Pecha Kucha and communication skills: Students’ perceptions

1. February 15-16, 2019 Pecha Kucha and communication skills: Students’ perceptions Aïda EL-SOUFI Assistant Professor University of Balamand - LEBANON

2. Introduction • Importance of oral presentations (university level) • to master the content • to improve oral communication skills • Importance of these skills in the field of education: making oral presentations in class

3. Facts Students • do not master the techniques of oral presentation, • do not know how to speak in public, • read the contents of the slide show (blocks of text), • do not organize the information, • exceed the time allowed.

4. Pecha Kucha : Presentation of Concept • "Pecha Kucha" (Japanese): "conversation noise" or "chatter". • Invented by two architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (2003): fight against long and boring presentations. • Pecha Kucha or 20x20: imposes a limited number of slides (20 slides) which follow one another automatically in a rather short time (20 seconds each) for a total duration of 6 minutes 40 seconds. • The presentation must be simple, clear and concise

5. Pecha Kucha : Added Value • Create more creative slideshows - presentations that are burdened with blocks of text that do not allow students to develop their oral presentation skills (Murugaiah, 2016). • Pecha Kucha allows students • to use Power Point in a more interesting and creative way (Klentzin, Paladino, Johnston, & Devine, 2010; Robinson, 2015). • to develop creativity in the use of oral presentations: reduce text blocks and give importance to the use of illustrations (Lucas & Rawlins, 2015). • to develop critical thinking, to carefully plan the presentation and to present the slide show more effectively (Murugaiah, 2016).

6. Only visual format: automatic slide for 20-second duration/ illustrations or graphics (Glendall, 2007). • Attractive, engaging and enjoyable for the audience (Christianson & Payne, 2011; Nguyen, 2015). • Pleasant and useful format: focusing on the main ideas, practising more, allowing the audience to be more engaged and attentive (Beyer, 2011). • Student stress: Exercise at length in a rigid format to ensure a smooth presentation (Christianson & Payne, 2011).

7. Target Public • 9 French educated students - master's level • French language teachers • Course: Integration of Educational Technologies • innovative pedagogical approaches for teaching and learning • educational technologies • active methods • project-based learning • Theoretical content: wiki, Forum, PowerPoint presentation • Create educational sequences

8. Approach and Methodology • Research: definition of Pecha Kucha (characteristics, advantages, disadvantages). • Viewing Pecha Kucha: Understanding the Principle - enriching class discussions. • Projection of 2 Pecha Kucha (highlight the characteristics of this technique, the most/least appreciated elements, their point of view) • Pecha Kucha: individually presenting a theory of learning

9. Pecha Kucha: new approach (anxiety and stress)  give a try to have feedback improve the presentation. • For each presentation: • size of the image relative to the slide, • image quality, clarity and understanding, • number of words in each slide • idea conveyed

10. Feedback: • content (choice of illustrations, illustration-content correspondence), • techniques of oral communication (pronunciation, flow, look, gestures ...), • Pecha Kucha format • time (6'40 - 20 seconds/slide) • evaluation criteria

11. Evaluation: Oral Discussion Oral discussions - last session: • evaluate the use of Pecha Kucha • compare it to previous presentations • give their point of view • present the difficulties encountered • present the added value

12. Evaluation : Survey 10 open questions speak freely without being influenced by the choices • advantages and disadvantages • oral skill development • use in other courses - with school audience

13. Summary of Discussions and Survey • Difficulty understanding • principle of the format: 20 slides x 20 seconds • presentation of the content: almost exclusively by illustrations • Need to practice • Importance of timing the duration of the presentation: Matching the slide flow with the oral content • Difficulty to respect the constraint time (20 seconds/slide): read the content – digressions • Difficulty watching the audience: fear of being overwhelmed by automatic slide show

14. Difficulty finding meaningful illustrations of good quality • Difficulty creating presentations with minimal text • Difficulty to master the language, to master the techniques of oral presentation and to have an oral fluency to do a good Pecha Kucha

15. Appreciate this new technique: • reduce the size of oral presentations and public boredom • create dynamic and concise presentations (attract and motivate the audience) • present the content in an attractive and creative way • easily follow the presentations of others • better understand the message conveyed • better remember the most important information. Difficulty adopting this technique in all classes: preparation time required (time-consuming)

16. Reduced duration (6 minutes 40 seconds) and fast flow • maintain the interest and attention of the public • present a theme in an original and concise way • choose the most relevant information to share with the audience. • Short duration: skip certain notions, deliver important information

17. Conclusion • Positive and enthusiastic opinion of the students - subjective perception and point of view • Further study and explore the influence of this technique on • the acquisition of technological and linguistic skills, • Self-confidence, • decrease or increase in student anxiety during presentations • mastery of the content presented by the students and the audience.

18. Bibliographie • Beyer, A. M. (2011). Improving Student Presentations: Pecha Kucha and Just Plain PowerPoint. Teaching of Psychology 38(2), 122-126. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0098628311401588 • Christianson, M., & Payne, S. (2011). Helping students develop skills for better presentations: Using the 20x20 format for presentation training. Language Research Bulletin, 26, 1-15. Retrieved from https://icu.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=pages_view_main&active_action=repository_view_main_item_detail&item_id=2660&item_no=1&page_id=13&block_id=17 • Foyle, H. C., & Childress, M. D. (2015). Pecha Kucha for better PowerPoint presentations. National Social Science Association. Retrieved from http://www.nssa.us/tech_ journal/volume_1-1/vol1-1_article2.htm • Klentzin, J. C., Paladino, E. B., Johnston, B. & Devine, C. (2010). Pecha Kucha: Using “lightning talk” in university instruction. Reference Services Review, 38(1), 158-167. Retrieved from https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/00907321011020798 • Lehtonen, M. (2011). Communicating Competence Through Pechakucha Presentations. Journal of Business Communication, 448(4), 464-481. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021943611414542?journalCode=jobc • Levin, M.A, & Peterson, L.T. (2013). Use of pechakucha in marketing students’ presentations. Marketing Education Review, 23(1), 59–63. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/MER1052-8008230110?journalCode=mmer20 • Murugaiah, P. (2016). Pecha Kucha style PowerPoint presentation: An innovative call approach to developing presentation skills of tertiary students. Teaching English with Technology, 16(1), 88-104. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1135930

19. Thank you