Elisabeth Bumiller's article over the perils of PowerPoint in the military brings about many good points. PowerPoint summarizes all information into bullet points that sometimes provides inadequate information to make decisions. This aspect of PowerPoint makes it very useful to clearly and efficiently communicate information to an assortment of people. This process works well in school because it notes the important information in a chapter, but one must also read the chapter to truly understand the material. This is the problem with PowerPoint, and it can be a big problem in military when it is imperative to communicate information to its full potential.
Through our discussions in class, it is evident that these PowerPoints would be much more effective if given a more audience-centered approach. Sometimes when making PowerPoint presentations, one forgets that it is not only necessary to communicate the information clearly but also with enough detail for the audience to truly understand what is meant to be understood. As stated in the article, Lt. Gen. David D. McKierran was frustrated when he was unable to efficiently lead his troops based on the vague PowerPoint slides given to him by the defense secretary. The defense secretary should have given McKierran a detailed, custom set of instructions for him to effieciently do his job. PowerPoint is a great tool, but it needs to be more than just bullet-pointed information if one wants to do an adequate job of communicating information.
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