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How to Change Your Virtual Background

Speech Therapy· Technology· Tips

20 Jul

Virtual Background for Zoom Meetings

Virtual backgrounds are pictures or videos you can put behind yourself instead of whatever is behind your desk in your office or wherever you are using your computer for your Zoom meeting Using a virtual background in zoom can be both fun and functional. A virtual background can be a conversational piece or it can be a way to obscure something behind you.

How to Change Zoom Virtual Background

Changing your virtual background in Zoom is such a fun way to add new, engaging scenes into your speech therapy sessions. It is a setting you may have to turn on when you log in to zoom.us, but it may already be set up when you log into Zoom. I explain how to change your virtual background and I give you some ideas of images that students might really enjoy to spur conversation!

Virtual Background Pictures

Finding the right virtual background for your meeting is not as hard or intimidating as you might think. If you are a photographer, you might have some images on your hard drive already that could be useful. However, a simple google search for “free zoom virtual backgrounds” will yield many different images you can easily download to your computer and then upload into your zoom account.

Refer to my video above for instructions on how to get a photo or picture into your zoom account for display. Always have everything completed prior to your zoom meeting or session

Zoom Virtual Background Ideas

For speech pathologists using Zoom for online speech therapy, also known as teletherapy, I recommend considering the below for some ideas for the best images for speech therapy

  1. Personal Interests of the Student or Client – Do you have a student that can be difficult to engage? Figure out what they like and put those images behind you. Students who like dinosaurs would love to see a different dinosaur behind you for each session. It might seem daunting to find many different dinosaur images. It is not time-consuming. Google search “dinosaur images” and download a ton of them. Then they are ready in your hard drive to upload for a session in a jiffy. I have used train images in that way for my students.
  2. Therapy Themes – Do you like to do themes in your therapy room? They can be incorporated into your virtual therapy room as well. From pirates to football to any theme you like, those are great ideas for teletherapy virtual backgrounds
  3. Seasonal Images – Consider the season and incorporate it into your teletherapy virtual background. When it’s fall, put images of apple-picking, football stadiums, and pumpkins carving. Winter could consist of making a snowman, sledding, or shoveling snow.
  4. Related to the School or Local Area – Images from the school including the interior/exterior of the school, the mascot, the sports arena could be engaging for the student. What about their town’s library, post office, or mall? Make the image functional and related to the student’s community.
  5. A Progressive Lesson or Tell a Story – This is one of my favorite things to do. Start with the student’s favorite restaurant. Use google image search to get a variety of images: the front of the restaurant, the parking lot, the menu, and images of food. Change images to tell a story and ask students what they would do. It’s telling a story with functional images personalized to the student.

I hope you enjoy my ideas as you change your Zoom virtual background! Have fun with your students.

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