Photo Story as an ICT tool

There are a lot of different ICT tools that teachers and pupils can work with in school. I believe that it is important to think outside the box when you work as a teacher and try to find new ways of teaching. I am going to tell you about a fun and educational ICT tool for both teachers and pupils. This ICT tool is called Photo Story.


How Photo Story works

Photo Story is a software program from Microsoft. It is free to download for anyone; all you need is a computer. The program can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com. This program is used to make digital presentations. These presentations contain photos, text and music. You create your own Photo Story in different steps. You start by choose pictures you find suitable for your presentation, you can use your own pictures or download from the Internet. When downloading pictures it is very important to make sure that there is no copyright on the pictures you want to use. After choosing pictures you can write a text to the photos, you can also record this text later. Next step is to choose music, you can create your own or use music from the Internet. There are different websites where you can download both pictures and music without worrying about the copyright, for example www.fotofinnaren.se and www.multimediabyran.se. The final step before you are done with your Photo Story is to choose other effects, for example how long you want each picture to be shown. When your Photo Story is done you just have to save it. Your Photo Story can be played on a PC using Windows Media Player.


How teachers and pupils can use Photo Story

I believe that Photo Story gives a lot of great opportunities for both teachers and pupils. As a teacher you can use Photo Story as an introduction to a task or a wider theme. The teacher can adapt the Photo Story so it is suitable for all pupils and their levels. There are a lot of tasks and themes that can be introduced by a Photo Story, for example: the teacher can show a Photo Story about his/her family and then tell the pupils that they are going to write and tell about their own family or perhaps make their own Photo Story and show to their peers. The teachers Photo Story can be a beginning of a story that the pupils continue to write on. To give an introduction like this is creative and fun. The possibilities to use Photo Story in the classroom are unlimited. It is also important to remember that Photo Story can be used by teachers as well as pupils. This is an alternative and creative way for the pupils to do tasks and presentations. They create their own work in a meaningful way and they practice their oral skills, reading and writing skills and their listening skills. I think that a Photo Story is very creative and motivating to work with for both teachers and pupils.