Friday, May 22, 2009

Set your presentations on fire


My students are preparing to give their presentations on renewable energy and what they have learned from reading Plan B 3.0 and related readings. I've decided that this time around, I'm going to have them use the Ignite format for their presentations. Basically what that means is that they will be given five minutes and 20 slides (that automatically rotate every 15 seconds) to present their ideas. The students are in various stages of pseudo-panic about this: some think five minutes is so long, others say that there is no way they can present in that short a time. I think this format will work really well. I like the structure this promises, and I also think that teaching them to be concise in their delivery will prove invaluable. I have become pretty hooked on Edmodo. I've started using feeds for some of the groups I've used and I've discovered that when you put in a link to a video, it actually embeds it in the message... very nice! The next piece of tech I want to master is OpenZine. OpenZine is basically a way to design and publish online magazines. OpenZine definitely represents some cool possibilities for my classes next year; I'm already thinking about the possibilities for class and IB Academy magazines. (Cross posted to my teacher blog.)

4 comments:

Jeff Lewis said...
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Jeff Lewis said...

This is also known as pecha kucha and was started in Japan with a similar format, 20 slides for 20 seconds each. Here is an article about it from Wired, which also in Daniel Pink's example from Youtube.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-09/st_pechakucha

This is a great idea for your students Todd. I am anxious to see the results of their work.

Joseph Miller said...

I noticed you had the Ignite Denver icon on this page. You should present or ask a student to present at the next meeting (it is usually in a bar, so maybe the student idea is not great). Dave claimed he was going to do a presentation on Mtn Lions or Coyotes at the last Ignite, but didn't. Maybe this time he can do one on why Mtn Lions are dangerous to people and how I will use this fear to become mayor of Idledale.

Also, the author of Plan B 3.0 was on Science Friday today on NPR. I am sure you can get it through archive. Good stuff.

Todd said...

Just got an invite via Twitter from IgniteDenver to have the best student(s) present. I told them it'd need to be in a kid-friendly venue, but I'm super psyched about the invite!