A Look at PhotoStory

Christine Storz

PhotoStory is a tool that incorporates photos, text, and music in a slideshow. The program can be
used to create stories of many kinds.
Special Features: Photo Story allows you to upload your photos to create a slideshow. You
may then add any combination of music, narration, captions, and special effects to the
presentation.
Strengths: There are many different special effects to add to the Photo Story presentation,
such as adding motion to the photos by panning and zooming, changing the appearance of the
photos by adding sepia or black and white tones, and choosing from more than 40 transitions
between photos, such as flips, curls, and diagonal wipes.
Weaknesses: Though there are many special effects in the program to give your story the
illusion of animation, in the end, it is a slideshow and not an actual movie. Another weakness
of this program is that it is not compatible with the Mac.

Similar Web 2.0/Library 2.0 Tools

iPhoto is a photo organization program that includes a slideshow tool with a similar ability to
create layouts and add transitions, music, and captions. You can also add special effects to
the photos before placing them into the slideshow. However, you cannot narrate the
slideshow. The main difference is that iPhoto is not a free tool, but rather part of an
expensive bundle of programs offered from Apple. The plus is that you can use it on a Mac.
Movie Maker is a similar tool that is compatible with Windows Vista and 7. The main
difference it is that it allows you to work with video files. Many of the other elements are very
similar to Photo Story—transitions, special effects, music, and captions. Again, there is no
narration available with this tool.
iMovie is similar to Movie Maker in that it also allows you to work with video files. You can
also add transitions, special effects, music, layouts, and titles. There is also no narration with
this tool. And as with iPhoto, this is not a free tool, but part of Apple’s bundle of programs,
which can be quite expensive.

Connection to Teaching and Learning

Photo Story can be used in the media center and/or classroom as a means of “digital storytelling.” It
can also be a substitute for a traditional PowerPoint presentation for a student report. Many
students find the creativity that comes along with creating a Photo Story project to be more
worthwhile than some of the more traditional teacher-assigned projects, and this can increase
learning. Following are some of the popular ways Photo Story is currently being used in the media
center and classrooms:
Students are creating book reports or “book trailers” for reading assignments. Library media
specialists are also creating book trailers to encourage reading in place of book talks, as they
are sometimes more stimulating to students.
Library media specialists and classroom teachers are collaborating on lessons where the Photo
Story project will be the generated outcome—be it a commercial demonstrating knowledge of
the research or a short play showing understanding of the topic (or, in foreign language
classes, showing knowledge of the target language).
Examples of Student/Library Media Specialist Work
Canada Commercial, created at a local elementary school library media center, by 5th graders
Book Trailer for If You Give a Pig a Pancake, found on Mark Geary’s Movies for Literacy
website

Instructions
I have created a video tutorial with Jing, which can be found at:
http://www.screencast.com/t/YTRiODk0

Final Comments
I believe Photo Story is a very useful tool for the media center and the classroom. It makes the
learning experience more exciting and authentic for students and encourages them to use a variety of
skills to complete the project. It is also not difficult to use.

iPhoto is also a good tool; however is prohibitive because of cost. The same can be said of iMovie.
Movie Maker is not a bad tool to use for these types of projects as well; however, it is a bit more
complicated to use. The students would have the added step of filming footage to use in their
projects—it would not be nearly as easy to find video footage on the Internet, ready to use for their
purposes. However, there are projects where moving images really would enhance the final product
(some book trailers, commercials, and so on) and if time constraints were not a major issue, Movie
Maker would be a good option. Since it is not compatible with Windows XP or Macs, we would have
to be sure students had access to PCs that had the most up-to-date operating systems.

Recommended Resources
Adam, Anna and Helen Mowers. “Book Reports, 21st Century Style.” School Library Journal.
(5/1/2007) 13 Feb. 2010.
<http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6438283.html?industryid=47078&q=photosto
ry>
Students are preparing digital book reports with Photo Story and Movie Maker (a similar
product) and are even uploading them to podcasts. It is allowing kids to publish what they
create on the Internet.

Butler, Kevin. “Speaking Their Language.” District Administration. (2/2009) 13 Feb. 2010.
<http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=1885&p=1#0>
Foreign language classes are using programs such as Photo Story and Apple’s iMovie to
reinforce language skills. This article discusses uses of these programs in creating Spanish
language “telenovelas” and commercials for popular brand products in the target language
while including subtitles in English.

Fryer, Wesley. “Movie trailers for books – Too bad they are not cross-platform compatible or
published to permit feedback.” Moving at the Speed of Creativity Blog. (12/11/2008) 13 Feb.
2010. <http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/12/11/movie-trailers-for-books-too-bad-they-
are-not-cross-platform-compatible-or-published-to-permit-feedback/>
 Wesley Fryer talks about creating “book trailers,” which are really multimedia book talks for late
elementary and adolescent readers with Photo Story. He sees one main drawback—that the
program is not Mac-compatible. However, he mentions some ways to combat this problem
when sharing the book trailers with Mac users.

Geary, Mark. “Making Book Trailers with Photo Story 3.” Tech & Learning. (12/1/2007) 13 Feb. 2010.
<http://www.techlearning.com/printablearticle/8160>
This article provides a great tutorial in using Photo Story to produce “book trailers,” or book
reports, created to pique other students’ interest in reading the book.

Porter, Elizabeth. “Photo Story 3: Class Poem Video.” Bright Hub. (12/14/2009) 13 Feb. 2010.
<http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/21973.aspx>
This article gives an idea of how to use Photo Story in conjunction with a poetry unit.

Tolisano, Silvia, ed. “Ideas for Photostory 3 Projects.” 21st Century Teaching. 13 Feb. 2010.
<http://21stcenturyteaching.pbworks.com/Ideas-for-Photostory-3-Projects>
A wiki incorporating members’ ideas for utilizing Photo Story into classroom lessons. Some
highlights include: creating family trees, creating a sports highlight film, interviews, teaching
phonics, and so on.

VanderMolen, Julia. “How to Create Slideshows with the Free PhotoStory 3.” Tech & Learning.
(1/1/2007) 13 Feb. 2010. <http://www.techlearning.com/article/6738>
This article includes a nice tutorial on how to create a Photo Story project. It also includes a
sample lesson plan on introducing a Photo Story to your students for the first time. It gives
some ideas on when to incorporate Photo Story into your lessons, such as to introduce a new
concept or topic.