Imagine 20 random photos that someone else chooses for you, each one projecting on a screen for 20 seconds, while you develop and deliver a presentation to a room of your peers. Doesn’t that sound like fun? What kind of learning does this improvisation encourage?

• confidence and understanding of material
• responsiveness to visual cues
• spontaneous thinking
• boasts creativity
• perfects presentation skills

PechaFlickr is a great online tool that allows for improvisation in the classroom.

How It’s Done

• Go to pechaflickr.net.
• Enter a key word or tag (the Flickr safe search option is used when searching for images but there are no guarantees).
• Select “Advanced Options” to change the number of slides (default is 20) or to change the duration for each slide (default is 20 seconds for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds). Advanced options also give you a link to share, if you choose.
• Click play.
• A starting screen will display bed=fore the first slide appears and the fun begins.
• When PechaFlickr is completed, thumbails of the images and a list of the image links will display.

Classroom Practices

• Ice Breaker exercise
• Presentation skill exercise
• Writing prompts
• Foreign Language vocabulary and conversation
• Storytelling
• Application of theoretical concepts
• Review for exams or test
• Interpretation of social contexts

Create your own unique tag for preloading images to Flickr that are pertinent to your discipline.

Using the tag word “nanook” the slide images that were displayed included some unexpected results.

Examples and Resources

Incorporating activities in the classroom that are active, rather than passive, have proven beneficial in long-term learning for better understanding and retention.

For more information about using PechaFlickr see these helpful website resources:

• PechaFlickr: https://pechaflickr.net/
• Technology and Learning https://studentsteach.it/an-evening-learning-with-alan-levine/
• Neurophyschological Viewpoint: https://appliedimprov.ning.com/profiles/blogs/improvisation-and-learning-a
• TechTalk 2013 Speaker Alan Levine using PechaFlickr: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiEMkUE0sHY
• DS106 Assignment Bank: https://assignments.ds106.us/

Interested in seeing how it works? Watch for an announcement from UAF CTL for a PechaFlickr event coming to Acrtic Java or the Pub this fall!

UAF CTL PechaFlickr at the Pub Spring 2014: https:// youtu.be/DNSrQ3PLGvU  

Allan Levine Rocks!