Pandemic Strikes Lectures, Military Briefings, Professional Development

Across the world students are nodding off in lecture halls, executives are yawning in boardrooms, military personnel are being anesthetized at briefings, committees are being put to sleep in offices by infected carriers unaware of their condition. Here is the diagnosis, and the cure.

San Diego, CA, September 17, 2009 --(PR.com)-- In his latest article on Teachers.Net, Tim Newlin alerts readers to the symptoms driving more and more victims to enroll in PPA (Power Point Anonymous) and offers tips for the cure for Powerpoint Pandemic. His article identifies the problems and provides simple but ingenious tips to become a better presenter.

http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/tim-newlin/powerpoint-pandemic

Newlin observes that all across the world students are nodding off in lecture halls, executives are yawning in boardrooms, military personnel are being anesthetized at briefings, and committees are being put to sleep in government offices by infected carriers that are unaware of their condition.

Most of us, he says, have been exposed many times and have woken up afterwards wondering where we were and what happened. Some of us may even be already infected. The PPA (Power Point Anonymous) gives us a list of 12 character symptoms to watch out for:

They say nothing until something comes up on the screen.
They spend all their time talking with their backs to the audience.
They speak in a monotone voice with no breaks and no rhythm.
They have no eye contact with the audience.
They have body language says “I don’t want to be here.”
They fidget with a pointer or clicker while fumbling through slides.
They fill slides with too many bullet points.
They use too many charts and graphs.
They use too many clip-art clichés.
They try to communicate too much too fast causing info-overload.
They have little patience with questions and explanations.
They believe that detailed, visual data will somehow be absorbed into the brains of their audience.

According to Newlin, Power Point and other visual aides are great, but they won’t make you a great speaker. It is how they are used that matters. Molon, Cicero’s oratory master, once told him that in public speaking content had little to do with success. Molon said oratory success was based on three things; Delivery, delivery, and delivery!

But how can you improve your public speaking – your delivery? How can you help stop the PowerPoint Pandemic? Here is a checklist and some hints and tricks that should make your next presentation one that will not put people to sleep.

Read the rest of Tim Newlin's Teachers.Net article at
http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/tim-newlin/powerpoint-pandemic

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