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These days companies are using Internet like never before, it is used for advertising, branding and for providing information to customers. The web is saturated with websites trying to market various products and services and with so much competition around there is always a pressing need to stand out of the crowd by presenting information enticingly.

In order to present data in an enticing manner, it is essential to implement data visualization tools while building websites or internet applications. Data visualization tools help in presenting information in an interactive manner and also facilitate display of data in interesting ways such as charts, maps or gauges.

Interactive maps are an excellent medium for presenting data and they can be used in reports, presentations or in real-time digital dashboards. An interactive map allows you to display information about each individual region. The data pertaining to a particular region becomes visible when the mouse cursor hovers over it. These maps have immense potential and they can be implied in many ways.

Companies from various industry segments have come up with innovative implications of interactive Flash maps. Airlines companies use interactive maps to show seat allocation, thereby allowing customers to book a seat of their choice. Travel portals and hotels sites make extensive use of Flash maps to show hotel locations along with other details such as address, contact details and availability. In some cases prospective customers even get to see the layout of the hotel and then book a room of their choice.

Multi-national organizations such as banks use maps for many purposes such as data analysis, product and market analysis etc. Here is a hypothetical situation in which banks can use Flash maps to aid in decision making. Prior to launching a particular product in the global market, banks can easily undertake an analysis of sales of similar products. Here maps may be employed to denote regions of high and low potential.

Most Flash map tools allow automatic coloring of different segments of the data range, so it is possible to automatically generate a color coded map that helps in identifying regions of high and low potential. Flash maps are also used extensively by consumer electronics companies. These companies put up Flash maps on their websites to help potential customers find authorized dealers and service centers.

Flash maps are rapidly gaining popularity and increasing number of designers are implementing them in their projects. One of the reasons behind the phenomenal success of Flash maps is the fact they can be customized extensively.

If you teach in a language classroom (ESL or any other language really), eventually you will ask your students to do an in-class presentation. Presentations are a great way for students to showcase their abilities and gain confidence using their new language in a stressful yet safe environment.

In most situations, the purpose of asking a language student prepare and perform a presentation is so that they can demonstrate their abilities to:

• choose their topics
• generate ideas by brainstorming
• then logically organize and show they can
• make sensible relationships between them
• use intelligible English in front of an audience
• all within a specific time frame

These are all very important skills, for a language learner who intended to peruse a career in business or in academics. For most language students just being able to accomplish these tasks in a new language is a great feat in itself – forget about complicating the process with posters and software like PowerPoint.

However, after nearly 15 years of teaching, I have found that the first thing students want to do is use PowerPoint. I think in most cases they feel that they will be more ‘impressive’. Regardless of the reasons, when students decide to use a software tool like PowerPoint, their focus changes from preparing a good presentation towards building the slides. As a result many problems crop up. Some of the most common traps you will see students falling into include:

• Including more text than needed
• Adding in distracting sliding visuals and sounds
• not practicing enough (because they use the slides as a crutch)
• reading slides word for word
• looking at the screen more than the audience
• having compatibility issues with the software

What so often ends up happening is that the technology gets in the way of the student putting on a decent presentation. Now I’m not blaming the technology here, the problem comes from lack of experience with both the technology and also with giving presentations. These problems are not limited to language learners by any means. Native English speakers who aren’t very experienced have very similar issues as well. However they can become a very bad combination for a language learner who is also trying to cope with language problems.

Regardless of whether you are a language student, or a native language speaker, you really want to avoid:

1. handing out the slides on paper, then
2. putting the same slides up for the audience to read and then
3. reading the slides out loud as your presentation.

This would simply be a waste of everyone’s time.
So should language learners use PowerPoint as a tool for giving presentations? Well I think the answer to that is a qualified ‘yes’. Before they do, they need to be reasonably comfortable with the language they are studying. Then they need to have some instruction/guidance in developing content and presenting it with PowerPoint. Once they’ve had that, they will be more capable of controlling the technology instead of being controlled by it.