15 Ways to Use Google Slides from the Classroom to the

15 Ways to Use Google Slides from the Classroom to the Living Room and Beyond! By Lindsay Marcoux , Jennifer Stylianos

instruction, literacy & inclusion

15 Ways to Use Google Slides from the Classroom to the Living Room and Beyond!

SUMMARY: Google Slides is regularly utilized in classrooms and available to all students. However, how to apply the features of Google Slides to create powerful accessible learning materials is not often taught to teachers or other professionals in the learning com- munity. In this article, we will outline some of the creative uses that Google Slides has to offer. We will explore activities for self-di- rected learning, life skills, visual supports, AAC, and emergent literacy. Come take a look!

LINDSAY MARCOUX, CCC-SLP, ATP. Lindsay is a licensed speech-language pathologist who has worked in the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) as a consultant since 2010. Ms. Marcoux graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2007 with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She received her Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of New Ham pshire in 2009. During that time, she also earned a Graduate Certificate in assistive technology. Ms. Marcoux specializes in working with students with complex communication needs that use alternative access methods. Lindsay holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence in speech-language pathology from the American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) and is a member of ASHA’s Special Interest Division 12 (AAC Division). JENNIFER STYLIANOS, OTR/L, ATP. Jennifer is a licensed Occupational Therapist and Adjunct Faculty at the University of New Hampshire. She obtained her B.S. with a double major and honors in Psychology and Health Sciences from Stephens College in Columbia, MO. Ms. Stylianos completed graduate school at Tufts University in Medford, MA where she obtained her Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy. Ms. Stylianos has been working exclusively in the field of assistive technology for almost a decade. Her passion is blending technology with real tasks to create solutions that work now and help to build the student’s lagging skills. She has presented locally and nationally on a variety of subjects including emergent writing, executive functioning supports, and switch access.

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In the ever-shifting educational landscape of remote, in-per- son, and hybrid learning, it is important to be able to provide learning opportunities in new and creative ways. The addi- tional demands of teaching in a pandemic have left time and resources stretched beyond the already constricted limits. With the dizzying array of products that have been advertised, it is overwhelming to find just the right tool that can meet a variety of educational needs. Google Slides is regularly utilized in class- rooms and available to all students. However, how to apply the features of Google Slides to create powerful accessible learning materials is not often taught to teachers or other professionals in the learning community. It can be used digitally, in-person or remotely, individually or collaboratively. In this article, we will outline some of the creative uses that Google Slides has to offer. We hope that after reading this article, you can start using Goo- gle Slides to create accessible homework assignments, student portfolios, and encourage self-guided learning. SELF DIRECTED LEARNING 1. Adapted Books: Google Slides offer an array of features that allow teachers to create adapted books which can be ad- vanced with the press of a spacebar. For students who struggle to access the space bar, there are many ways to move through the slideshow. This includes tapping the touchscreen in preview mode, creating a cardboard cut out for the spacebar, or a low- tech button pusher (See Image 1), or a USB switch interface (See Image 2). Max is a student with a complex physical, visual, and cogni- tive profile. In the immediacy of becoming remote, his switch interface was left at school. He was able to continue to access adapted books created by his paraprofessional with his favor- ite songs and images. Mom was able to set him up with his Chromebook and the low-tech button pusher. This was the only activity during remote learning that he was able to engage in that did not require adult support.

Image 2: Hitch 2 is a USB switch interface available by Ablenet, Inc.

Image 3: Copy and paste the Google Slides shareable link and change /edit to /preview..\

Image 1: Create your own low-tech button pusher using corrugated cardboard or a 3 ring binder. Add a glue stick to where the cardboard will make contact with the space bar and glue a piece of glue stick to that spot.

