Associate Professor, Director, Comunity Health/COMHE Program at CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College. 

The 2011 Seventh International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society was held at Universidad del País Vasco – Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea Bilbao, Spain from 25-27 March 2011. The conference and its associated journal were created to provide a transdisciplinary forum that examines the relationship between technology, knowledge and its societal context. This is a forum that brings together a diverse range of researchers, teachers and practitioners. It serves as a meeting point for technologists and those who may work in non-technological areas, but are nevertheless concerned with the social impact and import of technology.  In addition to its plenary sessions, the conference also includes virtual presentations to expand its reach and to include presenters who may not be able to attend in person.

Avoiding Death by Powerpoint for Academics

Have you ever sat through a meeting and endured the pain of a text-heavy slide that the presenter then reads verbatim the text on the slides?

This sort of drivingly dull exercise is how the vast majority of academic presentations go.  The use of presentation software, most often the Microsoft-branded Powerpoint, ends up being a slow, painful experience widely known as “death by powerpoint.”

My own personal (anti-)favorite version of this is the text-filled slide, built using one of the standard, awful templates that come packaged with Powerpoint (PPT), that the presenter then *reads* to the audience with their back turned to everyone in the room while they look at the slides (as in the image here).   This is not only insulting (I’m not an idiot – but I feel like one when you read to me) it’s also a very ineffective way to communicate a message.  People can’t actually read and listen at the same time, or – they can, but they end up getting less of what you’re trying to get across to them.

To avoid this, academics doing presentations need to think differently about their use of slides.  A much more effective use of slides is to consider them visual illustrations of the key points you want to make.   Begin to think of your presentation as a “slide deck” filled with images and a little text, rather than a way to dump a huge bunch of text.