4th Form ICT 0809
 
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Lessons 25 and 26: Pecha Kucha — II

These two lessons will be based around your presentations and the blog posts you made over the holiday (lesson 24).  This is the work you should have completed this holiday:

(1)  Have a read of Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic and write briefly on  your blog what lessons you take away from this.  Watch Don McMillan's How NOT to Use PowerPoint: what are the problems he lists?  Make a note of these in the same blog post.

(2)  Create your own mini Pecha Kucha, 5–10 slides, on a topic that's important to you, using one of the following: PowerPoint; Google Docs; SlideShare. 

(3)  Research your topic using Wikipedia.  As well as showing the slides under timed conditions (20 seconds per slide) you must, after the talk, say how you researched it and how you evaluated the reliability of the Wikipedia material you used.


The lesson will start with some discussion about your blogged prep, what you wrote, your thoughts and views.


Pecha Kucha is a challenge even for experienced presenters.  Before you begin on your presentations, here's one to watch, a Pecha Kucha (20 slides that auto-advance after, in this case, 15 seconds) on one aspect of what we called (back in lesson 3) the Victorian "internet":


(If you're interested in finding out more about the use of pneumatic tubes in the nineteenth century for communication within cities the US Postal Museum has a brief page about them — and here's an About.com page about pneumatic technology generally.  In fact, in Sweden pneumatic tubes for communication are still is use.)

Discuss briefly how you think this talk worked.


Factors we all need to think about in creating and giving presentations include:
  • A slide is not a document: slides should serve generally to reinforce the speaker's message — they're not there to be read.  (What usually happens when there's a lot of text on slides? The presenter uses the slides as a teleprompter and the audience reads them faster than they get spoken.)
  • Avoid clutter and meaningless visual overload: presentation software comes with lots of possibilities for design themes, bullets, animations, etc …  Be simple and clear.
  • When you present data, it's very tempting to plunge with abandonment into the chart and graph options. …  Edward Tufte calls the widespread misuse of these chartjunk: the result leaves the audience floundering.  Instead, highlight what's important.  Remember, you're not writing a document.
  • "It's tough to find a good use for many of the custom animation features in PowerPoint."  (Nancy Duarte)
  • Some experienced presenters think about presenting as an ecosystem: three things have to work together for a successful presentation — the ideas you have, the visual story you create and the way you deliver the talk.
  • "To succeed as a presenter, you must think like a designer."  (Nancy Duarte)
  • "Great presenters connect with their audience, speak naturally and allow the slides to enhance their story."  (Nancy Duarte)

Have a look back to Minard's great 1869 visualisation of Napoleon's disastrous 1812–1813 Russian Campaign in Lesson 24.  (There's much more about Minard's work here.)  How many variables does his drawing depict and how easy is it to grasp these and their significance?

Here's a snapshot of some text from Nancy Duarte's book, slide:ology:


Learning to combine ideas and the visual and then to project the result in a captivating way is challenging and not something schools have necessarily handled well.  See how you get on.  Be smart but fair critics of each other's performances and learn what you can from each other.

Prep: publish your presentation on your weblog along with an honest appraisal of how you felt you did and what you've learned from others.