Integrating Slides Audio: Next Level

Educators have been very excited to explore the possibilities of inserting audio into Google Slides. If you haven’t heard, teachers and students may now record audio and then insert the audio clip into their presentations. But how do we use this feature? Do we just record ourselves reading the content of each Slide? No way! Here are some different ideas for using the Google Slides audio feature in education.

Elaborating on Your Ideas

We know that Slides should have a limited amount of text during presentations. Often, presenters simply share a few bullet points or phrases on a Slide. However, this often means that the audience may forget what exactly the presenter said about this Slide when they go back and revisit. Adding audio clips in the margins will allow your audience to recall the information and teaching points. And, presenters may include additional information as well.

Image: Example of Slide where presenter offers a recap of the lesson.


Educators are using the G Suite for Education with even our youngest learners. Many educators are making their Google Slides interactive by creating hyperdocs or including activities or formative assessments in their Slides. But, what if students are having difficulty reading the directions? Adding audio directions alongside your text directions will surely be helpful for all learners.

Example: Place audio directions on a Slide.

Narrating Your eBook or Newsletters

Many students and teachers are transforming their Google Slides presentations into ebooks and newsletters. Simply change the Page Layout to Custom and select 8.5 x ll inches. Now you will have an ebook suitable for sharing and printing. Users may now add audio clips to narrate their work which often helps them locate errors for revising while doing so. And, students that are limited in their typing or writing skills may elaborate more on their stories by including these narrations alongside their work.

Using Audio Clips as an Answer Choice

If you use Google Slides for activities or formative assessments you may want to consider using the audio as an answer choice. Many people do not realize that you can change the image on the audio recording by right clicking on the image and selecting Replace.

Right click to replace the speaker image.

To make this happen, I decided to create the images first. I used Google Drawings to create new images that I would use for the answer choices. In this assignment the answers choices were limited to A or B, however there are so many different images you could include for answer choices across the curriculum.

For example:

  • Photographs of locations for geography questions
  • Shapes and figures for geometry
  • Images of science topics
  • Numbers for computations

Next, I recorded audio explaining if the selection was correct or incorrect. The student then will hear an audio recording and explanations while completing the activities.

Recording sounds for spelling sorts or tests

Many teachers use Google Slides for drag and drop activities. If you teach spelling you will now be able to make the audio recordings and include them in the headings or as the answer. Students will click on the audio recording to hear the sounds and will be able to complete their sorts. You could even make ALL the spelling words drag and drop audio clips!

Image: Example of creating images that play as audio recordings.

Track reading fluency

It’s often difficult to track progress in oral fluency. Google Slides audio would simplify the process by allowing teachers or students to insert an image of text that was being read as well as an audio recording of the student reading the text. Teachers and students could then add comments, feedback or suggestions.

Image: Insert audio recording of student reading.

Foreign Language Practice/Translations

Adding audio to Google Slides could really help students improve their foreign language skills and improve their pronunciations. Teachers could post words and phrases allowing students to hear correct pronunciations. Or, students could insert recordings reading words and phrases for teachers.

Image: User clicks the button to hear the audio of pronounciations.

How do you use Slides audio? I’d love to hear your ideas!

4 thoughts on “Integrating Slides Audio: Next Level

  1. Jaclyn Karabinas says:

    Joli, this is GOLD right now! I’ve been trying to support some schools during distance learning and I have shared your site (and this post) everywhere! It holds all the examples in one spot. Hope you are well.


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