Create “Hotspot” presentations to engage learners with tools you already know

In the upcoming weeks, our now novel version of virtual school is going to lose some luster with students. Whatever you are doing today to engage students online will soon become a pattern, and predictable patterns are the kryptonite of engaged learners.

For this reason let’s focus on some new ideas for using tools you may already know and use in order to teach in new ways. In today’s spotlight, I wanted to showcase a way to build presentations (slide decks) that do not follow a linear, start to finish path. We are talking about the use of tools like Google Slides, Keynote, or PowerPoint. This means the audience can click around in the presentation, making choices and clicking on appropriate icons to self-direct their own experience through the topic.

View an overview of how to create a hotspot presentation using Keynote (similar to a Thinglink presentation). This includes directions for grading in Google Classroom.

A “hotspot” presentation is one where a single base graphic will have multiple “clickable” points on it. Each clickable point is a way to present new, relevant information. For clarity, let’s use an example in the periodic table of elements. The base graphic, the periodic table of elements, is at the core of the lesson. As a teacher, you will want to point out many key pieces of information specific to the periodic table. By placing clickable icons over the top of the base image (or in this case clickable “targets” over the top of a picture of the periodic table), you can deliver relevant information, such as the atomic weight, atomic number, and the group to which the element belongs.

When teaching in a face-to-face model, teachers can easily walk students through the deeper elements of a topic in an organized way, but in a linear slideshow presentation (one that starts with the first slide in the slide deck and ends with the last slide), making these connections becomes more challenging for students. This is where hotspot presentations truly shine. With a hotspot presentation, students begin to make natural connections to deeper topics simply through the “links” that are made naturally based upon the way that the presentation is designed.

Designing a Hotspot Presentation

Choose a great focal image

Start with a great base image. This is really the “home screen” of your presentation. Select a topic or point of focus that will continually come back to this base image.

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Teaching a lesson on Gettysburg?

Choosing an interesting, detailed, and appropriate image is essential (not too graphic)

Maybe the focal image of somebody like 69-year-old civilian fighter John Burns would be appropriate. There is just enough detail to draw in students, but the details are not entirely obvious at first sight. Some of the key hotspots I might include on this photo are: 1) Burns’ civilian clothing, 2) rifle style, 3) lack of wear on Burns’ boots, and 4) his aged features. This image is authentic and offers just enough detail to highlight some key areas of the topic.

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Maybe you are teaching on lesson on the bawdiness of Shakespeare’s plays and why Shakespeare elected to include this in his writing. A good look at some of the features of The Globe will help students to understand that plays were written for the masses of common people. Focusing in on 1) the distance between actors and attendees, 2) the tiers of seating for those who could afford private seating, and 3) the lack of seating in the rows closest to the stage (standing room only), would be great hotspots for this particular image.

The key for any hotspot presentation is selecting a great key image. This is the image the entire lesson is built upon.

Storyboard your slides on paper

I always tell people to draw out complex ideas on paper first. It is so much faster to plan on paper before building a complex, technology-rich tool that just does not work out later due to poor planning.

When designing for a hotspot presentation you need to draw out three key elements.

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Focal image with key hotspots indicated

What does your focal image slide look like? You’ll need to roughly mark out the hotspots (artistic skills not needed — text is fine) that you want to identify. It might look something like this picture.

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The next planning step is to simply draw out the “map” of the slide show. Keep in mind that this is not a linear presentation. Viewers can click on any hotspot at any time. For that reason, we need to map out the viewer’s experience to make building the presentation easier. Here is an example that I drew just to show a rough outline.

Notice that this presentation is only five slides in total. And three of those slides are nearly identical in their design. This means I can save time by really only having to design three slides, and then copying one of those slides twice to look identical.

Finally, you just need a think through and possibly sketch your buttons. These are the links that will be clicked by viewers. You can get an idea of that from the photo I sketched above. In planning I did not realize I needed a final slide, but as I sketched it out I realized that I wanted a way for the viewer to see a slide on Shakespeare before the presentation ended, so I added the “End” button to my design.

Building a Hotspot Presentation

For the purpose of simplicity, I will assume you already know how to generally build a slide deck presentation. The key to successfully developing a hotspot presentation, then, is just one little piece of information: linking. And whether you use Keynote, Google Slides, or PowerPoint, linking is possible in all of these tools.

Building the Focal Image Slide

The Focal Image slide is made up of: 1) a primary image, and 2) several icons layered on top of that image. Start by adding your primary image to the slide first. This will set the stage for the slide, placing it at the back of images. This will be helpful later.

