Presentations for Short Attention Spans

How many times have you sat through PD and thought, "Wow, that just dragged on forever" or "I have no interest in that"?  Have you ever attended a conference, picked a session to attend, and realized pretty quickly the session you chose was not the best choice..and now you have to sit there for an hour..?  Have you ever watched your students become bored during lectures or student presentations?

I'd like to share a method of presenting that may be helpful for those with short attention spans.   One of my favorite hobbies is using Twitter to creep on educators I haven't met - one of them tweeted about this presentation style in December.  It is called Pecha Kucha - originated in Japan, meaning 'chit-chat'.

Here are the three rules:

1.  20 slides
2.  Only one picture on each slide
3.  Slide advances every 20 seconds


Download this powerpoint template. (It takes you to a google doc, then go to 'file' and click 'download'.)   This template automatically advances the slide every 20 seconds.

It is neat because you know the presentation will definitely last 6 mins and 40 seconds.  If the first presentation is boring, a new one will definitely start in 6 mins and 40 seconds.  If it is PD, then you can just sit there happily knowing it will end soon.  

If you are using this tactic for student presentations, the students are forced to practice ahead of time because the slide will switch on them every 20 seconds and they have to know their stuff -  no words to read off from the slide.  They can also use their netbooks (photostory?) to record their voices over the slides and make pecha kucha youtube videos.

Below is a Pecha Kucha presentation about Pecha Kucha.



like TEDTalks but presented by regular people!  http://www.pechakucha.org/