In lecture halls, in secondary school classrooms, during training workshops, and at research conferences, PowerPoint is becoming a preferred method of communicating, presenting and sharing knowledge. (Adams, 2006)
Nowadays, the "multimedia-based instruction" is broadly used in the learning environment to enhance students' learning as indicated by (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011). Different kinds of representations such as "text, audio, graphs, photographs, animation, or video" are used in the multimedia learning environment. Thus," this method of simply projecting a lecture onto a screen in front of a classroom has shown to provide excellent results. "So, to present the visual information of their lectures, teachers can easily use PowerPoint which "has a high potential for reinforcing students' learning" as stated by (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011). However, this is not always the case. Some researchers argue that the use of PowerPoint presentations in class "...turns clear thinking adults into addled-headed boobs" (Craig & Amernic, 2006).
The use of PowerPoint in teaching is a controversial issue. Some educational researches think of "PowerPoint as a dominating, socially forceful technological mediator of teaching" (Craig & Amernic, 2006). On the other hand, other researches describe "PowerPoint technology as a punching bag that turned its users into bullet-point dandies" (Craig & Amernic, 2006).
Therefore, this literary review presents a comprehensive analysis of the use of PowerPoint technology in the education process. A brief historical preview will be given at the beginning of this literary review. After that, the advantages that PowerPoint added to the educational process will be displayed. Finally, the disadvantages of PowerPoint presentations in class will be discussed. This literary review will conclude with the impact of PowerPoint presentations on education. It is supposed to answer these two essential questions: "Has PowerPoint led to more effective learning? What impact has PowerPoint had on the dynamics of classrooms? (Craig & Amernic, 2006).
History
Teachers used to write the "learning content" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011) on a blackboard at the front of the classroom in traditional classrooms. The written information on the blackboard "has an exemplary effect on the learners. It is a real-time and flexible process of transferring the knowledge of the learning content from the teacher to the students." (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011). Students can enrich their "classroom experiences" and understand the presented content more by paying full attention to what is written on the board in the traditional classrooms (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011).
However, this method is time consuming and it prevents students from having full picture of what is written on the board because the back of the teacher covers part of the board. Moreover, printing pictures and displaying them is not easy because it is money, time and efforts consuming. In addition, once the board is erased, the information cannot be "stored, reused, reproduced, or interchanged" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011) or displayed again with ease.
On the other hand, students have to take notes immediately from the blackboard; otherwise it is going to be erased. This puts a burden on students because they have to write and understand at the same time and does not give the chance to discuss or analyze the materials presented.
Furthermore, the handwriting of the teacher has to be clear and the board should be organized to make it easier for students to copy the material which consumes the time of the class. Consequently, teachers should think of a method that overcomes the previous problems. The solution was already there with the introduction of the software technology called PowerPoint presentation. So, "we have gone from the era of chalk and- talk and occasional flip-charts to overhead transparencies and to PowerPoint slides" (Craig & Amernic, 2006).
PowerPoint has been described as "a powerful and ubiquitous communications technology and aid to teaching and business presentations" (Craig & Amernic, 2006). More than 400 million copies of PowerPoint" were in circulation" as was estimated in 2002 and that "somewhere between 20 and 30 million PowerPoint-based presentations are given around the globe each day" (Craig & Amernic, 2006). Those numbers have increased enormously since then to the point that to "appear at a meeting without PowerPoint would be unwelcome and vaguely pretentious, like wearing no shoes" (Craig & Amernic, 2006).
Advantages of the Use of PowerPoint in Classroom
(Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011) state that "in the past decade, giving a lecture using PowerPoint has become a more convenient presentation method than writing on a whiteboard or using transparencies and an overhead projector." Teachers have limited time for each class and instead of wasting it on writing or changing transparencies; they choose to present their subject content with PowerPoint presentations. It is more convenient as well as saving the time of the class. At the same time, 'maintaining lecture contents" might be difficult for some teachers especially the new ones or those who teach more than one subject. (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011) point out that "a PowerPoint presentation makes a lecture flow easier and smoother, and provides structure to the presentation. In other words, teachers that employ PowerPoint produce their lectures slides in the appropriate sequence and pace. " It also helps them make clear summaries easily without the fear of forgetting of any important point.
Furthermore, "the use of PowerPoint in a lecture has shown that it can improve the note-taking ability of students while they study the teaching materials" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011). In addition to that, if a "dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation" is used, it makes taking notes easier because the slide stays for a longer time. It also gives students the chance to think, analyze and evaluate the materials presented.
According to (Levin & Wadmany, 2006), "discussions, and reflection on classroom experiences, with focus on difficulties, problems, solutions, and accomplishments" were undertaken by teachers who integrate technology in class such as PowerPoint presentations.
PowerPoint presentations can heighten students' self-efficiency and "attitude towards learning" as declared by (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011). In addition, students learn differently according to their cognitive and learning style. Therefore, multimedia environments which provide pictures and sounds as well as the written words may be most effective for students' different learning styles because then the students can select the method that "best fit their needs and preferences" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011). Thus, the PowerPoint presentation "will help students to acquire more information and remember more ideas from the pictorial and written" texts, especially if accompanied by a skillful presenter.
