In this post, I thought of sharing my views and experiences with PechaKucha – An antidote for death by PowerPoint.
Here are the rules of the game: PechaKucha (The 20-20 version of PowerPoint) is a rapidfire, but effective method by which 20 images are shown, each for 20 seconds. Text may be used but the usage must be highly limited. The beauty of this method is that your speech is restricted to those 20 seconds as the slide transition happens automatically. This means that your entire presentation will be 20 slides x 20 seconds = 400 seconds, or 6.40 minutes! The speech part hence needs some careful planning.
Although this technique was originally invented for architects, this is one of the most popular methods in PowerPoint presentations. After watching a series of beautiful PechaKuchas, I finally decided to try it out with my students. I prepared a PechaKucha for a science lesson and explained the concepts in 6.40 minutes. I was able to observe its effects in three phases
- During the lesson the students were more attentive and receptive
- The student’s retention power was enhanced and I was able to observe this in subsequent testing
- Compared to my usual classes, the PechaKucha sessions had the students to come up with more questions and ideas
Although I haven’t tried this method for high school students, I am eagerly looking towards testing this method for more complicated topics for higher classes based on my experience so far.
Have you used PechaKucha for educational purposes for students of primary, secondary or high school levels? If so, I request you to share your experiences here.
Happy reading!
Vytheeshwaran Vedagiri's Blog 
Thanks for the post! I had never heard of Pecha Kucha. Interesting that you used it to present TO your students. I think it would be a great challenge for the students to create their own, in order to demonstrate their understanding/application of what they learned.
PechaKucha is a different experience by itself. I felt wonderful after preparing a PechaKucha and better after using it. Like you’ve just mentioned, watching your student create a PechaKucha on what was taught is one thing that will make your day! 🙂
Thanks for your comment!
I’d also never heard of Pecha Kucha before reading your post. It sounds like an interesting idea with potential for language learning. It could work with a sequence of story pictures or for focusing on descriptions and it would work really well as a fluency activity for the students to tackle.
I’d be very interested in seeing some screencasts of Pecha Kucha in action. In fact, doing it for a screencast would be a great way to practice as well!
Agreed. I feel that this technique has a lot to offer for a wide spectrum of presenters. In fact, I wanted to do the screencast as a part of my self evaluation. Do give this a try and let me know your experience. You can get to know more about PechaKucha at http://www.pecha-kucha.org/
Happy PowerPointing! 🙂
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