TES ICT Blog: Using Photo Story 3 to bring photos to life in the classroom

03 May 2006 at 12.30

Using Photo Story 3 to bring photos to life in the classroom

MFL teacher Joe Dale looks at how to use the freebie Photo Story 3 to bring photos to life in the classroom and create engaging learning resources For many, digital cameras have transformed our attitudes to taking photos. We can now be more creative and take risks by worrying less about the number of shots we have left and more about capturing the moment. Digital technology allows far greater versatility in how we view our images too. Collections can be stored not only on a computer’s hard drive, but also on portable devices such as mobile phones and mp3 players, burnt on to CD or DVD and even hosted online for others to see anywhere in the world. Using Photo Story 3 Photo Story 3 for Windows is a free download from Microsoft which lets you put together digital images with accompanying text, music and narration in the form of a slideshow or photo-movie. You can use photo stories to... present new vocabulary using individual objects or by miming actions to practice dialogue work such as buying different items in a shop or asking for directions to give a description of your daily routine or local area for example to design a comic strip to make a record of a trip to put together a multimedia resource for your partner school Photo Story 3 for Windows is very simple to use. Setting up your presentation is straightforward; the software guides you through each element of the slideshow allowing you to customise your work at any point. Cool things you can do with Photo Story rotate imported pictures and size them to fit the screen scan across your images in different directions in slideshow mode add formatted text (size, font, colour) and position it on each slide. make notes and record a narration for each slide insert a sound file made ‘on the fly’ with the voice recording function of an mp3 player insert copyright-free music to play in the background over selected slides create different genres of customised music automatically using the software preview any changes made import pictures from PowerPoint save a project and finish it later save your finished presentation to be sent as an email attachment, played on a pocket PC, mobile phone or portable media center Where to go for Photo Story tutorials For a detailed tutorial including video clips and teacher notes on how to use Photo Story 3 for Windows go to the mini site Assignment: Photo-movie set up by BT. The tutorials cover topics such as importing pictures, making graphics, recording narrations, adding music What is a Photo-movie? Getting The Software Setting Up Importing Pictures Making Graphics Recording Narration Picture Moves Adding Music Writing The Script BT also recently produced a handy guide to creating podcasts Internet Radio for Schools. As part of the free two DVD set of workshops from the recent MFL conference for primary teachers organised by Northamptonshire County Council, there's a practical explanation on how to use Photo Story 3 for Windows in class. For more details, go to the Learning Discovery website or contact Guy Shearer, Northamptonshire County Council guy.shearer@learningdiscovery.org.uk. For some examples of photo-stories produced with Comic Life (Mac only), have a look at the Modern Foreign Languages Environment’s Creative Teaching section on cartoons. There are also some Word templates there to help you get started. Lynne Horn from Tobermory High School has more examples of Comic Life cartoons on her blog tobermoryhs under the section Qu’est-ce que tu fais le week-end? Having just returned from our recent school trip to Brittany, I look forward to playing around with the digital images we took and the audio we recorded for our next photo-movie. To see an example of a photo-movie created using images from a PowerPoint presentation, click below Download example.wmv or on this link to our Resources Bank (you will have to register to access the Resources Bank, but registration is free). The file is called Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard. Following the instructions, from the Assignment: Photo-movies tutorials, I saved the slides from the PowerPoint I made four years ago as jpgs and put them into Photo Story 3 for Windows. It took me about ten minutes including adding the cheesy music. I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that the presentation is copyright free as Monsieur Oiseau and Monsieur Canard have come to a mutual agreement and waived their worldwide rights. Leave a comment and tell me what you think. I’m sure the lads will be keen to know. To download Photo Story 3 for Windows, click here

Comments (13)

Would anyone like to comment on the lack of social comment on this blog since we've needed to register to register? Should we need a login for bloggin' to host a post? Should feedback make a comeback? Communication must be two way, eh? Is it always right to reply to your right to reply? No comment!

Posted by: dalej on 06 May 2006 at 19.42

Yes, well, what do you know, Joe, I downloaded the software Photo Story 3, and created, within 10 minutes, a cheesy show about my family's recent day out in the Lakes...complete with tinny background music and a barely audible narration....all in English... It now remains for me to do the same thing for a school 'audience'

Posted by: PierreImport on 07 May 2006 at 12.02

Yes, well, what do you know, Joe, I downloaded the software Photo Story 3, and created, within 10 minutes, a cheesy show about my family's recent day out in the Lakes...complete with tinny background music and a barely audible narration....all in English... It now remains for me to do the same thing for a school 'audience' Merci pour l'inspiration!

Posted by: PierreImport on 07 May 2006 at 12.02

Is there an echo in here? Thanks for the post PierreImport and your rating of 'Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard' from the TES Resources Bank. I'm sure it will encourage others to download the software and try it out for themselves. At the risk of repeating myself, I was also wondering if you had any thoughts about needing to register now to leave comments on the blog. Do you think that effects spontaneity? Personally, I'm only ever spontaneous when I've thought about it first.

Posted by: dalej on 07 May 2006 at 13.32

Spontaneity? I will tell you tomorrow.

Posted by: PierreImport on 07 May 2006 at 21.30

PierreImport, as today is also tomorrow's yesterday, I was wondering if you've had a chance to have a look at the Assignment: Photo-movie link above from BT? It's very good you know. Monsieur Oiseau and Monsieur Canard both like it. They think it's good to squawk.