Next, choose your hotspot icons. This can just be a shape, clip art, or text. I recommend making these icons roughly the same size (copy and paste works well) for a more uniform look in the end. You can also add title text and other text boxes to help viewers navigate the presentation. Once you have this page set up entirely, click on each icon one more time and make sure your layering brings the icons to the front. Again, this just makes it easier to work with later.

Building the first choice slide

Sometimes hotspot presentations can become very long and be quite challenging to build. This tip will save you time. Build and link one of your choice slides (the slides that contain the information about each hot spot) first, and then duplicate that slide. This will make your presentation look more uniform, and it will save you many clicks (and possible linking errors) later.

Your template choice slide needs 3 key items: 1) a space/box for you to type relevant information about the hotspot the viewer selected (as well as a place for additional images), 2) a “home” icon that will take the user back to the focal image slide, and 3) a “end” icon that will take the user to a final slide that will end the presentation.

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Linking tutorial for Google Slides presentations, Keynote for Mac, and Keynote for iOS. Learn to link and hotspot presentations are a breeze.

The text/image space is fairly self explanatory. This is where the instructional material will go about one of your hotspots. At this time, just type one identifiable word about the hotspot topic. You can add details later.

Your home icon is just a shape or image that users will click to get back to the focal image slide. Once you have added the shape or image, I recommend adding a little text box on or near it that indicates this link takes the viewer back to the start. “Home” works, but you can use whatever vernacular makes sense. Finally, it’s time to link this image.

Finally, your “end” presentation icon. You will need to build one slide that is your final slide in the slideshow. Think of it as the exit door for your presentation. Without this exit option, your viewers will be stuck in an infinite loop and will never be able to end the presentation.

First, add a slide to your presentation that is the “final” or “end” slide. This will be the final information your audience will see before leaving. Then, back on your first choice slide, create an icon, give it an “end show” label/text box, and link it to the final slide in your presentation. You’ll use the same linking strategy you just learned, but you will point it to the final slide this time.

Duplicate and customize your choice slides

Congratulations. You have done the hard work by building your buttons and links for your choice slides. Now you will duplicate your first choice slide for each choice that you want to viewers to have on the focal image slide. For now, just make these slides and edit them quickly by giving them text that represents the choice. This can get confusing, so document your slides as you go with labels. You can come back to edit and perfect these slides later, but right now we are on the business end of building this slide deck.

Once you are done, it’s on to the final technical step - linking your focal image hotspots.

Linking focal image hotspots to choice slides

That last step in this process (other than adding customized content to your choice slides) is linking the icons on your first slide (your focal image slide) to the appropriate choice slide you just finished creating. And the good news is you already know how to do this. One skill, learning to link to others slides within a presentation, opens up all kinds of possibilities for ways to make your presentations more interactive. So go ahead — click on each icon on your focal image slide and link that icon to the correct slide.

Obviously you have work to do tin adding content to the choice and exit slides, but the skill of linking them together in a unique way is done. For the sake of your audience, please take a moment to check your links. This process can be fraught with errors, and a little bit of link checking now (hit play on the presentation and click on the links) will save your audience of fits and frustrations later.

One last tiP: avoiding auto-advance in slide shows

A hotspot presentation slide show is a non-linear presentations. You are working to create the illusion for the viewer that they are in custom-designed software. Nothing can ruin that illusion quite as quickly as them inadvertently advancing to the next slide, a slide they were not supposed to see because it is out of context.

For my Keynote (and PowerPoint) using friends, I’ve got great news. You can be assured that with the switch of a setting your users will not advance without clicking on a link.

Keynote for Mac

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With the Keynote presentation open on your Mac, click on the Documents button in the upper right. Under “Presentation Type” select “Links Only”. That will take care of it. The audience will not be able to advance without clicking on a link.

Keynote for iOS

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With the Keynote presentation open on your iPad, click “…” icon in the upper right. Click “Settings” and under “Presentation Type” select “Links Only” to stop any auto-advancing in the presentation. This will halt viewers from moving forward without clicking a link in the presentation.

Google Slides

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My apologies to my friends using Google Slides, but this is one feature that is sorely missing from Slides. The best option that I can offer you is a work around at best. On EACH slide you will create one more box. You will need to link that box to the slide that it is on. So if you are on slide 2, create the box, and then link that box to go to Slide 2. Finally, select the box, drag it out to the full size of the slide (so it covers everything on the slide), and then select “Arrange” —> “Order" —> “Send to Back”. This will place your box, with the link to the same slide it is presently on, in the background. If a user accidentally clicks this box, they will be tricked into thinking nothing happened, and will be presented with the same slide to pick a different option.

