Is Oregon the next "Land of Opportunity" for Tech Workers?

If you are looking for a career in technology, come to Oregon (?)(It's true!)

This morning's OregonLive.com published an article by Mike Rogoway about a new technology survey done with the participation with the Technology Association of Oregon. This study of Oregon tech companies found that 80% plan to increase hiring for technical positions.

Here is the link: http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2013/11/oregon_tech_survey_finds_unive.html#incart_river_default

This is huge as it indicates that the "pent-up demand" for technicians -- across the spectrum -- is finally at the breaking point and hiring MUST begin. 

Additionally, the survey also revealed that the average annual wages for tech positions in Oregon is at $94,000 per year -- or TWICE the state average. 

But wait -- there's more.

"Talent availability" is one of their biggest concerns. This means that there is not enough people in the pipeline to fill all the positions. 

Or, another way of saying it is like this: For technology workers in Oregon, Demand is High / Supply is Low.

For the colleges and universities in Oregon, our challenge is not simply to turn out graduates; but, to turn out graduates who are trained in skill sets relevant to the need of the companies in our State. At MHCC, we believe we are doing just that with training in everything from Help Desk, to Heath Informatics, to Networking, to Cyber Security -- and points in between! 

Want to know more? (click here and look for "Computer" and "Cyber")

They got me! The DoSearches.com "virus"

As an instructor in Cyber Security, I was a little disappointed -- although not surprised -- that I caught a virus on my home computer. What was disappointing is that I downloaded it myself. The truth is, I wanted to watch streaming video of the San Jose Sharks game and the only free streams were coming out of Europe, and... you can guess the rest.

The net result was that I downloaded a nasty little PUP ("Potentially Unwanted Program", technically NOT a virus but sure does act like one) that hijacked every one of my browsers and some shortcuts, and redirects me to their search engine at DoSearches.com which in turn displays a Google knock-off home page but with advertisements. And, it is a rootkit so it dig deep into your operating system.

After some quick research, I located this web site (http://malwaretips.com/blogs/dosearches-com-virus/#adwcleaner) by Steven Pilici posted in September of this year. On this page, he discusses the dosearches.com PUP and provides a 5-step approach to getting it off.

I did the 5-steps and not only did it remove the dosearches, it found and removed a whole lot more. Naturally, you are always responsible for your own computer. And, if you think you have some viruses (and you probably do), here are some nice, free apps which can help you out.

NSA On My Mind

I remember 1968. I was living near Chicago at the time and watched the Democratic National Convention on our new Zenith black-and-white TV. If you are old enough to remember that time, you might still have images in your minds about the Hippies and the Hard-hats, the war, the protesters, and the police.

 

Imagine you are there right now in the midst of it all. Then imagine that in the front, Richard Nixon stands up to address the crowd and says: “You will all be given a device that you are required to wear at all times. This device will track your every movement to within 32 feet of your actual location. It will record every communication, message, and purchase. And if you look up any information, computers will track your every search, and government analysts and marketing professionals will track your every move and make decisions about what you can see and what you should buy.”

 

“And best of all, you will stand in line for hours – even overnight – just for the privilege of being one of the first to purchase this device.”

What do you think would happen next? Pandemonium? Riots? Or subservience?

 

Forthy-five years later, the Smart Phone is all the rage and tracking your every move is exactly what it is designed to do. Yet, this should not come as a great surprise. We have known for years that devices on the Internet have been tracking searches, purchases, and such; and the massive amounts of data gathered is used to customize marketing, guide political campaigns, and determine what kinds of foods you like. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) monitors Google searches to determine where viral outbreaks are occurring – seriously. And amazingly, people seem to be willing to share their most intimate thoughts on a variety of social media. In Web Design, we call this “folksonomy” where the actions of the “folks” are monitored to make predictions (using analytics) about what the “folks” are likely to do next.

 

So, it should be no surprise that the federal agencies assigned to provide our protection, would use the very same tool for capturing terrorists that marketing people have been using to capture sales. In fact, it is surprising that people are surprised. And of you are concerned about the loss of your civil liberties, forget about it. Take one look at your cell phone and realize our civil liberties were not taken from us – we purchased the product that gave them away.