Posted by: dalej on 08 May 2006 at 07.59

Great post Joe - a real find. Very easy to use as well. Love your photo movie - you didn't stay in Hotel les Mielles in St Cast did you, by any chance? I'm off with the Year 8s next week too ... you've got me wondering whether to ditch the video camera - this seems MUCH less labour intensive. I've put a quick link to this on my blog: www.cms.typepad.com

Posted by: binks on 13 May 2006 at 07.54

Dear Ruth/Binks, Thanks for the comment here and the post on your blog. I’m glad you liked ‘Les aventures de Monsieur Oiseau et Monsieur Canard’. The original presentation took me about ten hours to make, whereas the slideshow was ten minutes max! I wouldn’t ditch the video camera though. In fact, I’d bring along an mp3 player that can record audio. I find the pupils are more relaxed speaking into a microphone than having a camera pointed at them! By the way, we always stay at the Bon Abri Hotel in St Cast which I can highly recommend.

Posted by: dalej on 13 May 2006 at 19.17

Dear Ruth, Have you heard of Microsoft's HTML Slide Show Wizard? I came across it in a computer magazine recently. I've not used it, but it looks interesting. Here is the link: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

Posted by: dalej on 13 May 2006 at 20.49

Any ideas for video editing software? A few years ago, I bought Pinnacle's Studio 8 - WHEN (for about a month) it worked, it was fantastic, but I've had problems with it ever since. I'm not alone in these problems, they're well documented on their support forum. Windows Movie Maker doesn't seem quite so good ... but at least it works ...

Posted by: binks on 14 May 2006 at 11.11

Here are some tutorials for Movie Maker: http://www.atomiclearning.com/moviemaker2 http://www.mrbelshaw.co.uk/extras/documentary/index.htm I've not done a lot of video editing myself, but its an area I would like to explore more. When we come back from France each year, we give the video footage to my colleague who runs the school film club. He then edits it with the pupils and makes it into a short film which we show later in a whole school assembly. He uses a range of different software depending on the effects he wants to create, but I know he recommends Ulead software as being particular good.

Posted by: dalej on 14 May 2006 at 17.36 How can I use this facility in my lessons when the authorities are not prepare to buy the necessary tools? Posted by: Asamando on 24 May 2006 at 17.57 Dear Asamando, I can understand your frustration of not having access to the necessary hardware to use ICT in your classroom. Is there a computer suite in your school though? If you are specifically referring to the software Photo Story 3 for Windows all you need to get going is one computer and a few images which you could take with a digital camera or search for on the web (respecting copyright of course). You could then put the slideshow together in a matter of minutes and present it there and then or later on a computer suite (if you were to have one). One of the reasons I wanted to write this blog in the first place was to show that colleagues don’t need to have the latest all singing all dancing interactive whiteboard in their class to use ICT effectively. If they have a computer suite to which they can get access, they can make interactive exercises for their pupils to practise using authoring software such as Spellmaster, Hot Potatoes, TaskMagic or Fun With Texts. They can use desktop publishing software to design a newsletter or poster, word-processing software for redrafting a text or the web for finding authentic websites. Using ICT can be as simple as using a computer to create activities with Puzzlemaker or Teacher’s Pet to then be printed off as paper worksheets. I first started out by finding good websites to use such as Linguascope or bonjour.org.uk as it was then called and Languagesonline although it had a different and much longer name to begin with. Next, we bought a couple of Vektor CDroms for our network, plus Fun with Texts a bit later on. I started making Spellmaster activities for the computer suite after that until I was lucky enough to be able to use a data projector in my class. It was at that point that I began making PowerPoint presentations for whole class teaching basing some of my ideas on examples I had downloaded from the MFLresources website. From then on, I searched for freeware on the web which I could use with a data projector. Some of my findings in fact, I’ve already written about on the blog. Getting an interactive whiteboard was the icing on the cake as it allowed me to explore my ideas further. I do understand where you are coming from Asamando and others like you who have limited access to ICT. I referred to this in my first blog post if truth be told. My advice is to keep badgering your SMT for some more ICT kit and see if that helps. Good luck. Posted by: dalej on 24 May 2006 at 21.57

Comments

[Zouhair]

Dear Sir / Madam,
This is Zouhair, an English teacher. I'm going to participate in a presentation next month during which I'm going to deal with teaching English through picture stories. I have been looking for something useful that could help me on the web. However, I haven't yet found anything helpful enough. I'd like to request you to help me, if it is possible, on the following points:

1. I need designed presentation on teaching English through picture stories which could help me design my own one.

2. I need picture stories in the form of separate pictures which we can ask learners to arrange in a specific order to become an understood story.

3. If those pictures mentioned in point 2 are available could you please send me some collections by post? Or by email?

Note: the presentation is going to be for training teachers and for teaching adults.
I'd appreciate your help.

Best regards
Zouhair

[Joe Dale]

Dear Zohair,

Thank you for your comment. Photo Story 3 is a great way to make picture stories. Have a look at this tutorial to show you how it works:
http://www.bteducation.org/img/lib/dialogics/PhotoMovie/index.html

As for pictures, have a look at this tutorial from Beth Kanter who explains how to use photos freely under the Creative Commons licence on Flickr for non-commercial use:
http://www.projectstreamer.com/users/kanter/gettingattention/gettingattention.html

You can also convert your PowerPoint slides into little films using Photo Story 3.

Save your slides as individual pictures (File/Save As/Save as type/JPEG File Interchange Format). Import them into Photo Story 3 and record some narration and export your film to play on any portable device which plays wmv files

On the other hand if you just want to see the slides as images, you can transfer them directly to a portable device without using PS3.

See this guide which explains how to do it:
http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/index.php/2006/07/10/learning-slideshows-for-mobile-phones-and-ipods/

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

Hope that helps

Good luck

Joe