I know! So annoying! But it works and it is something that will let you achieve a similar effect in Slides if that’s the tool you have access to.

New use of tools you already know

So the next time you are looking for a fun way to present ideas to your audience in a different way, consider using a tool you already know in a slightly different way. The impact on and engagement of your audience will reap rewards making the time invested well worth it!

And if you use tools you already know and have access to in your instruction, you can parlay that personal learning into activities you can also have students do to deepen their learning, build upon their skills for productively using technology, and challenge their thinking.

Improve sound quality in your online videos with these microphones

As teachers across my network are suddenly being thrust into the practice of creating online instructional videos, one of the common concerns I have heard throughout the week was how much people hated the sound of their own recorded voice.

If you can relate, let me first say that you are not alone. Few people actually enjoy listening to the sound of their own recorded voice. However, that does not mean your audience has the same reaction. If your audience already knows what you sound like, they recognize your voice and are not bothered by it. In fact, for your students at home who are just missing you and school, they may find it quite comforting to hear their teachers.

And if they do not know you and are watching your video, well, then you are Internet famous! So, who cares?

One question I have been asked a few times this week was how to improve the audio quality when recording a video. I have been on the pursuit of better sounding audio for years. I have tried different microphones, sound boards, software applications. I have spent stupid money on recording products that sit on my tech shelf downstairs.

With that hard-earned experience, I am happy to tell you that with a slight investment (and not a lot of technical know-how), you can get better quality audio in your video recordings.

Buy a Better Microphone

Simple as this may sound, the solution to better audio is to purchase a better microphone than the one built into your device(s). This is not to say that the microphone in your devices is bad. Some are really good, actually. But they are designed for a wide variety of situations. They need to be easy-to-use, reliable, and somewhat cheap to manufacture. They are meant to capture audio in the room, audio to the side of them, and audio directly into them. They are a multi-purpose microphone intended to be a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none.

Buying a better microphone means buying the microphone that is intended for your key audio purpose. For this post, my assumption is that you are an educator individually speaking into a microphone. (If you have a different purpose, these recommendations may not be most appropriate for you.)

Desktop Microphone Recommendations

If you are looking for a microphone to place on a solid surface while you record, I have a microphone that I absolutely love and would strongly recommend. The Shure MV5 is a microphone that I use several times a week, whenever I am recording instructional and support videos. I plug it into my Mac laptop, change my input in whatever program I’m recording in, and I press record. The quality difference when using the Shure MV5 will be obvious immediately. Trust me, my videos sound so much better when I record using this microphone. For me, the slightly more expensive price point is worth it.

A feature I love about the Shure MV5 is the stand that comes with it out of the box. Positioning a desktop microphone for comfort can be challenging, especially a microphone that you need to speak into directly. The stand on this microphone is small, but its unique positioning system makes the mic incredibly flexible (without having a permanent mic trapeze setup on your desk). Additionally, the stand makes the mic incredibly portable, which is particularly useful if you are not lucky enough to have just one place you work in your home.

Listening back to your recordings is critical to creating better instructional videos. The Shure MV5 has a built in headphone plug, making listening to playback even easier. With this setup, pick a single audio input/output source, your Shure MV5 mic. I like simplicity, especially when I am working with people new to technology. Nothing makes it easier than picking a single setting on your device.

I truly love this mic, and I guarantee you will hear better quality audio in your recordings as soon as you use it. The price point is higher than many beginners may be comfortable with for a mic. I totally understand that, but if you are seeking truly high quality audio, I find this mic to be a bargain compared to other high quality microphones on the market.

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If the price point of the Shure MV5 is a little out of your comfort range, I do have another good recommendation that cuts the price in half. This is a microphone we purchased for use at school, and it is our favorite mic to offer when a teacher needs to check out a desktop microphone. The Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone is easy to use, well designed, and will definitely give you a boost in your audio recording quality.

This handy little desktop microphone has a truly unique design. I hate a lot of desktop clutter, and I love mobility. Some of the microphones that I have tried have complex adjustable arms, pop-screen filters, and wires coming out of them. While those types of setups may make your desk feel like a mini professional recording studio, they are far from being neat, tidy, or portable.

