Screenshot of All About Me keynote presentation and text
Strategy

Tech Standards: Keynote Presentations with VoiceOver Activity Part 1

Step-by-step instructions and video tutorial on how to introduce early elementary students to creating Keynote presentations!

National Technology Standards state that students are introduced to creating simple presentations (PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides) in first grade and should master presentations – including format changes and other more advanced features) by the end of third grade. This post will demonstrate how to create a simple Keynote presentation on an iPad with VoiceOver running using an activity described in a previous Paths to Technology post, PowerPoint Lesson Plan for Elementary Students

Prior to Creating a Keynote Presentation

Students should have basic tech skills before being introduced to creating a Keynote presentation, including the ability to navigate, select, type/dictate, and the ability to learn the spatial layout of an app. Students should be creating and editing simple word documents. Students should also be familiar with how to access a Keynote presentation using VoiceOver.

Best practice also dictates that young students should be exposed to a tactile representation before the digital activity. In this case, creating a tactile image of the Keynote screen with the tool bar, slide thumbnails and standard slide layout will significantly improve the student’s ability to understand and navigate the app efficiently. In the Keynote screenshot below, the tool bar runs across the top of the screen, starting in the top left corner with Presentations (Back Button), View Options, Undo, “All About me” (title of presentation), Play, Format, Add, Collaborate, More, and Enter Reader Mode. The thumbnail slides are in a column down the left side of the screen. In the bottom left corner is the Add Slide button.

The actual slide layout will vary depending on the theme used and the slide chosen within that theme. The screenshot below has a photo of 3 year old Hunter as a landscape image, with two textboxes below the photo. Be sure to choose which Keynote theme before creating your tactile graphic!

Screenshot of All About Me Keynote slide showing tool bar, slide thumbnails,  3 year old Hunter and textfields.

It is also helpful to provide opportunities for the student to use a simple Keynote (such as an age-appropriate teacher-created book) before creating their first Keynote presentation. (See the  Book Library on Paths to Technology for teacher-created Keynote and PowerPoint books and the post, Tech Standards: Accessing Keynote Presentations with VoiceOver, geared for emerging and early readers.

Introduce common presentation terms: “slide show” and “slide deck”. A “slide show” is a presentation of a series of pictures and/or text on a page which is displayed on a large screen using a video projector. The “slide deck” is a group of slides put together in the same presentation. Students might also benefit from tactile graphics of different types of slide layouts (even slides within the same theme).

If the student is going to add images to his/her presentation, be sure that the images have image descriptions. Example: Initially use photos, placed in the student’s Photo App. Add captions to these photos. For details on how to add image descriptions, see the Paths to Technology post, Tech Standards: Adding Image Descriptions to iOS PhotosIt is recommended to place these photos in a separate album in the Photo App to make it easier for the student to locate when creating his/her presentation.

How to Create a Basic Keynote Presentation with VoiceOver

In the video tutorial, a Bluetooth keyboard was used to type the sentences. The onscreen keyboard, braille display or dictation can also be used to input text. If using dictation with VoiceOver, when the textfield is opened (VoiceOver will say “editable textfield”), then simply use a two-finger double tap to start or stop dictation. Dictation does require an internet connection. Note: For young students who are not yet writing sentences or who do not know how to keyboard, dictaton may be a great option!)

In the video tutorial, I chose the Showroom theme (originally located under Minimal); this theme has thin font and may not be good for students with low vision. For young students, chose a theme that has a image on top and sentences underneath. It is recommended to use the same slide layout for students using VoiceOver who are learning about presentations, so that the layout is predictable. In the video tutorial, two different slides were used to demonstrate the pros and cons of each layout.

The most basic Keynote would be a presentation with text only. Your student may benefit from creating a text only presentation before learning how to add photos. Since images are typically included with presentations, this tutorial will demonstrate how to add photos from the student’s Photo App.

Creating a Keynote with Images:

Note: Number and labels of textboxes may vary, according to which theme you use.

(Note: With some themes, the VoiceOver focus does not automatically move to the add slide options; you may have to touch the left side of the screen to move focus to the slide options.)

Note: Horizontal Photo slide has all capital letters.

Note: Must add Image Description to photo in Keynote!

The video below demonstrates step-by-step how to create the simple Keynote presentation using VoiceOver. The presentation content is the “All About Me” activity geared for young students.

Note: You can chose to use the same slide layout (Horizontal Photo); I chose to use a different slide layout in order to demonstrate the pros and cons.

The short video below demonstrates adding the photo vertical slide to your Keynote presentation.

Note: Keynote automatically saves each presentation.

Note: Deleting a slide in Keynote: Currently you must turn VoiceOver off to delete a slide. With VoiceOver off, touch-and-hold on the desired slide thumbnail. In the popup, select Delete.

The All About Me Keynote (Hunter’s version) is available for download here.

Resources

Keynote Presentations Pinterest tag

Attached File(s)

https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/All%20About%20Me.key
By Diane Brauner

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