PowerPoint and Labor in the Mediated Classroom

As media scholars and PowerPoint users, we have a reflexive role in aiming to understand the significance of classroom media. We are surprised at how little the new technological instruments of academic work, such as e-mail and learning management systems have come under scrutiny by communication scholars as media of pedagogy. New social protocols have develped around the use uf these new media technologies, as in the past, with photocopiers and voicemail. Appreciating th ways in which PowerPoint and academic labor have been joined together represents an opportunity to examine how digital technologies are used (or misused) in different social settings, and in particular, how they are transforming the work of higher eduation.