Photostory

Photostory is a software from Microsoft that is free to download from their homepage. You only need a version of Windows and windows Mediaplayer installed on your computer. In this programme you can do presentations very easily. You add pictures; choose from internet (but be ware of the copyright), use a digital camera or draw your own pictures and scan it. To each picture you add text, voice and music. Photostory is not difficult to learn. You just follow the step- by- step instruction. While you are working with your presentation you save it as a project. When you are ready and you want to show it on computers that doesn´t have access to the programme then you have to export your file into a mediefile. Then it is much smaller and you may show it on any computer or put it out on the internet

How Photostory can be used by teachers and learners
When I first came in contact with this software my colleague and I were doing a work with our students in Swedish folk-tales. Our students were supposed to do their own stories and then present them to the rest of the class in some way. That lead us to photostory. I didn´t know anything about this programme before so I was a bit scared of using it but my colleague and I supported each other and it turned out to be a success. The pupils loved it! They made their own pictures which they scanned, they recorded their tales with their own voices, wrote texts and finally they added music effects to their tale. When they showed their movie to the whole class using the projector, they were very proud.

After that first meeting with photostory I have used it many times in my teaching. I have for example made an introducing to a history part: "The bloodbath in Stockholm". If you have a day out with your students don´t forget your digital camera and take pictures during the day. Back in school you and your students document the day in Photostory.

I Think Photostory is very useful in learning English though you record your voice and the learners actually hear themselves talk. The pupils have time to prepare what to say and you may record over and over again until you are satisfied. This is a good chance to work with pronounciation. When a movie is ready the classmates can watch it all together if you have a projector connected to a computer. When they watch it they have to listen carefully to each others movies and then they train the listeningskill as well. The movie can be put out on the school website or on Youtube. It is very motivating for learners to get others than the teacher and classmates to watch their work. The students really want it to be good so they might even put in a bit of extra effort to make it good.

Other considerations
I think you should have in mind that not everybody are comfortable in hearing their own voice at the movie so you have to be really sure that they want the movie published on for example youtube. Another problem with getting the movies available on youtube is that anyone can give comments on the piece of work. All comments are not nice. That can on the other hand give a good discussion on behavior on the internet.

The access to computers are often a big problem. You may only have access to five computers at the same time. I think it´s a good idea if the students can work in pairs or three but it´s not ultimate to be more than that. Then you may have to divide it into separate and smaller sessions.

I think this software is very useful and it´s up to you and your imagination what to do with it.

Carin Jonasson