A tool that we have had the opportunity to learn a little bit more about and use at the university is Photo Story. It is a tool that Microsoft has created and you can download it to your computer for free at Microsoft's website www.microsoft.com/photostory. To download this programme you need to have some version of Windows XP installed in your computer and to play it you need a programme called Windows Media Player.
Photo Story is easy to learn because you can follow it step by step in the way to create your own Photo Story. It is a programme where you can add pictures and decide in which order you want them to be shown. You can write a text to each picture, add music and record your own voice and add to the pictures. You can also edit the pictures. You can for example take away red eyes, turn the pictures in the way you want them and use different effects to create more dynamic pictures like using the zoom effect to zoom in or out in the picture. You can also choose how long you want each picture to be shown, maybe some of them need to be shown a little bit longer than others.
Both pupils and teachers can use the tool Photo Story. Teachers can use it to introduce a theme that the class is going to start working with or an assignment that the pupils are going to do. When a teacher is going to introduce the subject English to young learners it can be a good idea to create a Photo Story where you can add pictures on for example animals and add a text saying what the animals are called in English and also record your own voice so the pupils can hear how different words are pronounced.
If a teacher works with a picture book in a class the teacher can create a Photo Story and add the pictures from the book by scanning them into the computer or use a digital camera to photograph the pictures and then add them to the Photo Story. In this way the teacher can show the pupils pictures from the book at the same time that she reads it. Often there are a lot of things that you can discuss by looking at pictures and Photo Story is a great tool to use in exercises like this one.
Pupils can also use the tool Photo Story. They can include it in an oral presentation. Pupils who think it is scary to stand in front of the whole class can have good use of Photo Story. They can prepare themselves in advance, maybe this can help them in not becoming too nervous and thinking that giving an oral presentation is the worst thing in the whole world. Pupils can also use the tool when they are going to present other things like introducing themselves or their families and where they live or if they have other excercises that they are working with in school. By using a digital camera it is easy to take own pictures to include in Photo Stories. The pupils can also download Photo Story to their own computers at home so that they can use it when doing for example homework.
The tool Photo Story can be used in all subjects and there is no limit for when or how much it can be used. When using a tool like this, there are some things that you as a teacher must have in mind and inform your pupils about. You have to think about the fact that you are not permitted to download any pictures or music you want from the Internet and use them in your Photo Story because then you can be accused for stealing. That is something that teachers and pupils have to be aware about. The programme Photo Story includes some pictures and music when downloading it and these are of course totally okay to use like your own photos from a digital camera.
To be able to show Photo Stories in the classrooms there must be a computer connected to a projector so that the pupils can see the Photo Stories on the whiteboard or smartboard. Many schools have these functions in almost every classroom nowadays. If a teacher does not have these functions in her classroom maybe she can change with another teacher in some lessons so that class can be able to work with Photo Stories as well.
Photo Story is a really good tool to use in school and at the same time that it is fun and creative it is also of good use.
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