Legal Commentary

One of the questions that seems to commonly arise among law faculty is the effectiveness of PowerPoint in the classroom.  Dan had a good post on the topic a few years ago,  My colleague, Dave Fagundes, wrote an interesting post about his conversion (sort of) to PowerPoint as an effective tool.  Howard Wasserman, a few weeks ago, made a "modest proposal" to ban PowerPoint and laptop use altogether.  Howard notes that he's on record "as loathing PowerPoint for just about all purposes." Eric Johnson in 2008 suggested professors should "smash your PowerPoint -- use freemind."  A number of other webpages discuss the benefits and pitfalls of using PowerPoint, or provide tips on how to use it effectively.  I thought I would weigh in on what has become a perennial debate.

Somewhat similar to the debate over laptops in the classroom, professors (and students) have starkly different and fiercely held opinions as to the benefits or detriments of PowerPoint.  Some believe PowerPoint use is perilous.  That slides cater to oversimplification -- the reduction of everything to bullets -- and destroys class interaction.  Others are skeptical unless the slides are limited to pictures, photos and video, so as to cater to visual leaners.  Others embrace PowerPoint as a way to increase engagement and keep the material presented organized, as well as a way to focus the professor. I tend to take a middle position: that PowerPoint when used well can be very effective, but often is used poorly.  Here are my tips (probably common wisdom, or even obvious) on: (1) what to avoid when using PowerPoint; and (2) some uses that I have found beneficial in the classroom.

First,  to avoid....

Reading the Slides:  In my opinion, professors should never just read verbatim from the slides.  The slides should complement the classroom interaction and presentation, but not substitute for it.  Everyone can read.  If a professor is just reading from a slide, it's a waste of time.

Turning Your Back to the Class:  Professors don't have eyes in the back of their heads, but professors should either  be sufficiently comfortable with the material that we don't need to look at the screen constantly, or professors should position their computer so they may glance at it without turning constantly away from class. PowerPoint seems best used when it complements the class interaction or lecture in a visual way.

Complexity:  Some professors overuse animation, transitions, and color features so that the presentation is a Technicolor swirl of images and text jumping in an out.  Kaleidoscopic changes between slides are rarely that interesting.  Usually excessive fonts, colors, animation, transitions, sounds etc., is a sign of a novice who is just learning PowerPoint.  I'd also recommend cutting the strange fonts and keep the slides simple and clean looking.(these days, with high resolution projectors a white background with black text looks pretty good).

Death by PowerPoint: If the slides are so detailed they provide all the lecture's information, I'm not sure the point.  There's a danger that the class can change from an interaction to a series of mind-numbing presentations.  And if there's too much information on the slides, students will spend the class madly typing everything on the slide verbatim.

And some good uses for PowerPoint...

Statutory Language:  I find if I'm talking about a specific statute or code provision, having the provision on a slide can make the class run much smoother.  Trying to get every student in a large class to focus on a statutory provision from the casebook will often lead to confusion ("What page was that again professor?").  Having the key language on the slides ensures that everyone is looking at the same thing.

Multiple Choice Questions/Hypos:  PowerPoint is great as a way to give short hypotheticals in a multiple-choice format (particularly if you are using a CPS/class polling-type system).  Students appreciate the ability to go back and have practice questions to work with.

Basic Topic Outline:  As long as it's not too detailed, I find the slides useful for giving students an overview of things to come.  It can keep class organized and focused.

Visuals:  Sometimes cases are easier to understand with visuals.  I've found this particularly true when a case turns on some geographic issue (in which case a map is helpful).  It's also helpful if the case involves complex litigation and I want to show the case structure and how the parties are aligned.

A final point.  Before using PowerPoint its useful to know you're school's equipment (how good are the projectors, do they have a high resolution, is the screen clean, and what is the screen's size).  If the equipment is good, you usually don't need excessively large fonts for the presentation to be easily readable.  Before you spend time using subtle font colors, you also want to ensure that those colors will appear on the screen. 

Anyway, those are my quick thoughts... Let the disagreement begin!