PechaKucha

Kim’s HILARIOUS post on her email mishap on PowerPoint suckage made me giggle aloud. I watched the Scott McCloud presentation that got her all riled up and realized he was essentially doing a PechaKucha presentation, though certainly a much longer one that the standard six minute version.

From the website:

PechaKucha Night was devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world (397 and counting), inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat" (pronounced peh-chak-cha), it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

One of the classes I teach is an elective called The Contemporary World. It is open to 9-12 grade students and is usually about 50% 9^th graders as it is the only Social Science elective open to them. As a class we spend the first half of the semester studying regions of the world (Middle East, South America, Western Europe, etc…) chosen by the class. The second half of the semester each student chooses a country around which to build their portfolio. No one else in the class has their country and they are essentially the ‘expert.’ The portfolio is comprised of a number of components: statistics, brief history, interview a national, etc… I believe strongly in students presenting their work to their peers and particularly since no one else in the class is studying their chosen country, I wanted students to present about their country. But what? The thought of 25 PowerPoint presentations on boring-a## stuff like GDP with pie charts was enough to make me want to stab myself in the eyeball with a pencil. What to do, what to do…

Never doubt the power of beer (and camaraderie). I have many friends who are artists of varying types. Many of them are involved in one way or another with our local Champaign-Urbana chapter of PechaKucha and through them, it is an organization with which I am familiar. Secret: I hope to one day present at one in C-U, possibly on the crazy awesomeness of my classroom or a history of birth control. Surprisingly, these two things are not mutually exclusive in my teaching. ANYWAY, one night while consuming a nightcap with my artsy neighbors, inspiration came to my door step. To prevent me from imminent blindness, my Contemporary World students would do a PechaKucha presentation on their country.

I would provide them a loose frame work but essentially the world (of creativity) was theirs. Standard PechaKucha presentations are 20 seconds per slide with 20 slides = 6 minute 40 second presentation. I decided to shorten the requirements to 15 slides and this resulted in 5 minute presentations in order fit more presentations into a class period. It was gonna be awesome.

I had handouts. Gorgeous handouts. I had examples of PechaKuchas. Lovely examples. I scheduled more time in the computer lab than Abraham himself could have wanted. I would have thought my students would bolt out of the starting gate on this project and just go-go-go. Some did. Some did not. I was surprised at how many of my students were not comfortable with the loose framework provided for them. They wanted direction. Specifics. Freedom was scary.

Daily computer lab scenario:

Student: Ms. Klebbe, what should I do for the ______________ slide (geography, politics, economics, you name it) of my country?

Me: What do you think your classmates should know about ______________?

Student (inner monologue): Why can’t she just tell me?!?

It came time for class presentations. I was nervous. They were nervous. Slides were timed to 20 seconds and rationales turned in. Student A presented. And it didn’t suck! In fact, it didn’t suck at all. Student B presented—and it was everything I had hoped for: witty, quick and interesting. Some of the presentations did suck but overall I was really pleased and proud of their presentations. I am confident they learned much and their peers got a fun cool glimpse of their country.

And I made it through three consecutive days of presentations with my sight intact.

Cool thing: a department colleague asked for my materials on the PechaKuchas and had their honors US History students do PechaKuchas in their class.

Check out two C-U rad PechaKuchas: Prairie Fruits Farm & Creamery and my dear friend Andy Warfel.

Want my materials? I will gladly email them to you—just want your version in return.