It was good to see the recent article by Jay Cross concerning PowerPoint in the latest issue of Chief Learning Officer. PowerPoint is probably the most misunderstood, misused and maligned software program used for instruction today. I started using PowerPoint over 10 years ago in the Education arena. Because budgets are so tight in public education and you can find PowerPoint installed on all the computers in our district, I've really been pushing teacher use/instruction of PowerPoint for incorporating into the daily, instructional process of our classes. I even started a free teacher resource site for them to access called PPT4Teachers.com, as well as sending out a monthly newsletter. Beginning with the 2005 school year, I'm even teaching an experimental class called Presentation Skills. This class is a combination of Public Speaking, Drama and Technology all on steroids. Part of the responsibility of the class during the 2nd semester will be for them to fulfill the role of a tutor to assigned teachers, and let the students teach the teachers how to design / develop effective / engaging instruction for the classroom. It was interesting to note how concepts from Cliff Atkinson's book "Beyond Bullet Points" is now reaching the mainstream of business sector training initiatives. I've been using that approach this year in teaching concepts to my Presentation Skills class. By the end of this first semester, they're all well versed in how to use images as metaphors and develop their message. Now I'm curious...where will we and PowerPoint go from here???