In this observation, I observed the final project presentations of the students in TRU’s summer language and culture program. I have observed the students in each form of their classes in the program. The students are aged 13-18 years old and range in English language abilities. They have all spent time living in Canada, and come from different parts of the world.
The Pecha Kucha presentation is a fixed presentation. What I mean by this is that it has a certain way it is constructed and delivered. Each Pecha Kucha is 20 slides in length and each slide is explained for 20 seconds. Most Pecha Kucha presentations showcase limited images and text on the slide. I have watched and helped develop many Pecha Kucha presentations, so I know exactly the surprising amount of work they can be. Due to the limited amount of time in the program the instructor assigned groups and required the students to create their presentation in small groups. She encouraged the students to have their presentations written before they had their second one on one session so she could spend the time assisting students.
The delivery of the Pecha Kuchas was awkward and brought some unforeseen technical difficulties. I wondered if these difficulties were a product of how the Big Blue Button room was set up. It was set up to need a moderator to run the class. Having the moderator prevents the presenter mode from being fluidly moved around. The downside was this caused time to be wasted by the transitions from one group to another. This is an important thing to consider, do I keep more control in the online environment, or do I allow students to have more ability to curate the space. In my practicum, I found that it was distracting to allow students to use the interactive whiteboards as they would draw pictures and write overtop of important text. This is something I will think about as I use this platform to teach further.