With the aid of the software package, PowerPoint my intention is to take you, the audience a step further in the art of Beer tasting.
I'm sure we can all recall the days of walking into a public house to order a beer, simple times when a beer meant something other than a stout or pale ale and your choice was limited to what was on offer on the pump!
Nowadays, walking into a pub or strolling down a supermarket isle to buy your tipple of choice is as confusing as walking into a Starbucks and just asking for a coffee!
In the 80's your television screen was ablaze with advertisements for Castlemaine 4X, Carlsberg, Hoffmeister, Fosters and Heineken. Well known brand names but limited choice!
Today however, its a whole different ball game! Much has changed. The consumer demands more choice, more variety!
It's no longer enough to simply offer your guests a cold beer! The cold beer today must compliment the snacks on offer!!!!! I confess, this new world of beer snobbery is virgin ground for me. I can honestly say, hand on heart that I have never opened a can of beer and found myself considering whether or not this libation would compliment my microwave meal for one. Am I missing a trick?
Rather than dismiss as ridiculous, let us review this new school of thought....... enter the beer Somelier.
Madness! I Know! You will of course have stumbled accross a wine sommelier in your time and witnessed the rituals........
1. The careful removal of the foil.
2. The gentle insertion of the corkscrew.
3. The turning of the corkscrew and not the bottle.
4. Removal of cork and sniff test.
5. The pourning of the wine.
6. Swirling of the liquid and review of the legs.
7. Inhalation of the aromas and bouquet.
8. Finally the taste test
This is all familiar territory ...... however imagine yourself ensconced in your local pub carrying out a similar ritual with your pint of Wrexham in hand.......questionable behaviour, perhaps not. My intention with the aid of power point and few learned folk is to introduce you to the art of tasting beer. How its done, Why its done and perhaps by the end we will embrace this new school of thought, perhaps beer will never be the same again.
Now, you will note that I used a very basic power point format to present my beer tasting topic. Before I explain why that was, lets briefly review the presentation tool of choice Powerpoint (orignally aptly named "Presenter")
A software package designed to create electronic presentations consisting of a series of separate pages or slides.
According to Wikipedia "Powerpoint remains one of the most commonly used slide based presentation programs available"
Changes have been made to the software since its initial launch in th 90's:
PowerPoint 97 incorporated (VBA) Visual Basic for Applications.
PowerPoint 2000 introduced the clipboard and the office assistant made less intrusive.
PowerPoint 2002 overhauled the animation engine.
PowerPoint 2011 made it possible to remove image backgrounds.
Now on Version 16 of PowePoint (due to superstition surrounding the number 13, PowerPoint13 was skipped in the version counting)
True blue supporters of Power Point sing its praises, claiming that without it, people who are in the business of presenting or giving briefings would rely instead on time consuming typset slides, black or whiteboards or overhead projectors. The ease of use encourages the novice to use visual aids instead of fumbling with paper notes or cue cards.
I ask, is this really a bad thing! I'm firmly of the opinion that its imparting knowledge thats important. Surely, if your presenter, teacher or office junior is well rehearsed, engaging and fully familiar with the subject matter then all he or she needs to do is share that knowledge in a clear and concise way. Are colourful slides, visual clips and bullet points flying in from screen left or screen right necessary in the aid of learning?
In my experience, PowerPoint doesn't kill presentations - People do! The software is heavily relied upon resulting in the presentation giver reading the screen content verbatim, each line, quote and statistical fact that leaves the audience cold.
My view is that PowerPoint alone does not improve knowledge retention. In fact statistician and designer Edward Tufte suggests that
" PowerPoint on its own has limited ability to present complex tables and graphics, a better approach is to provide the audience with printed data and a written report for them to read at the start of the meeting, before leading them through the report with the talk"
The Final word comes from Matt Edmundson whose opinion chimes with my own, Review this short You Tube video and remember PowerPoint doesnt kill presentations - people do ! Keep it simple, use it as a prompt.
A software package designed to create electronic presentations consisting of a series of separate pages or slides.
According to Wikipedia "Powerpoint remains one of the most commonly used slide based presentation programs available"
Changes have been made to the software since its initial launch in th 90's:
PowerPoint 97 incorporated (VBA) Visual Basic for Applications.
PowerPoint 2000 introduced the clipboard and the office assistant made less intrusive.
PowerPoint 2002 overhauled the animation engine.
PowerPoint 2011 made it possible to remove image backgrounds.
Now on Version 16 of PowePoint (due to superstition surrounding the number 13, PowerPoint13 was skipped in the version counting)
True blue supporters of Power Point sing its praises, claiming that without it, people who are in the business of presenting or giving briefings would rely instead on time consuming typset slides, black or whiteboards or overhead projectors. The ease of use encourages the novice to use visual aids instead of fumbling with paper notes or cue cards.
I ask, is this really a bad thing! I'm firmly of the opinion that its imparting knowledge thats important. Surely, if your presenter, teacher or office junior is well rehearsed, engaging and fully familiar with the subject matter then all he or she needs to do is share that knowledge in a clear and concise way. Are colourful slides, visual clips and bullet points flying in from screen left or screen right necessary in the aid of learning?
In my experience, PowerPoint doesn't kill presentations - People do! The software is heavily relied upon resulting in the presentation giver reading the screen content verbatim, each line, quote and statistical fact that leaves the audience cold.
My view is that PowerPoint alone does not improve knowledge retention. In fact statistician and designer Edward Tufte suggests that
" PowerPoint on its own has limited ability to present complex tables and graphics, a better approach is to provide the audience with printed data and a written report for them to read at the start of the meeting, before leading them through the report with the talk"
The Final word comes from Matt Edmundson whose opinion chimes with my own, Review this short You Tube video and remember PowerPoint doesnt kill presentations - people do ! Keep it simple, use it as a prompt.
