Ms Khumalo needs a diagram of the water cycle for her Geography lesson. She searches Google Images, finds a clear, colourful diagram and adds it directly to her slide. During the lesson, her learners point out that the image has a large "Shutterstock" logo stamped across it. She says it doesn't matter — the content is still visible behind it.
What is the mistake in this scenario?
As Jaco explained, watermarks appear on paid images from sites like Shutterstock — and there is no longer any excuse for using them. Sites like Freepik, Unsplash, Pixabay, and Flaticon all offer extensive free, watermark-free images. Simply filtering to "Free" on Freepik immediately removes all paid options.
Dismissing the watermark compounds the mistake — it undermines the aesthetic value of the lesson and signals to learners that visual quality doesn't matter.
Mr Petersen inserts a photo of a laboratory into his Science slide. It's a bit too narrow for the space, so he clicks the middle handle on the right edge and drags it outward until it fills the frame. The beakers in the image now look oddly wide. He decides it's close enough and moves on.
What is the mistake in this scenario?
Jaco demonstrated exactly this mistake — dragging from a side or top/bottom handle resizes only one dimension, squashing or stretching the image. This destroys the aspect ratio, making images look like "science experiments."
The fix is simple: always resize from a corner handle, and hold Ctrl while dragging to lock the aspect ratio. This ensures the image scales uniformly in all directions.
Ms Abrahams needs a map of South Africa for her lesson. She opens Google Images, sees a suitable map appear in the results, right-clicks the small thumbnail preview and copies it directly into her slide. When she enlarges it to fill the slide, the text on the map becomes completely unreadable and the image looks pixelated.
What is the mistake in this scenario?
Jaco explained that Google Images shows thumbnails — small, low-resolution previews that load quickly. Copying a thumbnail and then enlarging it causes rapid pixelation, making text and fine details unreadable.
The correct approach: click the thumbnail first to load the larger version, and copy or download from there. Even better — go directly to the source website and save the full-resolution original.
Mr Daniels visits Freepik to find a cartoon teacher image. He sees a great option in the results, downloads it and inserts it into his presentation — only to notice it has a watermark. He assumes Freepik doesn't actually offer free images and gives up and goes back to Google Images.
What is the mistake in this scenario?
Freepik shows both free and premium (paid) images in its results. Premium images are marked with a crown icon — these will have watermarks if downloaded without a subscription. The solution is simply to click the "Free" filter button, which immediately removes all paid options from the results.
Going back to Google Images because of this is the wrong conclusion — Freepik has thousands of high-quality free images, including cartoons and illustrated styles.
Ms Visser projects her PowerPoint lesson directly from the editing view. The slide she is teaching occupies less than half the projected screen, with the ribbon toolbar, slide panel, notes area and taskbar all visible. She explains to learners that this is just how PowerPoint works.
What is the mistake in this scenario?
Jaco measured this specifically: in PowerPoint's editing view, around 55% of the screen is wasted on toolbars, the slide panel, notes and the taskbar. In Google Slides it's even worse — around 60%. This is screen space that should be showing lesson content.
The fix is straightforward: always use Slideshow / Presentation mode when teaching. The slide expands to fill the entire screen, removing all distracting interface elements.
Mr Fortuin is presenting a lesson in slideshow mode. He needs to switch to a Word document to show learners a reading passage. He presses Alt+Tab in front of the class, and the screen briefly flashes through his open WhatsApp Web, a personal email tab, and a social media page before landing on the document.
What is the mistake in this scenario?
Jaco demonstrated Alt+Tab as a powerful tool for switching between windows during a lesson — and specifically pointed out that before using it in front of learners, you should close any windows that are unrelated to the lesson. He even showed himself closing WhatsApp Web for exactly this reason.
Alt+Tab is the right tool. The mistake is not preparing the desktop beforehand — leaving personal or irrelevant tabs open creates distraction and can be embarrassing.