 

Thus, when one considers the impact of agencies like the NSA purchasing hacker tools on the black market, one has to wonder “do the ends really justify the means”? After all, the tools were used to catch child pornographers. Today, young girls are safe because of it. Think like this: if the NSA is mandated to provide security, and we are in a time of limited budget and staff. So, if a tool is needed one basically has two choices: build it or buy it. Building it would be expensive and maybe outside of the skill sets of your team. And, if you buy it, well, you won’t find many good hacking tools at Office Depot.

What would you do?

Peek-A-Boo. I See YOU

In case you missed it, there is a breaking story today about a family who had a webcam as the baby monitor. A hacker was able to locate the camera (easy to do), but then was able to move the camera to see around the room, and then actually spoke to the child through the camera!

For the complete story, click [here]. 

Clearly this is disturbing for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that a criminal or predator now has the ability to “see behind closed doors” and know exactly what you are doing, when you are doing it, and with whom; and, with sight and sound.

The second very disturbing aspect of this story is that the hacker could have come in through the Internet connection (in which case, he could be anywhere in the world), or he could have come in through the wireless access point (in which case, he is out front right now).

In Cyber Security, there is a technique called “war driving” where basically you drive around a neighborhood looking for any wireless signal that is not secure. It is very easy to do and most smart phones do it automatically (amazingly enough).

And, just in case you think your WAP is just too obscure to be noticed, take a look at this website at wigle.net. This site contains maps of wireless access points with accompanying information. Go to the home page, click on Web Maps and then enter in a location.  Be prepared to be amazed.

Getting back to the webcam matter, while webcams are a neat tool not only for Skype-like communications and general security, unless you secure your webcam, you are only providing access to a well-organized enemy. Check out this story by Amar Toor on The Verge about “an interactive map of insecure webcam feeds”.

Now the best part is that nearly all phones, tablets, and laptops come with camera and microphone installed. Which means that no matter where you are or what you are doing, a committed hacker can find you and activate your camera and mic.

But wait, it gets worse. As we “discovered” only last week, Federal agencies are using hacking tools to locate potential terrorists. If that is true, is it possible they would even …[fill in the blank]?

Seriously, put some electrical tape over your webcam. And if you do need a baby monitor, lock it down!

1 Million Malicious Apps

In case you missed it – and with all that is going on this week, it would be hard not to – a new study by Trend Micro indicates that by 2014, cyber hackers will have created more than 1 million malicious apps for the Android.

See the full story here.

This is big news for several reasons:

1. Androids account for nearly 80% of all smart phones planet-wide. This means you,
2.  Most smart phone owners do not even have virusprotection on their phones and they don’t come pre-installed,
3. And yet, many people use their phones for business, banking, and other “secure” activities.

And, don't think that because you have an iPhone, you are immune to the problem. Apple wants you to think the iPhone is immune (click here), but some do not agree (click here).

See, the way that apps markets are set up for Android, Apple, and Microsoft, is that you can create any kind of app you want and post it in the market place. Maybe the app is checked and maybe it is not. Either way, most hackers know that it’s not the initial app that gets you; rather, it is the malicious app “update”. This is because most people with allow updates without even a question.

In a sense, you infect yourself. Pretty cool.

Remember, awareness is half the battle.

In Defense of "The Dive"

When it comes to recent cyber security events, these past few weeks have been most strange. It was not terribly surprising to learn that the NSA has been using hacker tools to monitor for terrorism – that was to be expected. After all, if the bad-guys can use a tool, we should be able to use the same tool.

It is also not too surprising that the NSA (and possibly others) are tracking Google searches to look for anything “suspicious”. After all, an Internet connection is not private. And as recent events in Boston have demonstrated – if the Feds know that someone has potential to do something and they don’t do something about it, things can get bleak fast.

[BTW, here is a nice link about how the CDC uses Google search trends to track influenza]

And, it is not even surprising that if someone Googles related terms, such as “backpack” and “pressure cooker”, they can expect a visit from thelocal SWAT team. Although in this case, we did learn later that the fellow did a search on “pressure cooker bombs”. That changes the story just a bit.

However, when it comes to personal security, what does make me nutz is when we do it to ourselves. A perfect example of a mental lapse is this story which broke in today’s Oregonian where the folks at Sylvan Learning Center tossed a massive amount of personal data on their clients – including social security numbers and credit card numbers – into the dumpster!! It will cost them $100k for that slip up.

