PHOTO STORY 3

Photo Story 3 is a free download from Windows.  It allows the user to import pictures and audio, along with narration, to create amazing digital movies.  In my opinion, this is one of the best options out there for digital storytelling.  It ranks up there with Movie Maker, but gets bonus points for being free, which means that students can download it at home and use it at no cost.  (Did I mention that it's free?)  I have used Photo Story by importing pictures that I have scanned from books; it's a little more exciting than holding up the book and walking up and down the rows, and more attention-grabbing than Power Point.  I've also had students create audio files of themselves reading their personal narrative essays and then combining that audio with Creative Commons photos to create original digital stories (with amazing results).

My first Photo Story project involved scanned photos from a comic book version of Beowulf.  It was a great way to visually represent a scene from the story, and it really benefited my struggling learners.

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