What would happen if there was no PowerPoint?

I can said the PowerPoint is a great tool for educate and provide any kind of communication. In my opinion, the best way for learn something is visual with some conversation. The PowerPoint not affect our verbal briefing skills, suppose to increase it, why? A good presentation is not read all the slides, the slides are reference and visual stuff of what you brief. The best way to show somebody read a map, is when the individual see the map and you explain how to read it.

Again, is not the PowerPoint and the technology, is how you use it. The quality of the presentation and the information you provide not said nothing is the presenter don't create a motivation in the group!

Sir,

I believe that eliminating PowerPoint usage during briefings would not necessarily make briefings any better. I have seen countless Soldiers/Leaders use PowerPoint inefficiently; that is something that should and can be changed. I was always taught to use PowerPoint as nothing more than a visual aid - both to help you keep your train of thought, and allow the audience to follow along. This is achievable by only putting a few words on each slide and cutting back on the number of slides being used. All of this allows the speaker/instructor to more efficiently go through the brief (provided he/she actually knows what they are talking about and are confident in their ability to communicate effectively) and keeps the audience informed AND awake. I think we are all capable of reading what is written on a slide, and it is a disservice to everyone involved to allow instructors to rely on a tool meant to be used as an aid.

No powerpoint! My god we would lose our warfighting edge. Command staff's would not know what to do for four to five hours a day!

On a serious note - we do over-rely on the dreaded power point presentation but when short and concise they do prove to be a beneficial way to display information to a large group of people and it is a necessary component at times in classroom instruction. Saying that though - those of us who are Military Instructors are moving more to be facilitators than instructors or presenters.

We actually had an Army w/o PP, when I came on actuve duty in the 80s... And, it's tempting to say that there was less time spent on briefings then, but not necessarily. Back then, we'd prepare "butcher paper" charts on easels, both for training, and for briefs. There were perhaps fewer, and they were simpler, but these were labor-intensive. If a company ops had a QTB to prepare, the Ops NCO might have to borrow Soldiers from every platoon to get these done! One advantage was, if you made these charts yourself, there was probably nothing on them that you didn't know / couldn't explain! So, I think PP is a tool, a convienience, and like other techniques we have, if you are over reliant on it or let it become a vehicle for micro-management, then it can become counterproductive.

Coffee sales would be at an all time low!

"Disaster of Biblical proportions. Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together...mass hysteria!" - Ghostbusters

I dunno...sand tables? Notepads? Paper maps with a piece of glass, bottlecaps, and rocks representing units?

It would be a nice start to use a "switch" to show screen shots or a live feed from the FBCB2 systems: CPOF, AFATDS, DCGS-A, AMDWS, etc rahter than recreating the wheel with PowerPoint or other "snapshots." The problem isn't the software it's how the user fails or succeeds in effectively using it. This can be expanded to the failures of over reliance on SharePoint, Portals, DTMS, or any other requirement that makes us re-format the same data over and over again. That kills productivity.

PowerPoint is a good tool for communication, when I was stationed in Kaiserslautern (K-Town), Germany working in S-2, we were task to send out a weekly weather report to Headquarters and subordinate units. The Commanding Officer didn't tell us how to do it, we decided the best option was to copy and paste the information on PowerPoint Slides. Then, make it an e-mail attachment and sending it out by e-mail everybody was satisfied.

I enlisted in October, 1972 there wasn't any technology going on, if there were classroom training the only thing closed to technology was an overhead projector and templates. All the other training was hands-on-training outside rain or shine, even classroom training outside that was the Cold War Era.

One of the refreshing advantages to operating in the InterAgency is that, apart from DoD, most USG agencies do not rely on Powerpoint to transmit information. Briefing notes, decision memos, position papers, strategy papers, read-ahead packets, policy papers--all not done on powerpoint. If SECDEF directed that DoD immediately stopped using Powerpoint, after a short period of transition and learning, DoD would likely easily transition to written products like the ones above, supplemented, of course, by the formal, five paragraph operations order and associated graphics. Contrary to the apparent beliefs of many, those in DoD who make the most powerpoint slides (staff officers), if given the time and opportunity to write, could write papers just as dazzling and brilliant as the powerpoint slides they work so hard to perfect. Also, a powerpoint-free DoD would probably realize that the millions/billions of dollars of digital C2 equipment it has actually works wonders, and might be useful in transmitting information.