Grrr. And who says “dumpster diving” is a lost art?

Is Cloud Storage Raining Your Private Medical Records?

The idea of centralized storage of private medical data is a hallmark of interoperability – or, the sharing of medical information between providers – in the new push for electronic health records (EHR) and is central to Health Informatics. However, it turns out that just because data is “in the cloud” does not mean it is safe.

It appears that cloud computing may be raining on Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). Today we learned that “physicians-in-training” in the Plastic Surgery department, looking for a way to share medical data, put private medical information on a spread-sheet in Google Docs. (see the story here, here, and OHSU’s apology here).

Now, before we go tearing into the physicians and which is obviously a breach for otherwise crème-de-la-crème medical students, we need to consider two very critical aspects of this event. First, how our culture has grown to not only accepts but relies on mobile technology. And Second, who has access to my cloud based information.

Clearly, as the use of mobile devices has exploded onto or culture, it has become a thing upon which we not only depend, but also expect to be able to use. Unfortunately, mobile tech has become so commonplace that we are now failing to be concerned about its security. It just seems to be there, and it’s probably safe after all. In fact, had the data been de-identified (that is, all identification information removed), the whole situation would have been fine. But that was not the case as over 3,000 people are finding out this morning.

The bigger issue may indeed be the problem of access. Recent news about the government mining of Google data not withstanding (another story entirely), a larger issue is whether or not Google has the rights to “sell” your personal information to “partners and associates” (read: marketers). Here’s the rub: your medical data has value. If a certain company can direct market you for a specific product that will handle your specific condition, then your contact data is very valuable to them and they will pay good money for it. And, if you did not read the EULA (End User License Agreement) on Google Docs (and who does anyway?), you just may have given Google permission to do just that.

Here’s the lesson of the day: Just because it is on-line does not make it safe. And, before storing any data on-line, consider the impact it will have on you if it is compromised. This includes medical data, financial data, personal information, and the pictures of you at that party now on someone’s Facebook page.

How Texting (or email or web surfing) in Florida Can Land You In The Hootscow

"Sir! Please put DOWN that iPhone and STEP AWAY!!"

The Great State of Florida has just made computers and smart phones illegal.

Seriously: Heather Kelly of CNN reported Tuesday (http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/florida-slot-machine-law) that a new law was passed which makes any device which can allow gambling to be a “slot machine”. But the wording is so broad that it includes any computer of any kind on any network where gambling can occur -- to be illegal. You can’t make this up.

Of course, the Florida legislature did not intend for this. What they intended was to find a way to block computer gambling and close the internet gambling cafés. Unfortunately, the poor quality of the wording resulted in a law that if enforced would shut down the entire Floridian economy.

Pop quiz: Which “road” is paved with good intentions?

To be fair, Florida does have issues regarding gambling, and (if properly taxed and regulated) could harvest some serious income for the state. But, the level of competence exhibited here does demonstrate why it is important for all people – even politicians – to understand what technology is first before figuring out how to control it. 

There is an old business adage which goes "You cannot control what you do not measure. And, you cannot measure what you do not understand."

Perhaps the Florida legislature should take our CIS120 class. In chapter 1, we learn that there are actually many different kinds of computers.

Yottabytes Revisited

In case you missed it, there was an interesting article published in Friday’s Oregonian by McClatchy reporter Greg Gordon on the databases that the NSA is using to record and store domestic emails and phone calls (presumably cell phones at this point). You can see the article here.

According to Gordon, the databases necessary for this amount storage are huge and he identifies one in Utah as being in “yodabytes” which he associates with Star Wars’ Yoda. Actually, it’s “yottabyte”, but either way, it truly is a lot of storage.

So… what’s a yottabyte? According to Wikipedia, it is a septillion bytes and provides us with this visual: 

“To store a yottabyte on terabyte sized hard drives would require a million city block size data-centers, as big as the states of Delaware and Rhode Island. If 64 GB microSDXC cards (the most compact data storage medium available to public as of early 2013) were used instead, the total volume would be approximately 2,500,000 cubic meters, or the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza.”

That, truly is, a lot of emails.

8.1 At Last

Microsoft revealed Windows 8.1 and not a moment too soon. You can read about it here and here.

