One of my professors uses PowerPoint presentations for every lecture of theirs. Yes, it does help sometimes to get a view of what they are saying, but most of the time the slides have way too much text. This professor's slides have bullet points, but then continue to expound in far too much detail.
It would be more effective, I feel, for my professor to continue using the main points/bullets, along with the few pictures they interspersed but not continue with elaborate wording explaining each bullet point. I'm sure I'm not the only student in their class that finds it overwhelming to try to read, listen, and write down all that they are presenting. I have found myself a few times in that class trying to write down what I think is important from the slides and end up not remembering what the professor said because I was too focused on reading and writing down what the slide presented.
Too much on a slide is excessive, but too little is inadequate. One must find the proper balance.
Sounds like your professor should take a comm 1 class. Maybe you can make some copies of those pages in our book that discuss power point presentations (220-222 I think?) and leave them on his desk when he's not looking. After readin that part of the book, a lot of it makes sense. I have done and re-done my power point and it's all over the place. But, with those suggestions that were laid out in the book (that I found after I did my power point) I think I've got much of it nailed down. Having read your post, it is easy to see why those suggestions are in there. The examples helped me a lot too. I think the best examples that helped me had to do with exactly what you wrote about. Too many bullet points and too much text. Find what's important and get rid of all that static.
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I agree that too much detail and in depth explanation can be overwhelming. Not only overwhelming, but even counterproductive. When media presentations include too much information I feel like I can't absorb it all...and also a little bit like my head is going to explode! For me personally, if there is endless talking and bullet points on a powerpoint slide (or any other form of media presentation), not only can I not fully understand, receive, and/or appreciate the information, but I can't even enjoy any aspects of the presentation. It's difficult to enjoy a speech when you are so overloaded with information that you can't even decide which part of the presentation you should focus on, or what information is the most vital to the topic.
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