Elementary Music Class: Canva vs. Google Slides
https://youtube.com/shorts/1evkikMwkHo?si=LBVGdPpjHTFs4KYZ
Let's be honest—elementary music educators wear about a dozen hats in a single day. We're teachers, musicians, classroom managers, cheerleaders, medics, referees, and, yes, graphic designers. The right visuals can make all the difference in keeping students engaged and lessons running smoothly. That's why the "Canva vs Google Slides" debate is a popular topic among music educators. Whether you're after quick and functional or bold and beautiful, each platform has its perks—and sometimes, the magic happens when you use them together.
Tech Tip: Before you read this...I always suggest checking with your school's IT and asking them what they support. If you have a Google-driven school, then they might not be able to assist you with Canva because their expertise would be with Google Slides.
Figure 1: This is one of many other educational resources found at https://public.canva.site/teacherresources
Using Canva for Lesson Visuals
Key Advantages
Free specialized version of Canva Pro for K-12 educators – https://www.canva.com/education/
One-Stop Shop for Teacher Resources (https://public.canva.site/teacherresources): This site assists teachers with designing engaging lessons, assignments, activities, projects, and more.
Aesthetically rich designs – An amazing and large built-in graphics library, which allows you to upload your own materials, makes slides visually engaging for young learners.
Creative flexibility – More ways to design exactly how you want (fonts, layouts, color schemes, clip art).
Music Ed friendly – Supports Music Ed Font for notation, and you can upload any music graphics that Canva may not currently have.
Animations – Fun animations in presentation mode.
Custom templates – Can create reusable, professional-looking templates for recurring activities, units, programs, posters, certificates, manipulatives, social media posts, and so much more.
Import options – Can upload PowerPoint or PDF versions of old Google Slides and “beautify” them.
Export versatility – Save as PNG, JPG, PPTX for use in Google Slides, PowerPoint, or offline.
Sharing capabilities – Can share your presentation in numerous ways with colleagues and students.
Learning resources – There are many tutorials via YouTube channels or courses run by communities or universities to help you learn how to use Canva.
Remote – Can use your own phone as a remote in Canva by activating the "Share remote control" feature within Canva's Presenter View.
Video Editing Capabilities - Though not a complete web-based video editor like Clipchamp or WeVideo, it still has video editing capabilities, and you can create and edit videos using Canva and its many versatile templates.
AI Tools - Canva has a plethora of built-in AI tools, as well as apps. Some popular ones are background remover, blur tools, filters, text-to-image, Magic Write, Magic Studio, templates, image generators, music generators, and so much more.
Templates - Look at these wonderful teacher templates Canva has set up: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFAb626QKM/_xcjbGr8v2zIgDR86MR3TA/view?
Copying items from one project to another - You can copy slides, elements, and other items from one slideshow to another. In addition, you can access a prvious project within a current project that you are working on.
Translations - It is nice that Canva can translate your slides to another language.
You get so much to work with that if you do not have a creative bone in your body, your presentations will still look amazing.
Potential Drawbacks
Audio limitations – Can't insert clickable audio buttons or sound clips per slide like in Google Slides. Workarounds exist, but they can be clunky and less intuitive.
Internet-dependent – Presentation mode can lag or fail without strong Wi-Fi.
Steeper learning curve – If you're used to Google Slides, navigation and organization may feel less intuitive.
Account risk – Canva for Education access is tied to your school email—changing jobs may mean losing editable originals.
Takes more time – The sheer number of design options can slow down prep for many of us who feel like the manipulatives need to be perfect (🙋♀️).
YouTube - You can embed the video, but you have to edit the video in the timeline so it begins and ends when you would like.
Using Google Slides for Lesson Visuals
Key Advantages
Quick to edit during lessons – Can move elements around live (e.g., dragging rhythm cards, reordering images).
Built-in media and better audio capabilities – Easily embed YouTube videos, MP3s, and clickable audio buttons for backing tracks or examples.
Organization – Works well with Google Drive folders for storing lessons by grade or unit.
Offline access – Can run from local files if the internet is spotty.
Works with Music Snippet (Formerly Flat for Docs) – Music notation and tablature snippets for your Google Workspace. Create your notation and quickly insert it into your Docs and Slides.
YouTube - You can embed the video and set where the video should begin and end by adding the start and end times.
Copying Slides - You can copy slides from one slideshow to another.
Potential Drawbacks
Design limitations – Fewer fonts, graphics, and layout options without adding third-party tools.
Visuals have less “wow” factor – May look plainer compared to Canva unless you put in extra effort.
The Best of Both Worlds: A Hybrid Workflow
For many music educators, the sweet spot is designing in Canva and organizing in Google Slides.
Here’s how:
Create polished slides in Canva.
Export them as PNGs or PPTX files.
Import them into Google Slides to add audio, links, and other interactive features.
Practical Tips for Music Teachers
To maximize your productivity and creativity, consider the following practical tips:
Keep it simple: Don't feel overwhelmed by the numerous features and options. Keep your designs simple, focused, and easy to navigate.
Play-along activities: If you want to create a play-along video, you can make the slides in Canva and then export them as a PowerPoint presentation. You can then open it up in PowerPoint or Keynote or Google Slides, add the music, and use a screen recording tool like Loom to screen record the play-along, advancing one slide per beat. One caveat is that it is more accurate to screen record with a presentation tool that is offline or not relying on the internet. Please message me if you would like to learn more about this process.
Use templates: Take advantage of pre-designed templates to save time and inspiration.
Experiment and have fun: Don't be afraid to try new things and experiment with different designs, features, and workflows.
Share and collaborate: Share your designs and presentations with colleagues and students, and collaborate in real-time to foster a sense of community and creativity.
Conclusion
Both Canva and Google Slides offer unique strengths and weaknesses, making them suitable for different aspects of music education. By understanding their pros and cons and leveraging hybrid workflow suggestions and practical tips, you can create engaging, effective, and visually stunning materials that enhance your teaching practice and inspire your students. Remember to keep it simple, have fun, run any tech program by your IT, and share your creations with others, if you feel comfortable doing so, to maximize your impact as an elementary music educator.