The affect of the release of Windows 8, as well as Microsoft’s staunch non-allowing of earlier versions on pre-installs (software loaded into a computer before sale) has been felt world-wide. Gregg Keizer in ComputerWorld reported last April of a global downturn in PC sales between 11% and 14% (click here and here).

And while all this allows a certain “coolness” to continual Microsoft-bashing, there is another thing to consider: That possibly, just maybe, MS operating systems are actually designed to impact change in the computer industry.

Consider the following:

• While the Graphic User Interface (GUI) was not invented by Microsoft, it was Windows 3.1.1 and especially Windows 95 that pushed us away from Command Line Interface (CLI).
• Windows 97 is one of the reasons that DOS is emulated and programs ALL are icon driven.
• Microsoft did not invent the Local Area network, but it was Windows 2000 that allows every computer to be a network node.
• Windows XP impacted business globally and fought the good fight against hacker attacks and is STILL considered an excellent operating system.
• Love it or hate it, Windows Vista was the OS that pushed manufactures to deliver multicore processors.
• And Windows 7? I actually like this OS quite a bit.

So what about Windows 8? What is the impact that this OS is trying to have?

Certainly, PC sales are plunging worldwide and allowing for some excellent deals from tech vendors, the “blame” is more rightly placed on the consumers. We have as a whole moved into the mobile device market in a huge way. As such, the entire industry is going through an upheaval not seen since the introduction of the Personal Computer in the 70’s and 80’s.

Microsoft’s perspective is that if people are going more mobile, why not make an operating system that is very friendly to mobile devices? Then, using essentially the same structure that has been on Xbox for years, move it to the PCs. Just one problem: Laptops don’t all have touch screens. At least, not yet.

And therein lies the rub.

The backlash against Windows 8 is really not that interesting. Neither, really, is the response to that backlash with the release of 8.1. Why? It is because people hate change. And people really hate big changes. What is interesting is that Microsoft did indeed respond to a changing market environment with an operating system that can be expected to impact the direction of that market.

What else is interesting is that for the first time, Microsoft is about 3 years too late. 

Blog For Sale - Inquire Within

In case you missed it, Yahoo bought the blog site Tumblr for over a Billion Bucks. You heard that right. See the story here at http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2013/05/yahoo_buys_tumblr_for_11_billi.html#incart_river_default.

A billion dollars for a social media blogging site, while rather amazing, may be reasonable considering the continued popularity of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and more. However, relevancy cannot be bought. Hewlett-Packard tried it to compete with Dell in the early 2000s and now there are rumors that HP will try to buy Dell (we’ll see: http://www.computerdealernews.com/news/is-hp-crazy-enough-to-buy-dell-sadly-probably-not/23107). Microsoft bought Skype in 2011 for a ton (http://www.wired.com/business/2011/05/microsoft-buys-skype-2/); and remember last year when Google bought Motorola for 13-big-ones (http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/22/technology/google-motorola/index.htm).

[In comparison, dropping only a paltry billion for Tumblr is not only “walking around money”, but may be kind of score you expect to see at the Saturday Farmer’s Market]

Here’s the point: the consumer tech industry is in an upheaval.  Whether or not Windows 8 is to blame for the decline in PC sales is debatable (see “Yes”: http://www.extremetech.com/computing/153111-windows-8-causes-most-precipitous-pc-decline-in-history; and “No”: http://mashable.com/2013/04/12/windows-8-pc-sales-woes/), the fact is that PC sales are down is not. I would contend that PC sales are down because the consumer market is – and has been – transitioning to mobile computing in a big way.

Mobile computing has made remarkable gains since the introduction of the iPhone only a few years ago (does anyone remember the Palm Pilot?), and Windows 8 is really only the grand conclusion of this movement. The problem for Microsoft seems to be that they missed the target by about 2 years.

Here’s why. As with any major industry cycle– and we are in the middle of one right now – there will be a transition to Maturity (for an excellent graphic of the Product Development Life Cycle, see: http://www.witiger.com/marketing/plc.jpg). Apple for the most part, spends it’s time in the early stages of the Growth phase with innovation being it’s hallmark. However, even for Apple, it is difficult to stay there (see: http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/04/21/apple-suppliers-idINDEE93K06320130421).

