Here is a brief justification of our use of the Pecha Kucha medium for our digital story:
We chose a medium that would work well with our course topic of introductory postsecondary research and writing, so we chose to work with Pecha Kucha as it is a proven effective storytelling technique (Beyer, 2011). On first glance it might seem like Pecha Kucha is a slide show presentation, but Pecha Kucha presentations are more strategic than slideshows or traditional PowerPoint presentations in the use of storytelling, images, and time.
Pecha Kucha presentations are generally 20 photos with 20 seconds per photo. The difference between a Pecha Kucha and a slide presentation is the focus on the visuals within the slides. Pecha Kucha stories don’t deliver information through text on a screen, the images speak for themselves as guiding tools for the audio storytelling. Pecha Kucha storytelling encourages the presenter to condense their ideas into bite sized “chunks,” which helps keep viewers engaged (Carter et al., 2001). According to findings, “…by using diagrams and visual metaphors instead of just text, the perception of the presenter by his or her audience can be improved” (Kernbach et al., 2015, p. 179)
Pecha Kucha (ペチャクチャ in Japanese, and pronounced peh-CHA koo-CHA) is a digital storytelling format created by architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Tokyo, Japan in February 2003. The word pechakucha itself is an onomatopoeic word for the sound of conversation, and the format is intended to provoke dialogue and discourse.
To meet the assignment guidelines, we shortened the Pecha Kucha slightly to 13 photos but we feel our product still holds true to the concept– a visually compelling presentation that engages the audience and provokes further discussion. Please note that the length of our video is due to our two combined time allotments. Another interesting challenge was creating the audio for the piece. We are located in Vancouver, British Columbia (Joyce) and in Calgary, Alberta (Alexis) so we needed to account for geographical and time differences while still remaining true to the dynamic nature of Pecha Kucha. We recorded our session live and synchronously; though this required a number of takes, we were committed to the fluidity and spontaneity of Pecha Kucha.
We centred the narrative of our digital story in the Pecha Kucha on the challenges and issues we faced in our own postsecondary writing and how we overcame some of these struggles. Our story is, first and foremost, intended to help us connect and gain trust with our students. At the same time, we refer to tools that might be helpful to them in the transition into postsecondary writing: research search techniques, writing organization strategies, generating quality writing topics, and social emotional skills such as self-reflexivity and perseverance. Because Pecha Kucha are intended as a way to provoke discussion, we will follow up this digital story in our Course Module with student opportunities to discuss our video further, or to create their own.
Thanks for reading and watching!
Alexis and Joyce
To learn more about Pecha Kucha presentations, please check out the following resources:
General Information:
http://www.pechakucha.org/
Youtube:
How PechaKucha Changed My Life: Eddie Selover at TEDxOrlando
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM4TXMBGLdY
In Vancouver:
https://www.pechakucha.org/cities/vancouver
http://www.pechakuchavancouver.com/
In Calgary:
https://www.pechakucha.org/cities/calgary
https://www.facebook.com/PechaKuchaYYC/
References
Beyer, A.M. (2011). Improving student presentations: Pecha kucha and just plain PowerPoint. Teaching of Psychology, 38 (2), 122-126.8
Carter, T., Hardy, C. A., & Hardy, J. C. (2001). Latin vocabulary acquisition: An experiment using information-processing techniques of chunking and imagery. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 28(4), 225.
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., & Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal of Business Communication, 52 (2), 164-187. 10.1177/2329488414525444