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Image 4: How to Insert an Image by URL

How Share Slides in Preview Mode :

Sharing your adapted book in preview mode prevents chang- es to the book and eliminates the need to log-in (when the share settings are set to anyone with a link). To do this, you simply change the text after the forward-slash at the end of the sharing link to preview (See Image 3). This link can then be saved as a QR code, shared via email or text message to allow families easy access when remote. Imagine a wall of QR codes linking to adapted books on your classroom wall when students return! 2. Flashcards: Flashcard decks can be created in Google Slides and assigned to students within Google Classroom. The flashcards could include text, images, moving images (GIFs), or videos to offer multisensory learning. The font, images, and col- ors are easily manipulated to allow for optimal visual access. How to Insert an Image By URL : Websites like GIPHY.com offer a wide array of eye-catching moving images, known as GIFs. To add a GIF to your slides, click on the web link icon to copy the URL to your clipboard. You can then add the moving image to Google Slides by going to Insert -> Image -> By URL (See Image 4) and paste the copied web link. The use of moving images in your slides can offer additional contextual information, help sustain attention, and can be used

Image 5: How to Make a Shape Transparent

to engage and motivate students.

3. Interactive Diagrams: The creation of interactive dia- grams within Google Slides allows students to independently explore multimedia content in a structured and visual format. By inserting transparent objects on top of your diagram, you can create hotspots that can link to videos, music, text, and more! Think about all of the existing diagrams that you use in your class that can now become an interactive classroom activity using Goo- gle Slides! How to Insert a Transparent Object : Create a transparent object over your diagram by going to Insert -> Shape or click on the Shape icon on your toolbar. Once you’ve added your shape over the selected area of your diagram, you can make that shape transparent by going to the Fill Color

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Image 6: Insert Link icon in the toolbar

icon on your toolbar (See Image 5) and select Transparent . This will eliminate the default color of the shape so that the image on your diagram remains visible. 4. Choice Boards : Choice Boards allow students to guide their learning by selecting which activity they are going to do. In Google Slides, you can link an object on your slide to take your student to a specific website or link to another slide in your slide- show. The skill of linking is also a great way to organize materials so students can access their assignments all in one place. There are many existing organizational templates available through websites like Teachers Pay Teachers and blogs like Hello Teacher Lady. How to Link an Object : Objects that you can link include shapes, text boxes, icons, or images. Any item that is selectable in your slide can be linked. You can add a link to an object in Slides by going to Insert -> Link or selecting the Link icon on your toolbar (See Image 6). Then paste the web link or search that you want to direct your student to and click Apply . Links in your slide can be accessed in both edit and preview modes. 5. Drag & Drop Activities: Drag and drop activities are a great way to take your manipulatives virtual. You can insert images for counting, sorting, and matching activities. In edit mode, your students can then move the images around the Google Slides to show their work. Slidesmania.com has a large collection of educa- tional Google Slides templates including an entire section of FREE Google Slide templates specifically for drag and drop activities us- ing manipulatives. LIFE SKILLS 6. Task Sequences : Using video and or photos is a great way to support student memory, organization, and understanding when completing tasks. Within Google Slides it is so easy to in- sert a video from YouTube.com, by pasting the URL from your favorite website, or your Google Drive. Task sequences can be used to support novel vocational tasks, activities of daily living, social scripts and so much more! How to Add Video: Videos can be added to slides by going to Insert -> Video (See Image 7). Once your video is selected, it will appear in your slideshow. You can also manipulate and resize your video on your slide. One of the best parts of adding YouTube videos to your slides is that you no longer have to wait for the ads to finish to view your video.

Image 7: Insert YouTube videos by copying and pasting the URL

7. Chunked Video Directions: The skill of trimming videos in your slides is so quick and easy it makes Googles Slides the ideal platform for video modeling tasks. Video modeling is an effective tool and there is evidence to support video modeling for teaching a targeted behavior or skill. By chunking the video onto multiple slides, you can break down the task into smaller, more manageable steps. Ava is a student who was learning how to safely use the micro- wave as one of her learning objectives during remote extended year services. A Google Slideshow was created by duplicating one slide with a YouTube video of how to make Kraft Easy Mac (See Image 8), then trimming each video into the corresponding steps listed on the packaging. When Ava returned to school in the fall, she was able to access the slideshow on her cell phone to access the video directions. How to Trim a Video in Slides: Trim your video by first selecting the video you added to your slide and clicking on the Format Options in the toolbar. A sidebar menu will appear to give you some playback options for your vid- eo. In the sidebar menu, you can preview the video and use the Image 8: A transparent shape was added over the package directions and linked to the trimmed YouTube video

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Image 10: Menu item images link to the corresponding contingency board.

Image 11: The student can select the responses of the customer and then be linked to the next part of the sequence.

