Creating your Photo Story

What is Digital Storytelling?

“Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences, and insights. Tell your story now digitally.”
- Leslie Rule, Center for Digital Storytelling

Storytelling is an ancient art and we want to invite you and your students to use digital technology to create your own stories. We want you to use Photo Story 3, one of the most user friendly software programs on the market, to generate your story. You can select any theme you wish as long as it is related to the curriculum. There is a wealth of resources on the Web but we have selected one resource, The Digital Storytelling Cookbook, to get you started.

Digital Storytelling Cookbook

Digital Storytelling Using Photo Story

With Microsoft Photo Story 3, you can empower students to create stories and projects, via photo slideshows that include interesting transitions, motion, narration and even music. Students can then easily save the video file to a computer, CD or Web and share it around the classroom.

Follow the following steps to learn how easy it is to create your own Photo Story

Step 1. Check out some good Digital Storytelling Examples

Here are some examples of digital stories that others have created. Not all these are created using Photo Story 3 but they illustrate how you can combine images, text, sound and even video to tell your story. The key is to have a good story and then select the necessary assets you need to depict it digitally.

Willie Mays: The "Say Hey" Kid
Relive the history of one of baseball's most influential players of all time.

The Pythagoreans
A digital story designed to introduce the Pythagorean Theorem.

The Ocean Floor
A look at the colourful plant and sea life along the corel reef.

Who Am I?
Pupils use text and images of themselves to create simple puzzles.

Here are few more short (and very simple) examples for you to browse:

Step 2. Download Microsoft Photo Story

Download Microsoft Photo Story 3 for free - Click here

Step 3. Create your first Photo Story

Creating Multimedia Video files using Microsoft Photo Story 3 - How to Guide (PDF format)

Step 4. Some Ideas for your Photo Story Project

Here are some ideas to consider as possible themes for your story. The list is endless and we want you to tell us your story and we look forward to receiving your student stories in the coming weeks ahead.