Following lessons with Flow Maps, students can create movies with Digital Storytelling.

Creating a movie on Photo Story 3 is a great way for students to show student understanding of concepts such as habitats, food production, story structure, creative writing, writing conventions, cooperative small groups, presenting to a group and technology skills.

The Photo Story 3 download. There are many helpful tutorials but this tutorial video was very helpful.

If you get stuck, the information within the ‘Help’ button link is very easy to understand. I found myself hung up when I first posted my video to YouTube but then wanted to make a change in my movie. I went back in to ‘Edit’ in Photo Story 3. After making my change, I didn’t go all the way through the process of ‘building my movie” again. This needs to be done in order for your movie to be saved and formatted as .wmv. If only ‘saved’, your movie will be formatted as .wp3 and will not upload in YouTube. Follow the ‘Next’ prompts all the way through. Then the program will automatically build your movie and it will upload easily to share.

More information on Classroom Digital Storytelling can be found at:

The Laboratory for Innovative Technology in Education
www.coe.uh.edu/lite 

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling
www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling

Use Digital Story In Class Video
http://www.microsoft.com/education/enus/teachers/guides/Pages/digital_storytelling.aspx

Value of Storytelling in Education:

Importance of Storytelling in Education
http://www.ericdigests.org/pre-929/wide.htm

Movie Maker Video
For early elementary grades I suggest using Microsoft Movie Maker for a rough draft. It is easier for students to organize their photos and a smoother transition from Flow Map lessons.
windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-live/movie-maker-get-started