Start at and End at (See Image 9) button to trim your video to the section you want to play on the Slide. You also have the option of selecting Autoplay when presenting under Video Playback to have the video play automatically when in the present mode. VISUAL SUPPORTS 8. Class Expectations : Saving an image as a background prevents items from being moved or reformatted on the slide. The use of visual supports is an effective method of establishing classroom norms and setting the tone for the class. Students who struggle with working memory deficits, auditory process- ing challenges, and/or attentional challenges often find visual supports more effective than auditory directions. Also, this is a great way to create graphic organizers and overlay text boxes or shapes for the student to annotate on the slide! 9. Contingency Boards: Contingency boards offer cogni- tive-behavioral support for understanding sequences where there are multiple potential outcomes. By creating a contingen- cy board in Google Slides, you can link the different slides with- Image 9: Use the Video Playback option to trim your video to only show what you want your students to see.

in your slideshow to teach what to do next and add the level of visual support necessary for the student. This could include text support for social scripts, images of materials needed for the classroom activity, or a video of how to complete the novel vocational skill. Troy is a student who is working at the school coffee cart Image 12: A video of how much cream to add to the slide along with a visual list of ingredients needed to complete the task..

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and is learning how to take and fill orders. Before using Google Slides, Troy struggled with knowing what the next step in the sequence was when someone ordered a coffee and was unsure what to do or say. Now with a contingency board set up in Goo- gle Slides, when a customer orders a coffee, Troy taps on the cof- fee image (See Image 10), linking to a slide prompting them him to ask, “Would you like cream?” (See Image 11) If the customer responds yes to cream, he then taps yes, which links to a slide with a visual ingredients list and how-to video (See Image 12). How to Link to a Slide: Select the object you want to link and instead of adding a link or search, select Slides in this presentation and scroll to the slide you want (See Image 13). Linking slides makes it easy to orga- nize your content and customize it. If you decide to link a video in your slide, we recommend that you add that video to your slide and link to that slide versus linking to the website with that video. You eliminate the need to wait to load the page and also allows the video to be trimmed, if necessary. AAC SUPPORT 10.Aided Language Stimulation: Aided Language Stimula- tion (ALS) is a communication strategy used to teach and model language. The communication partner pairs their verbal output with the selection of vocabulary on the Augmentative and Alter- native Communication (AAC system). AAC learners are exposed to the language on their devices in the context of motivating ac- tivities that occur frequently throughout the day. Google Slides provide an opportunity to continue that language exposure virtually. By emulating a student’s AAC device and saving their home screen as a background in Google Slides, you can create multimedia content that is motivating to your student while tar- geting the language on their device. Sam is a student who has been using AAC for about a year be- fore going remote. She transitioned to a new team this fall and they are not familiar with her language system. Sam is partici- pating in remote learning but the team is struggling with ways to engage her and incorporate her AAC device. Google Slides was suggested as a way to create a virtual way to model lan- guage using motivating activities such as watching videos and listening to music. By saving the student’s home page as the background of the slide, the team was then able to link moti- vating content associated with the target word to model during

remote learning. This resource can also be used to teach new team members where vocabulary is located on her device.

How to Save an Image as the Background: Select Background on the toolbar and then Choose Image to browse images to insert as the background. If the image be- comes stretched you can resize it by going to File -> Page setup and try a different slide ratio. If you decide to create a custom image by adding objects to your slide you can save it by go- ing to File -> Download -> and select JPEG image (.jpg, current slide) -or- select PNG image (.png, current slide ) and then select Choose Image to select the slide that you saved as an image. 11. Communication Dictionary: A communication dictio- nary is a way of documenting how a person communicates. They outline and describe what a person does to initiate com- munication (ex. waving my hands), what it might mean (ex. I’m feeling anxious), what you should do in response (ex. take me somewhere quiet to relax). Communication dictionaries are of- ten created by people who know the student well and are able to help interpret what these behaviors mean. Team collabora- tion is important when creating a communication dictionary be- cause the team needs to be on the page with how we are inter- preting a student’s unconventional communication. By sharing the document with team members, everyone will have access to the same information and can add to that document as needed. Tim is a student who uses body language, gestures, vocaliza- tions, and sign approximations to communicate. He is also di- agnosed with both hearing and vision impairments. At the time of our consultation, his school team was not sure exactly how many signs he knew. We started a communication dictionary to gain a baseline of his current communication strategies. In the beginning, the team docu- mented about 10 sign approximations that he used at school. We shared the slides with the entire school team and included the family to make sure that we were all interpreting and re- sponding to his communication in the same way. The family allowed us to use a video of his sign approximations to the dic- tionary slideshow. After a few months, Tim’s sign inventory ex- ploded and the team documented over 100 signs that he knew and could use appropriately. How to set Share Permissions: Select the yellow Share icon in the top right-hand corner of the screen. Type in the team member’s email address and use the dropdown to indicate if you are giving them permission as an Editor, Viewer, or Commenter on the slideshow. Select Send and then Done when finished. 12. Partner Assisted Scanning: Partner Assisted Scanning is a communication strategy where the communication partner reads aloud messages in a consistent format, like a computer.

