Jessica Conradson WRD 103 2 October 2013 The Dangerous Evolution of Technology and Learning Grab any notebook

of a college student and you can easily find lecture notes taken from a PowerPoint. There are endless bullet points with hardly any variance because students copy these notes, word for word, from a slide. There are no questions or afterthoughts written, just the typed words of the professor that may or may not have actually taught the student anything. Further, ask the student how much of that lecture they remember. They might fail to recall it because all of the information was presented in the same, unimaginative, and formulaic way. This is because PowerPoint creates presentations, not discussions. It does not stimulate our critical thinking skills to question and analyze because the answers are evident on the slides. The concepts are undisputed. This structure causes boredom, and students lose that spark, their inspiration to learn. My best learning experience occurred with a history teacher that used PowerPoint sparingly in class. Instead of relying on slides to convey her points, she was constantly on her feet, circling the room and prompting discussion. She integrated many forms of technology, including videos or images, to present her point creatively. However, none of these methods stood by themselves. She accompanied them with discussion and explanation; they were like breadcrumbs meant to prompt ideas. We never faced a lecture of only copying notes with her reciting from the computer screen, like so many of my other classes. The spontaneity in class kept us engaged (and awake) in order to follow along in her discussion and participate.

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PowerPoint alone is dull, but when complimented with media and discussion, class can be interactive and dynamic, creating the perfect learning environment. Not every student learns the same way, though. Some may like the visual aspect of PowerPoint that incorporates colors and images, or it may help significantly with note organization and focus. PowerPoints condense important information to what you need to know, which is ideal for our generation accustomed to efficiency. We crave optimization. In a study titled The Effect of PowerPoint Presentations on Student Learning and Attitudes by Hossein Nouri and Abdus Shahid from the College of New Jersey, students who received instruction via PowerPoint did not (on average) perform better on quizzes or exams. This implies that PowerPoint is only preferential for students; it neither helps nor hinders learning. By adapting our studying styles to simply memorize the condensed and most important information, we can surely ace a course. However, the issue at hand is not grades. It is that the method of efficient learning is only memorization, not comprehension. PowerPoint has taken away the classic struggle of understanding a concept, which is the same process that makes conquering a concept memorable. Though PowerPoint has a neutral effect on exam performance, we must consider everything that PowerPoint leaves out with its style of presenting only what you need to know. Sure, students want to master the material, but education is supposed to encourage further thought. We can easily research concepts on these slides ourselves, (at home, for free) but it is supposed to be the evaluation and critique of these ideas that makes education worthwhile. Upon graduation, we will not remember what year the Cold War occurred, but rather the causes and effects of it on the world and perhaps how to recognize and prevent them. Edward R. Tufte, a statistician known for his writings on information design, discusses these negative effects of

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PowerPoint on our ability to think critically in his book The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. He says that PowerPoint lends itself to the development of superficial and simplistic thinking, overgeneralization, imprecise statements, slogans, lightweight evidence, and abrupt and thinly argued claims. Especially for impressionable college students entering the adult world where answers are not always evident, this simplistic mentality is destructive. Our generation was introduced to PowerPoint at such a young age that we are sometimes lost without it. We actually assume a class does not have structure if we cannot see the information organized on a slide. When asked, students at DePaul prefer PowerPoint (even though it is perhaps the least stimulating method) because they are comfortable with it. We need to get past our reliance on technology to give us the answers and find them ourselves. Think of another scenario. We have all had classes with a presentation given in the dark. Do you remember how many students put their heads down and slept? This is not because of student fatigue, but boredom. The definition of student from the Oxford Dictionary is a person who takes an interest in a particular subject. Yet, how can we find interest in our classes when every lecture, and all our information, is modeled the same way? We need to stop silently watching these presentations, and instead engage our minds and voices in the classroom. We need to escape from this lazy atmosphere and implement active participation from professors and classmates. We need to challenge each other and discover new ideas through discussion, pushing one step further in our learning. Though PowerPoint can be effective for concrete, factual information, it should not stand alone in the classroom. We cannot continue to let technology simplify our education. Rather,

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technology should compliment these complex ideas, giving us perspectives we may not have from a textbook. Knowledge is more than bullet points, it is concepts and ideas. Learning is more than memorization, it is comprehension. To gain knowledge and learn correctly, students and professors need to be actively engaged in a journey to figuring things out. We deserve this journey and we deserve to be inspired. The answers need to be found and debated, not only stated. Further, knowlege does not need to be condensed or organized to be effective. The struggle is educating in itself and will be retained much longer than a PowerPoint slide. \

Jessica, I hope these comments help. Your conclusion so much stronger! I played around with that last sentence, and while you shouldnt feel compelled to take my words verbatim, I hope my suggestions help you to generate a clear concluding sentence. This is a great piece and I think you are exactly on track for revising for the portfolio. Even though you are revising this piece, make sure to also include your rhetorical analysis in your Digication portfolio (just star the editorial so faculty knows its the one you want us to formally assess). I encourage you to reference how both pieces have helped you develop as a writer- (because I can see they clearly have!) There are a few (very minor) places where I think your piece will benefit from some transitional markers. It will just help your reader stay with you so to speak. I also provide some word choice suggestions. Let me know if you have any questions about what I point out. Good luck in revising and great work as usual!