Pecha Kucha is an alternative presentation format that is based on a very simple idea : 20 images x 20 seconds,  a total time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. The format makes presentations short and concise in order to stimulate audience attention.  Pecha Kucha originated in Tokyo in 2003 as an innovative way for young designers to meet, network and show their work in public. The upcoming Learning Link at the Centre is keen on integrating innovative presentation and facilitation methods. We hope to present some of the results of this upcoming event on this blog.

If you want to see a sample of a Pecha Kucha Presentation, check the following examples:

Example 1
Example 2

Similar presentation formats:

Ignite

SpeedGeeking

Ligthning talk

Since the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness , a slew of events, statements and policy discussions have focused on the role of training and learning within the larger context of capacity development . As integral players in the development process, training and learning practitioners continue to encounter enormous obstacles in their attempts to enhance the operational effectiveness and to improve the impact of learning and training programmes, let alone meet the growing demands of measurement and knowledge management. It is time to put the tactics we promote into practice and to train each other in a participatory and experiential environment. From the 7-11, December the ITC-ILO will host the

Conceived as a practical off-shoot of policy and practice reform initiatives within the development community, the Learning Link will foster the exploration of unconventional approaches, experimentation with innovative technologies, and the expansion of time-honoured techniques all on a foundation of collaboration.

Despite the great volume of discourse and clear commitments to the cause, meaningful action with positive impacts and the potential to be scaled up remains elusive. Paris was a starting point, visibility of learning and training professionals on the Accra Agenda for Action took that one step further. With the Berlin Statement on International Development Training last year and the follow-up forum in Washington D.C. this June, the common agenda is clear and there is a long list of issues to address at the individual, institutional and international levels. Multilateral discussion groups and community consultations have created an inclusive list of topics to address in the first ever Learning Link. Registration is currently open, and space is limited so contact the Steering Committee at link@itcilo.org to get involved!

More information can be found at: www.itcilo.org/link

by Karen Moir

The amount of visual aids is growing in the learning atmosphere. Already two topics were introduced here in this blog:

• Learning and training in an audiovisual world
• The importance of visualization

In addition we would like to point out that more and more ‘lectures’ become available in audiovisual format.  One of the famous examples are the  global TED lectures (ideas worth spreading) . They are more and more visible on the internet. Next to this we would like to share Academic Earth with you. This channel is hosting free video courses from leading universities (Stanford, MIT, …). In fact this nice collection of video’s refers to initiatives of several institutions and universities that already were available on the net for some time.

• Stanford University on iTunes
• Berkely University on iTunes
• Oxford University on iTunes
• Cambridge University on iTunes
• London School of Economics on iTunes

Any other usefull audiovisual contents that can be explored to enrich courses at ITC-ILO?

How will you learn at ITC-ILO?

In the past years DELTA got numerous requests of what kind of learning tools are available for a range of specific learning outcomes. While we are developing the learning toolkit ComPASS we would like to share already some useful learning tools. Jane Hart made a selection of 25 tools for Learning Professionals, based on a research of what learning professionals use most frequently. Have a look at them and if you want to apply them in your own learning and training context do not hesitate to contact us.

The participatory web, one of the central themes of the Lifelong E-Learning course at ITC-ILO welcomes the downloadable web2practice guides from JISC. In a way they are related to the Web2.0 in Plain English guides which were blogged in an earlier post. It aims to help you to enhance your working and training practice by understanding the potential of web2.0 tools.

Several guides have been created. You will find the following topics

Social Media
RSS
collaborative writing
podcasting
microblogging

You can give feedback to these guides and also adapt them in your own professional context. Feel free to have a look at the overall project. It will be explained in the next presentation.

When you would like to use these web2.0 tools in a learning and training context, it might be interesting to compare these resources with the Educause series : ‘7 Things you need to know about‘. Enough ingredients to build your own web2.0 applications in learning and training.

To consolidate or acquire new competences implies both formal and informal learning. These are more efficient if facilitated by trainers able to construct knowledge in a collaborative manner… The Turin Learning Approach defines parameters to guide trainers in their role as facilitators.  In this video, trainers talk about their learning experience in becoming familiar with it: have a look at it and take a glance of the TLA!

After reviewing the statistics of this blog we discovered that blogposts related to facilitation methods are most popular. Among them are posts about ‘world cafe‘, ‘fishbowl‘, ‘open space‘ and ‘peer assist‘.  Last year the LED conference was organized at the Centre (LED = Local economic development) and used in a systematic way a lot of these participatory methodologies.  To illustrate this we integrated  an overview of the methods that were used in the LED conference. In this way you can see how these learning techniques are applied in practice.

Twitter has been non-stop in the news lately. According to EDUCAUSE we could consider Twitter as an on-line application which is part blog, part social network application and part mobile phone/IM tool. Users update on a regular base their network in 140 charachters on their projects, ideas, experiences, thoughts, …  and it this way Twitter creates a interconnected network of users. People either access it through the internet or through their mobile phone.  Organizations start to pick up twitter as a tool for external communication, public relations and continuous dialogue with their stakeholders. Development organisations use it to promote their mission statement. A series of UN agencies (UNHCR, UNDP, FAO, IAEA, UNICEF, UNIFEM, UNODC, UNESCO, WFP, UN Staff College, UNITAR)  are already involved and other organizations do so too  (World Bank, OECD).  The Web2forDev site identifies microblogging as a useful tool for internal knowledge sharing.

To move beyound external communication and information sharing it could be interesting to see what added value Twitter can bring to a learning organisation:

- Introduce twitter in lectures where participants twitter their main reflections on the topic which can be highlighted on the front screen (the format forces you to formulate your thinking concise and clear in less than 140 characters). In this way participants who were not able to come to the session can also follow from a distance.
- Use twitter as a brainstorming tool in a session, either using internet or mobile phones)
- Get subject matter experts connecting to each other and follow each other’s updates in a specific field (case: there is a database of more than 1000 learning specialists on twitter

Any other ideas?

Background info:
- Educause on Twitter
- How do you use Twitter to collaborate?

UN Staff College initiated a United Nations knowledge campus last week in order to share knowledge and experiences on technology enhanced learning in the different UN agencies. The on-line campus hosts a catalogue of e-learning courses available within the UN system and highlights some interesting e-learning exhibits. This week several discussions will be organised on specific topics including:

- The pedagogical potential of blogging.
- Serious gaming as learning and development.
- Learning in the Web2.0 area. Integrating social software in blended learning programmes.
- Developing a LMS in UN system organizations. Best practices.
- Techniques to deliver real added value in the web2.0 area.

Go to www.unkampus.org and join the discussion !