But, the PDLC is a slippery slope. And, once it moves into Maturity, you can’t buy your way back to innovation. PCs are long into Maturity, and mobile devices are getting there quickly.

Instead, watch for a big “shaking out”. We have heard this song before: pending some kind of crazy event or bubble-burst, we should see over the next few years a reorganization of the mobile and social media industries to only a few very large players.

You don’t have to be Nostradamus to see this one coming.

Kmart Email Phish?

I received a most interesting email this weekend from “Kmart” as an e-receipt for purchases made at the Salem Kmart. You can register with Kmart to have these receipts sent to your email. It is a nice convenience which we chose last Christmas so that we could track purchases and exchanges. What was troubling was that I was in Salem last week but did not make any purchases anywhere. Additionally, the e-receipt showed the last 4 digits of the credit card and they were not any of mine. Hmm…

Now, there are some interesting analytic software out which can customize spam messages to your location, jobs (based on my .edu domain), and even shopping habits. This is also why you get customized advertising on some sites after doing a particular kind of search.

Additionally, I tracked the destination on some of the hyperlinks and saw a site called kmart.rsys2.net. Interestingly, I found an rsys2.net server in Russia. Ah-ha! Gotcha. So I sent a spam report to Kmart.

It turns out that the e-receipt was indeed authentic. The problem was that when we applied for e-receipts, the data entry person aligned our email with someone else's account. So when they made a legitimate purchase, it was applied to our account. [!]

The moral of the story is: sometimes the hacker you fear most is the data entry person inside your own organization. 

MHCC CyberSecurity In The News

The MHCC CyberSecurity program is highlighted in an OregonLive.com article along with the Health Informatics and Game Develoment programs. You can see that article here:

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/04/mt_hood_community_college_resp.html

At the same time is another article talking about how the software industry in the Portland Metro area is exploding. You can see that article here:

http://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2013/04/oregon_software_employment_is.html#incart_river_default

As we are now in the fifth year of "The Great Recession", it is very encouraging to see that the Information Technology industry remains strong. Even in east Multnomah County, we are seeing a definite increase in internships, job opportunities, and local drives for greater STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) development from high schools to the community college to industry.

This is a very good time to be in the technologies.

The Soul(lessness) of Spammers -- Spamming the Boston Marathon

Well, this did not take long. LiveScience.com is reporting that only hours after the Boston Marathon terror bombing, spammers were hard at working creating spam messages with links promising access to more information which were in fact opportunities to download viruses and Trojans onto unsuspecting users.

See the full story here http://news.yahoo.com/boston-bombings-used-malware-scam-bait-211508257.html.

Over the years, we have watched the various “Nigerian Scams” seeking your checking account, and seen them morph from various princesses promising millions to missionaries to American soldiers with hidden caches of riches. Some of these messages can be pretty sophisticated and recent advances using analytics can even customize messages specifically for you.

Last winter, I received a message from the “Oregon University” to click on a link for information about a conference that I supposedly asked for. The clue was “Oregon University” and not “University of Oregon”. I researched the link and saw that it sent me to a server with a Russian domain.

Yet, even these seem pretty obvious and if I sat down 100 people and asked each of them to give me their checking account in exchange for the promise of riches, all would say no. And still, FBI Cyber Security agents tell us that most victims of these various scams are in for about $70,000 before they come forward with a complaint.

And, one would think that intelligent, highly educated people could *never* be conned into such an obvious scheme. Right? Well, perhaps not. Check out this recent discovery from the University of Puerto Rico http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/latino-daily-news/details/university-of-puerto-rico-president-victim-of-scam-school-loses-150000/23322/.

Bottom line: we must all be vigilant because we can all be fooled.  

 

North Korean Cyber War?

You already know we are in a Cyber War with N Korea, and there is some chatter about an NK cyber attack tomorrow to coincide with the [suspected] missile [launch/test].

Found a few articles which you may find interesting.

