Author: Katherine Lithgow

As Senior Instructional Developer, Integrative Learning, Katherine Lithgow facilitates ePortfolio and Integrative Learning initiatives, supporting instructors across campus with the design and implementation of activities that help students integrate learning in academic, workplace, community and social environments. Prior to joining the Centre for Teaching Excellence, Katherine taught Cytology at The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences. She received her BA from the University of Toronto, and a Master’s in Educational Technology from UBC. In what seems like another life, Katherine worked as a cytotechnologist graduating from TMI’s Cytology program.

Pecha Kucha – PowerPoint with Rules!

By Katherine Lithgow

It’s been compared to a poetry slam. It has taken place in bars, nightclubs, universities, churches, private homes and studios. It began in Tokyo and has spread world-wide. What is it? Well, it’s a power point presentation. More specifically, it is a power point presentation with rules. Pecha Kucha, (pronounced peh-chahk’-cha), Japanese for chatter, is a short powerpoint presentation with a time and slide limit- 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide, for a total presentation time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

The “rules” were created by a two Tokyo-based architects in 2003 to provide a format where designers could take turns presenting their work to each other without having one person monopolize the time leaving little to no time for others to present their work.

What interests me about this presentation format is the way that it can be used in the classroom. The structure is great for introducing material, providing a broad context or summary (see Linda Carson’s art history lesson ‘From Rembrandt to Lady Gaga in 5 minutes’) or telling a story to present information. It works especially well with material that is highly visual.

A lot of what I learned about pecha kucha came from a discussion on the POD* listserv. Hope Greenburg (POD listserv post 2/3/2011 ) shared the following suggestions for using pecha kucha in the classroom-

Do an overview highlighting major points that will be addressed later in the class
Provide the “big picture” of why this topic is important for this class or for the field, how it relates to what has gone before, etc.
Set the scene for introducing a point that may be important but not easy to get at another way,
Build a complex chart or graph to illustrate the process as well as the final result.

The strict adherence to time makes it useful as a way to provide a larger number of students the opportunity for oral presentation in the classroom and it is good practice at getting to the point of a presentation. Linda Carson (BKI), for example, had each of her students create a pecha kucha to share their reflections on what they had learned during their museum trip to Amsterdam. The presentations were collected into one large power point and automatically advanced. Students literally lined up around the room and came forward as the slide to their section came up.

There are challenges associated with the format. A lot of preparation goes into creating a pecha kucha and a lot of rehearsing is required to coordinate the timing of the slides with the narrative. The structure doesn’t allow for interaction with the audience during the presentation, and it isn’t a good method to use to go into a concept in depth.

But it is a good way to learn a little bit about something in a short amount of time. And it can be entertaining to watch and participate in. I’d be interested in knowing if anyone decides to incorporate it into their classroom and what you thought of the experience.

Resources and sources:

http://www.pecha-kucha.org/

Hope Greenburg – Avoiding “Powerpoint to Death” http://www.uvm.edu/~hag/courses/jtb/jtb-powerpoint.pdf

Daniel Pink- http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha

Posts on POD listserv February 2011- search Pecha kucha

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/09/pecha-kucha-and.html___________________________________

The Centre for Teaching Excellence welcomes contributions to its blog. If you are a faculty member, staff member, or student at the University of Waterloo (or beyond!) and would like contribute a posting about some aspect of teaching or learning, please contact Mark Morton or Trevor Holmes.

Knowing Oneself and Appreciating Others Through Leadership Training — Katherine Lithgow & Mohammad Feisal Rahman

Feisal is PhD student in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Student Leadership Certificate Program (SLP)- “one of the great resources on campus”- Feisal Rahman.
The Student Leadership Certificate Program (SLP) provides an opportunity for any current student (undergraduate or graduate) at UW to develop leadership capabilities which will serve them well on campus and long after they graduate. For example, among the many workshops offered through the SLP are workshops which address principles of teamwork and collaboration. The program is designed to encourage all students to participate regardless of whether they are in a leadership role. The intent of program is to explore and enhance UW students’ leadership capabilities, and to help students gain knowledge and develop skills in leadership on campus and within the community. Continue reading Knowing Oneself and Appreciating Others Through Leadership Training — Katherine Lithgow & Mohammad Feisal Rahman

“Fail often to succeed sooner”- IDEO

By Katherine Lithgow

I noticed these words on the door as I entered an instructor’s office, and commented on how appropriate they were, particularly in light of the fact that we were meeting to discuss how eportfolios could be used to help her students. She wanted to incorporate their use into a project her students would begin in the winter 2010 term and complete the following winter 2011 term with different aspects of the project being addressed in a number of different courses. Continue reading

Laptops and Student Learning – Katherine Lithgow

tux_dell_laptop_11 I was involved recently in an interesting email “discussion” prompted by a query from a professor interested in how other profs manage student conduct in class. The professor had been experiencing a significant number of students using their laptops, cell phones, and iPods during the lecture and was asking for suggestions on how other instructors were addressing situations where students were using laptops during classes to answer emails, look at unrelated web sites, play games etc. Continue reading Laptops and Student Learning – Katherine Lithgow

Seeing is Believing: Using Visuals and Demonstrations – Katherine Lithgow

I had the opportunity to attend Richard Wells’ Kin 160 Ergonomics in Industry class this past week and was treated to a variety of demonstrations which gave me a flavour of what ergonomics is all about.

During the last week of class, the students were able to apply what they had learned about factors ranging from furniture to noise and lighting, by using that knowledge to promote well being and system performance in the design of a call centre. In class, we had a chance to ’feel’ what the various recommendations were like. We tried reading at various light levels; we measured the light level in the classroom to see how it compared to the recommended value; we noted the classroom temperature and compared it to the recommended value. We also got a sense of what it was like to carry on conversations in a number of work place settings by talking at a normal level with our neighbours while various recordings of different noise levels were played ranging from factory noise to household noise. We also ‘heard’ how pink noise could improve the noise levels in work environments.

Demonstrations during the lectures are not new for this class. I looked at the Kin 160 UW-ACE site and

This scene illustrates some of the worst outcomes of poor job design and work organization

read some of the weekly blogs that Richard posts for his class and found that the Candy Factory clip from the ‘I LOVE LUCY’ show had been used to ‘sum up some of the worst outcomes of poor job design and work organization.’

The students then participated in their own assembly line process of ‘writing a letter to Santa’ exercise which illustrated how one person could become overloaded while others had plenty of rest time. The Demand/Control Model was used to assess this situation and demonstrate ‘how important job design is to create system performance and human well being.’

Students also are given the opportunity to provide examples which reinforce what they are learning in the class by submitting photos of good and bad ergonomics design.

Throughout the term, Richard has used demonstrations to show how ergonomics concepts are applicable to most work and leisure activities. When you can actually experience to some extent the impacts of good and bad ergonomics design, you’re better able to describe the impact of ergonomic design on people’s health and performance, and from experience can describe how and why this can occur which, it so happens, is one of the course objectives!

One of Richard’s final blogs for the course encourages students to pay attention to ergonomics in their everyday life, ‘Make sure you use the ideas to improve your own well being and performance… there is now good evidence that university age people are developing chronic musculoskeletal problems from their academic computer use and setting themselves up for reoccurrences of these problems; remember, primary prevention is the way to go.’ Learning a lot easier when you can see how you benefit directly from the knowledge.