What is pecha kucha?

Last week I did a professional development presentation at work in pecha kucha format. What, you're asking, is pecha kucha? It's a challenge - 20 PowerPoint slides, 20 seconds each, no bullet points. The point of pecha kucha (Japanese for chit chat) is to present a big idea, in a highly visual format, and to do it efficiently. The parlour game version of PK is hitting cities everywhere - the last one in Vancouver sold out, to an audience of 1150 at the Vogue Theatre.  The next one in Vancouver - the 11th PK Night - will be held May 26 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Pecha kucha started in Tokyo in 2003 - it was created by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham Architects. While it was developed for people working in architecture and design, PK is a format that has endless potential. Here's an example from youtube showing you how PK works in a presentation on signs:


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My PK was on online learning - specifically, on the intro post in Moodle. I used some of the great ideas presented in an online seminar called Pimp Your Post - Jazzing up Introductory Posts in Online Courses moderated by our own Tracy Roberts - thanks Tracy! I showed 20 images that symbolized WHY the instructor's intro post is important and some options for HOW to make the intro post personal, informative and visual. The images are paired with narrative - the story behind the images is as important as the visual punch. There's no stopping for questions until the end - and the slides are set to move every 20 seconds so you have to be well-prepared and rehearsed. My favourite image from my PK is this one:

Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license to stringberd

Now a challenge for you - what point was I making about WHY the instructor should make his or her online intro first, before inviting the students to dive in? What does this image represent to you?