Brain Rules, Pecha Kucha, and Age +2

Beth Kanter's blog is a definite read. Today's posting is "Brain Rules for Presenters" with a embedded slide show entitled "Takeaways and Quotes from Dr John Medina's Brain Rules: What all Presenters Need to know". John Medina's website is at http://www.johnmedina.com/.

One point John Medina makes is attention span drops off sharply after 10 minutes, so every ten minutes, break up your presentation with a story, exercise, etc. Pretty much in harmony with the Age +2 approach (although that would make each block 20 minutes for adults) and the Pecha Kucha approach of about 6.5 minutes.

I do like the idea of the fixed time format of Pecha Kucha although I haven't tried to incorporate it into my classes yet. Sad to say I'm still bludgeoning with PowerPoint and waaay too many bullet points. It is important to remember that the format was designed not so much for teaching but as a way of limiting time so multiple presenters would have a chance to show their stuff and consists of 20 images displayed for 20 seconds each.

So if we average 6.5, 10 and 20 we get a little over 12 minutes per unit and given the normal 50 minute class time there would be time for 3 or 4 units depending on how long the "change gears" section lasts.

He also talks about exercise as good for the brain as well as the rest of the body, and the use of images in presentations. All designed to get attention, keep attention, and stimulate the potential to recall information. Kathy Sierra, who sadly no longer blogs, called it "getting past the brain's crap filter". There is a wonderful archived post called "Crash Course in Learning Theory" at http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/01/crash_course_in.html.