Pecha Kucha, Ignite and Flash Sessions

Pecha Kucha, pronounced “pe-chak-cha” (see http://www.pecha-kucha.org/what or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdghID66kLs for help with the pronunciation) “is a simple presentation format where you show 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images forward automatically and you talk along to the images.” Pecha Kucha presentations (also called Flash or Sprint sessions) typically use 20 PowerPoint slides each displayed for 20 seconds which limit the presenter to 6 minutes and 40 seconds to convey a concept or idea.

Ignite Law is a weekly Pecha Kucha event held in Chicago for lawyers and is free (with a ticket). It’s just one example of regularly scheduled Pecha Kucha sessions around the country. Many educational conferences are beginning to incorporate this type of event within their conference schedule. An example is the upcoming Summer Institute on Distance Learning and Instructional Technology (SIDLIT) sponsored by Colleague to Colleague and JCCC (supported by Staff and Organizational Development and the Ed Tech Center). Check out http://www.c2conline.org/ or http://www.sidlit.org/ for more information.

If you’d like to see video from the Ignite Law sessions, check out http://www.ignitelaw.com/video/. Additionally, you can see a Pecha Kucha training video about Pecha Kucha presentations at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGaCLWaZLI4.

Could this concept be valuable in the classroom? Or maybe there’s an application for PowerPoint Karaoke (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSsj0wmeS00&NR=1).