Most importantly, the use of PowerPoint in class prepares students for future life. We live in an informational age in which technology dominates all aspects of life and students should be deal with these technologies readily. (ChanLin, 2007) states that "current educational practices need to prepare students to thrive in an ever-changing technological society".
Moreover, one of the essential skills in the 21st-Century Knowledge & Skills which must be at the center of the educational process is "Information, Media, and Technology Skills" (Morrison & Lowther, 2007) and the use of PowerPoint in class enables students to be surrounded by technology for a significant period of time. At the same time, students should acquire what is known as "digital citizenship" (Morrison & Lowther, 2007) which refers to students' understanding of "human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior" (Morrison & Lowther, 2007) and this can be acquired by the authentic practice of using PowerPoint in class.
Disadvantages of the Use of PowerPoint in Classroom
Despite the previously mentioned merits, PowerPoint has a doubtful reputation. It has been described as a "drug" and "it ought to be subject to a worldwide product recall, for it had frequent, serious side effects: it induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and downgraded the quality and credibility of communication" (Craig & Amernic, 2006).
The main criticism of PowerPoint is that the content is downgraded for the sake of the form. (Craig & Amernic, 2006) accuse PowerPoint of "replacing clear thought with unnecessary animations, serious ideas with ten-word bullet points, substance with tacky, confusing style".
Moreover, (Craig & Amernic, 2006) argue that it holds responsibility for "a general decline in public speaking" and "for causing detrimental effects on dialogue, interaction, and thoughtful consideration of ideas" between teachers and students. In other words, (Craig & Amernic, 2006) describe PowerPoint as "the villain that oppresses its users, and almost by default absolves the presenter from taking any personal responsibility for providing significant content and communicating that content clearly".
(Craig & Amernic, 2006) claim that "although PowerPoint promises much in terms of delivering content efficiently and offering attractive and dynamic presentations, some critics, such as Stewart (2001), allege that a frequent outcome is a vacuous monotony".
According to (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011), one of the reasons why students fail to accomplish higher performance with the PowerPoint presentation is due to the fact that they fail to link the verbal explanation of the teacher with the presented slides when they come to reconstruct the content presented.
Moreover, (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011) stated that using PowerPoint presentation might lead to two problems; "information load and presentation holding." When a PowerPoint slide contains too many learning objects, an information load problem occurs. To avoid this problem, learning objects are divided over two or more slides. This will cause a presentation holding problem because students will have to wait until the other slide is presented.
(Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011) concluded that using only PowerPoint presentation to display information "does not promote a student's understanding of a particular knowledge in a certain context" and this necessitates the integration of annotations which refer to the "additional data, information or knowledge in the form of explanations for a specific part of the content" into PowerPoint presentation in order to enhance students' acquisition of core-content.
Conclusion
According to (Choy, Wong, & Gao, 2009), integrating technology into the educational process has come a long way since the 1990s. Many of the previous literary reviews have presented the impact of integrating technology in class in general and the use of PowerPoint in specific.
This literature review examines the effectiveness of PowerPoint on students' learning and its impact on "the dynamics of pedagogical settings" (Craig & Amernic, 2006). It also analyzes the relationship between the teacher and students when PowerPoint is used.
It has demonstrated clearly that "although PowerPoint lectures can emphasize the key points of the teaching material, many studies demonstrate that there is no increase in the learning performance of students for using PowerPoint lectures." (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011).
However, students' acquisition of the materials presented can be enhanced by "a good presentation" which means "being coherent, explicit, and systematic" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011) and this necessitates the going back and forth between slides to connect all the elements of the presented subject together.
One also should pay attention to students' preference; when asked about which environment they would prefer: the traditional one or the one with PowerPoint, 'students indicated that they found that the lectures were well organized and that the key points were emphasized with the use of the PowerPoint presentation in the classroom." (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011). They "preferred the fact that instructors added visual elements such as pictures, graphics, charts, or tables in their PowerPoint Presentations." (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011).
On the other hand, "within traditional teacher-centered instructional designs, this kind of technical solution improves the students' ability to actually construct learning, rather than that merely becomes learning objects for transmission." (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Integrating Annotations into a Dual-slide PowerPoint Presentation for Classroom Learning, 2011).
In addition, researchers have found that teachers can have a "smooth teaching process of presenting teaching materials" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011) when using a "PowerPoint presentation with his/her voice and also create web-based multimedia materials" (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011) to help students go back and forth when reconstructing their knowledge of the subject materials. Thus, "by reviewing these multimedia materials, students can recall the problem-solving skills the teacher taught them in class" and hence they can have "a better course attitude and achieved higher" scores (Lai, Tsai, & Yu, Screen-capturing System with Two-layer Display for PowerPoint Presentation to Enhance Classroom Education, 2011).
Though the impact of PowerPoint presentations is positively encouraging on the students' learning, teachers should concentrate on "what and how they teach" (Craig & Amernic, 2006); hence, form should not be elevated over content. At the same time, they should give their students he chance to think, speak, analyze and evaluate the content information presented.