This one is from S Korea and describes the NK CyberWar force at 12,000 "highly skilled hackers"

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/04/08/2013040801313.html

This one from New Zealand identifies the force at only 3,000 but is concerned that NK will be coming after our credit cards:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10876056

(their analysis is a little sketchy and our CCs have been at risk for quite some time, so it's not entirely "news")

Here is an article from HuffPost from last year right after S Korean banks were hit with a cyber attack that caused some problems. The article is written better that you would expect and has some good, entry-level vocabulary. Note the terms "Red Star" and "asymmetrical". You may be seeing more of these in the coming days.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/24/north-korea-cyber-warfare-warriors-trained-teams_n_2943907.html

Personal note: I'm not entirely convinced about the "asymmetrical" part. We do have some quality cyber warriors here in the States. Still, apparently their IT people are willing to work (if you can call it "willingness") for only $1,190 per year. 

Bottom line: if you do a Goggle search on the terms "North Korea Cyber Warfare" you will likely get over a million-and-a-half hits. Take a look and get familiar with some of the players and terminology. For anyone interested in Cyber Security, look for words like "DoS attack" or "DDoS attack" or "infrastructure attack" along with the rest. 

One place where the New Zealand article could be accurate is in our critical infrastructure security. Simple things like ATM machines, traffic signals, and even electricity providers are very vulnerable. It would not take a nuclear missile to knock us down -- just turn off the lights for 3 days ---

Be | Informed

Be | Safe

Why I Still Like PowerPoint

Recently, I had the opportunity to fly to a conference in Southern California. Like most conferences, there were several break-out sessions and in one, the presenter was preparing the projector and had PowerPoint fired up. Out of habit I looked to the lower right of the screen and saw “Slide 1 of 187”. Groan, I thought, 187 slides for a 2-hour presentation. This will be ghastly. And it was.

Now, I do recall doing lectures with an overhead projector and swapping out “transparencies” or (gasp) writing long hand with a permanent marker on long plastic scrolls; and in comparison, the PowerPoint was a welcome relief. The PowerPoint presentation allowed for nicer presentations with color and font changes, images, videos, and animation. We would say that using PowerPoint “brings our lectures to life.”

What we forgot is that the lecturer needed to be alive first for the presentation to be alive as well. And unfortunately, folks began to use PowerPoint as a sort of crutch to (hopefully) create liveliness where none existed. Where the PowerPoint was supposed to support the presentation, it instead was the focus of it. And in many cases, the PowerPoint became the lecture with the lecturer turned presenter only droning on and on the very words that appeared on the screen (double gasp).

But wait, there’s more.

In our highly media saturated culture, students today are bombarded with massive amounts of light, images, video, and sound – as are we all -- to the point where we are literally in a constant noise. Seriously, check yourself. How long can you or I go with silence before we reach for the smart phone for music or to check messages or to… (you’ve heard this before). So the trap that many have fallen into is the thinking that we have to compete with the noise for your attention so that you will hear the lesson through all of the clatter around you. And the solution is to take PowerPoints and make the highly animated with a lot of color changes, sounds, and more.

A few years ago, I was at an education conference in Baltimore where an instructor was proposing this very thing. His PowerPoint presentation was just LOADED with flashy colors, drastic font changes, video, and very loud music. His point, of course, was to “pierce the veil” of noise that surrounds you and get the message (his lecture) home.

Instead, what I noticed for myself was that the presentation was so loud that I could not track my own thoughts. And then I looked around the room and saw everyone – and I mean everyone – passively watching the show. It’s a phenomenon we call “TV Mode”. Watch for this yourself. It is something that occurs when someone is watching television and they instantly become very passive. Some use it to sedate over-active children. It is amazing to watch. And everyone in the room was in TV Mode.

PowerPoints as a tool

All this said, PowerPoint presentation can be effective if you remember to use it as the tool it was designed to be: a support of the presentation and not the presentation itself. To poorly coin a phrase, “PowerPoints don’t bore people; people bore people.”

There are some good PowerPoint presentations, and I have seen many that support textbooks and do it well. Because of the limited format of the slide and the amount of information you can reasonable put on it, the PPT presentation can perfectly become the synopsis of the most important information derived from the chapter. For the student, the PPTs become the instant study-guide for any class. When you are short on time during the week, you can make a quick breeze through the PowerPoints and you will have the gist of the lecture.

In my own studies, I like to have the PowerPoints open while I am reading the text. This “following along” helps me to identify the information that the author thought was most important; thus providing me a greater efficiency in the lesson.

PowerPoints are still an effective tool for any good presentation. We just need to remember that they are here to support us and not the other way around.