Comments on: Multimedia Dissonance

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » Tell More Stories

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Tell More Stories — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:49:18 +0000

[…] points marking off your progress while you read them, you’re a) inducing multimedia dissonance cognitive overload and b) using a low-resolution medium (PowerPoint) to display high-resolution data […]

By: ken

ken — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:00:30 +0000

Ah, right up my presentation, good man.

Yes, this is all been-there-done-that sort of territory. Last year, I eliminated text from all PowerPoint presentations. The results were stunning:

1. 17 of 18 students actually seemed to know their content b/c they were no longer reading bullet points.
2. They recognized that the presentation wasn’t for them, but for the audience.
3. Student #18 took a zero, citing “there’s no way I can do this without my notes up there.”

Forgive me for no hyper-linking here, but I’m tired of direct entry HTML:

– check out presentationzen.blogs.com – clear, thorough, and just gosh-darn useful.

– Jeff Utecht just made one of his own Pecha Kucha (or, ‘Get to your point in 20 slides and then sit the hell down’). Worth a lookee-listenee.

If you’ve seen/heard one or both, well nothin’ wrong w/ some old-fashioned repetition.

Me loves the presentations…and JarJar Binks.

By: dan

dan — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:33:50 +0000

Called out!

Okay, I’m done making stuff up now. Thanks for setting me straight, Chris.

By: Greg

Greg — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:08:54 +0000

Dan,

Actually, the technical term you are writing about is properly referred to as:

“Staffis Prepus Auralrectalopticalism”.

Loosely translated is means:

“the poor use of audio visual input gives people a shitty outlook on staff training”.

Greg

By: Dean Shareski

Dean Shareski — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:08:06 +0000

There is also a piece of research which I can’t put my hands on at the moment which states that retention of ideas is less when you read the text. Perhaps that’s the cognitive load theory in action but regardless, I’d like to find that data again to nail down the facts and rid the world once and for all of lousy slides.

By: Chris Craft

Chris Craft — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 15:33:58 +0000

Time for a theoretical basis for what you’re espousing. You’re beginning to hit the basics of Cognitive Load Theory, which is researched and quite extensively written about. Sweller is considered the originator, and you ought to read up on it. It will give you some vocabulary.

For example, the multimedia dissonance you talk about is really just cognitive overload. Folks reading the slides is ineffective because the audience can read them faster than the speaker can speak them. When you are reading at the same time, you hit cognitive overload. The theory also lends itself nicely to removing a lot of the extraneous load in a presentation, such as the silly little transitions that are pointless and the sound effects (clapping, racecar, etc).

This is an entire course we’re talking about, and I’ve given you the basics. Read up on it, it fits nicely as to where you’re going with this.

Chris Craft