Image 13: The Slide number you pick will appear when you click on the object you linked.

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Image 15: An example of a Google Slides sentence frame activity as part of music class.

EMERGENT LITERACY 13. Remnant Books: Remnant Books are a way for emer- gent literacy learners to record their experiences. Typically these books are visual/tactile items that the student has selected. Stu- dents can use the contents of their remnant book to support memory and understanding, establish context for communi- cation, share information, and select topics for writing. Google Slides is a multimedia way that teams can create Remnant Books to record important events by inserting images or videos. These books can be shared with the team so that experiences can be added from both home and school. (See Image 14) 14. Sentence Frames: Sentence frames are a consistent, multi-step shared writing activity that teaches emergent litera- cy skills such as early vocabulary, early word reading, and print concepts. By setting the sentence frame as the background in your Google Slides your students can add their part on top of the sentence frame. Students can complete the sentence frame using shapes with text to drag and drop. Sentence frames can be used to share information about a particular topic, talk about something that happened, or give reasons for their opinions and preferences. (See Image 15) How to add text to a shape: Once you have added your shape, simply double click on the shape to reveal the cursor. You can also format your text within the shape using the alignment tools in the toolbar. On the fly, we have found that it is easier to format the text within a shape versus a text box. 15. Captioning Photos: Captions can provide struggling readers with additional print exposure while engaging in a pic- ture viewing activity. Google Slides can be used to add these im- ages and then caption bubbles using the Shape icon. Students can caption these photos themselves by typing into the caption bubbles using the keyboard or their AAC device. Students can use screenshots and caption bubbles to create graphic novels to

Image 14: An example of a Google Slides remnant book.

The student relies on their understanding of the vocabulary to formulate a response using “yes/no” indicators. The step- through nature of a Google Slides presentation provides an ex- cellent way to present visual and auditory information for this purpose. Charlotte is a student with a complex physical and senso- ry profile. We first introduced this communication strategy remotely using a Google Slideshow with choices including Charlotte’s favorite music artists and dress-up items present- ed over Zoom. We then gathered an inventory of vocabulary and created a shared Google Slideshow with her Mom and her team. Mom was able to add images of people, activities, and positioning equipment at home. Charlotte’s teacher of the vi- sually impaired was able to review the photos and provide in- put regarding size, contrast, and background color. We used a website called remove.bg to reduce the visual complexity of the images and take out the backgrounds. We organized the items by category/context (ex. people, places, activities I do, etc.). By putting the slideshow in present mode, her Mom used her iPad to read aloud her choices as she tapped each slide. When Char- lotte looked up for “yes” we acknowledged her choice and start- ed that activity. This Google Slideshow was only the start of our AAC intervention, but it helped us teach a strategy and develop Charlotte’s “yes” response.

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Image 16: One of the slides Amber captioned for the executive branch.

demonstrate understanding. Amber is a student who has an intellectual impairment and motor speech disorder. She struggled to take notes on the vid- eos shown in social studies class. Initially, Amber’s support staff took screenshots of the videos used in the social studies les- son for her to caption. Over time, Amber began to pause then screenshot the video on her own at parts she felt were important for her notes. She used an additional word prediction software to support spelling within the caption bubbles. (See Image 16) AND BEYOND... The activities and resources presented in this article are just the tip of the iceberg. Adding Google Slide activities or recre- ating your in-person materials for remote learning can be ex- tremely overwhelming. Start with one activity or skill that you can use over and over again. You’ve got this!

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