The Samson Meteor Mic, though, has legs that fold up to protect the microphone, and flip out to serve as its stand. This makes the stand incredibly adjustable to allow for a comfortable recording angle while you talk directly into the microphone. It is a handy mic that is well designed.

The audio quality from the Samson Meteor Mic is notably better than the microphone built into your device. The setup on my Mac is incredibly easy. And this mic also has a headphone jack on the back for easy audio setup and playback. Overall, the Samson Meteor Mic is a quality microphone that will offer a noticeable improvement in your audio for a smaller price.

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Lapel Microphone for On-screen Appearances

As much as you might not want to, sometimes you just need to show your face on camera (or you want to interview somebody else on camera). When that happens, you still want better audio to improve the overall quality of your video. In these cases, a desktop microphone may not fit the need. After a long search and several iterations of solutions to this issue, it has come down to this solution for me: a lavalier or lapel microphone.

You have noticed these mics before for on-stage speakers, on-air television hosts, and others. I avoided them for a time because they seemed like an expensive solution. However, about three years ago I finally decided to make the purchase and was pleasantly surprised to learn that the wired, lower quality version of these mics are actually very reasonably priced. They are also easy to set up. And for a tool that I do not use regularly, those are two key factors to make the purchase worthwhile.

I am going to share a microphone of better quality than the one I purchased, but in the same price range. The PoP Voice Professional Lavalier Lapel Mic is a good choice. There are so many options on the market in this category, so there are a few things to consider when buying one.

The wire on this microphone is a little thicker than some of the other cheaper options. Especially for a microphone that spends a lot of time coiled up and out of the way, a slightly better cable that does not break quite as easily is something to consider. Additionally, you want to pay attention to cable length on a wired lapel microphone. This cable is roughly 6.5 feet. That should be long enough to get your iPad or phone far enough away to set up a decent shot of your subject while also capturing better audio.

The plug on these types of microphones is also important to note. Even though my iPhone no longer accepts a standard headphone jack plug, I still buy accessories with headphone jacks on them. I like the versatility of being able to use it on a tablet, on phones, and also on computers. If you are planning on using the PoP Voice Professional Lavalier Lapel Mic on your phone, you may want to consider purchasing an adapter to allow it to connect. Again, there are many on the market, but I tend to stick with the official Apple adapters as they are always supported.

Finally, buy one with a small wind screen or pop filter on it. This does reduce some of the “p” sound popping on camera, but more importantly, it provides a little wind and moisture barrier for your microphone. Nothing can ruin the audio on an outside interview like a nice breeze.

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So, there you have some of my strongest product recommendations to improve the audio in your online videos. Remember, even the best video paired with poor audio quality will leave the viewers underwhelmed. Consider these upgrades to give your online recordings the boost they desire! And if you have an educator in your life, consider giving these microphones as gifts for teachers who would otherwise not buy these kinds of tools for themselves.

Boredom in class is dangerous!

Getting out of the daily grind of routines and activities in our classrooms is hard. Really hard! As teachers we find our lessons falling into patterns that are both comfortable and predictable.

And for our students, predictable can often be viewed as another word: boring.

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Read more about John Hattie's research.

Without getting too heavy into research, let's just say that "boredom" has a seriously negative impact on learning. According to John Hattie's research in his study Visible Learning, which focuses on a wide range of educational studies and the impact that varying factors have on student achievement, boredom is not just problematic -- it's academic poison.  With an effect size of -0.49, boredom is more damaging to student learning than lack of sleep, low socio-economic status, corporal punishment, and depression. 

Boredom is dangerous. Worry when you see boredom in your classroom. Be additionally concerned if you are feeling bored with your teaching (because teacher efficacy, or believing in your own ability to make an impact on learners, is the MOST impactful thing you do). 

If that's you, it's time to act!

In my time as an instructional/technology coach, I have been developing coaching relationships with teachers across my district. My goal isto help these teachers find ways to meaningfully integrate technology so they could move beyond substitutive uses of technology (doing what they have always done, but simply doing it with technology). The work has been nothing short of inspiring as we have watched transformation over time in these classrooms. Technology allows for so much opportunity in your classroom. And the reality is that technology can be learned by just about anybody. If you are a classroom teacher interested in stepping beyond the routines you live in today, but you feel that you do not have the technical chops to learn the technology, I promise, you are not beyond hope. You can learn this. You need an encouraging, patient coach in your corner, a fast finger on the YouTube play/pause button, and a focus on finding ways to engage your students. You will be amazed by the payoffs!

(Interested in the SAMR model? Click here to learn more.)