Digital Storytelling

I'm sure it's clear by now that technology has provided us with many digital opportunities to tell stories, but Dianne Caron and Meaghan Tracy, assistive technology services specialists for FCPS, focused on one of the most accessible tools for all ages: PhotoStory, which is available as a free download for Windows users. The basic process of creating a story in the program is to import and sequence a group of photos, add text to any or all photos, record narration that accompanies a single photo or the entire series, then pick motion to transition from photo to photo.

Caron and Tracy also offered some tips for each stage to make a basic PhotoStory more compelling.
Photos: The size of a photo will not only affect the quality of the picture but also the added text, so when searching in Google images, go to advanced search to select the size of picture to search for, then make sure to click and save the full-size picture, not the thumbnail.
Text: If you need to place more text in areas not allowed by PhotoStory, you can add the text in PhotoShop before importing the photo. If you don't have PhotoShop, you can do the same thing with with a PowerPoint slide saved as a JPG.
Narration: If you want to use clips of music instead of a whole song, you can create them in MovieMaker and save them as WMAs to string together in PhotoStory. If you need even more complicated cuts in narration, you can import the entire PhotoStory into MovieMaker, where you can also add video.
Motion: In order to scan a single photo, you must copy the image multiple times in the photo sequence. On scan for the first photo, specify start and end and uncheck the transition box. On consecutive photos, specify the start point to be the end point of the previous photo.

The application of this program for language arts is clear: You can have students create their own stories or continue where other narratives leave off. But we also brainstormed ideas for other content areas. In science, students could document the stages of the scientific process with photos. In math, students could document the stages of solving a word problem, substituting photos for text. In social studies, students could present primary source documents about a historical event. As someone suggested, PhotoStory has become the new PowerPoint, adding just a little bit more flair to the typical Parents' Night and Welcome Back presentations as well. The good news is, you can import your PowerPoints into PhotoStory and find ways to make them even more engaging by adding photos, narration and motion. Better yet, why not have students do this for you after you present a PowerPoint? In technology, a better product always comes along, but at least with PhotoStory, the transition to better tools is relatively simple.