How to Add Voice Notes to Pictures in Google Keep

Google Keep is the app that I probably use more than any other on my Pixel 5. It's an app that does everything I need to save notes, clip bookmarks, and set reminders for myself. It also has a lot of little "hidden" features that I use from time-to-time. For example, you can use to add voice notes to pictures. 

To add a voice comment to a picture in Google Keep you simply open the app and tap the camera icon in the "take a note" field. Then after taking your picture (or importing from your camera roll) tap the "+" icon in the lower-left corner to add a note. You can choose to type a note or your can tap the microphone icon to record a note. Then just start speaking. The audio file will automatically be attached to the note containing your image.

Applications for Education
Sometimes a voice note more accurately conveys what a student wants to remember about than a text note does.  Adding voice notes to pictures in Google Keep could provide students with a relatively easy way to make notes for themselves about a diagram or math problem that you've shared with them.

How to Create Custom Route Maps in Google My Maps

In a few weeks I'm participating in a global bicycling challenge that asks participants to complete 100 miles of biking on one Saturday. I'm going to do it with a couple of my friends. In preparation for that day I've been mapping out a variety of routes that we could take. We'll decide before we start...or, knowing my friends, we might not decide until we start pedaling. community.

I'm planning the possible routes by using the bike route mapping tool in Google's My Maps. If you want to create a biking route map or walking route map, follow the steps that I outline in the video embedded below.

Applications for Education
Warm weather is finally here (in the Northern Hemisphere) and it's a good time to encourage students and their parents to enjoy some healthy outdoor activities. Creating some maps of safe biking routes and walking routes then posting them on a school website could be a good way to encourage participating in outdoor activities.

Here's How to Blend Images in Google Slides

The image that you see to above was used in a blog post that I wrote years ago. It recently surfaced again when I was looking for an old math resource (sadly, no longer available). 

The image above was made by blending two images together in Google Slides. To make the final image I went to Pixabay and grabbed a public domain image of a beach and a public domain image of an abacus. Then in Google Slides I used the image editing tools to layer the images and adjust the transparency so that it looks like the abacus and beach are blended together. Watch the video embedded below to see how I did it (email and RSS readers, you'll have to click through to the blog to see the video).