Creating the Connections
Session plan 1: Introduction to digital stories
Time
2 – 2 ½ hours or 3 – 4 hours with language support activities, depending on need.
Aim
Students will understand the project, the purpose of digital stories and the application of Photo Story 3 to develop these. They will use
provided photos to gain skills in making a digital story.
Preparation

Check everything on the ICT list is in place (see Getting Ready).

On a drive that students can access, create a folder and subfolders for the resources they will need (e.g. sample digital stories, photos). Be
specific in naming these so that it is clear to everyone what they are and so that they act as models for the students when they create and
name their own folders and files.

In these folders, upload and save the resources needed for this session, i.e. sample digital stories (WMV files) and their associated Photo
Story 3 files (from Samples) and photos (from Gallery) or copyright-free photos from a website such as ‘flickr’ (http://www.flickr.com) (see
Web Links).

Organise a student drive or storage device for the students’ projects.

Organise a backup storage device where you can save a copy of each student’s Photo Story 3 file, e.g. your network drive or a USB device.
Photo Story 3 files are large and vary in size from 10 – 30 mb, depending on the size of photos and the length of story. The finished digital
story file (WMV file) will be about one-tenth of this.

Make preliminary contact with local community organisations and individuals to gauge their interest in the project and get their agreement
to participate. (For possible groups and individuals, see Teacher Info: Project ideas).

Depending on your class group, it may be necessary to raise awareness of community-based organisations through an excursion and
meeting with a key person before beginning this session.
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Creating the Connections
Procedure
Time
Steps
Resources
Teaching suggestions
10 minutes
Introduction: The project
(30 - 40 minutes
for language
students)
Discuss the project and brainstorm:
Teacher Info:
Project ideas
Briefly explain that students will be making
digital stories about a community-based
organisation or a person in the community.
Student Handout:
The project
Do the brainstorms as a class group & write
students’ suggestions on the board. Read and
discuss the student handout.
(1) Community-based organisations
(2) Individuals in the community.
Note: Language teachers may prefer to do this
introductory activity in the classroom rather than during
the computer session.
Tell students that over the next few weeks they
will need to be thinking about what / who they
will make a digital story about.
Some suggested support activities to build understanding
of community groups can be found at the end of this
session plan.
15 – 20 minutes
Project skills: Awareness of end product
Students watch at least one sample digital story to
raise their awareness of the technology and its use in
making community-based digital stories.
Sample digital
stories (WMV files)
from Samples
Discuss similarities and differences between the
digital stories, e.g. type of text (does it tell a
story? give information? is it a recount?) the type
of music and its contribution to effectiveness,
type of photos, use of text & narration.
Raise students’ awareness of the component
parts of the digital story: Title / Introduction /
Body / Ending / Credits.
10 minutes
ICT skills: Students create folders
In preparation for making their own digital stories,
students create individual folders ready to save their
digital story files.
Customisable materials, © Commonwealth of Australia 2007
Student Handout:
How to manage files:
Making folders
Demonstrate creating and naming folders
(located where students normally save their
work). Tell students how to name them (e.g.
student’s name_digital stories. A consistent
naming system makes folders easier to find if
students forget what they have called them.
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Creating the Connections
15 – 20 minutes
ICT skills: How a digital story is made
Show the Photo Story 3 tools that were used to make
a sample digital story:
1 hour

Pictures on film strip

Changing picture order

Importing pictures

Deleting pictures (delete the imported ones)

Icons for changing colour levels, red eye and
rotating pictures

Removing black borders

Edit icon: cropping and adding effects

Adding text (Photo Story 3 refers to this as titles)

Recording narration

Adding music

Saving
ICT skills: Using Photo Story 3 tools
Note: Recording narration and adding music are not
included here because they are the focus of the next session.
Photo Story 3 file
from Samples
NB: There are two stages of saving:
Photos from
Gallery
Using provided photos, students practise the
fundamentals of making a digital story:

Opening Photo Story 3 (& beginning a new story)

Importing pictures (about 8)

Changing the order of pictures

Deleting pictures

Removing red-eye and black borders
Customisable materials, © Commonwealth of Australia 2007
Open the Photo Story 3 file of one of the sample
digital stories. Point out each of the features and
briefly show how they can be used. At this time
you are alerting students to the possibilities
rather than making sure they understand how to
do it.
Student Handout:
How to use Photo
Story 3

For work in progress (as a Photo Story 3
document)

When the digital story is completed (as a
WMV file).
Students open Photo Story 3 and click ‘Begin a
new story’. Show them where to locate the
photos you earlier loaded from Gallery or a
copyright-free website. Allow students time to
browse and choose which photos they want to
import. Then, either:

Take students through the process step by
step so that they can follow on their
computers, using their imported photos
(except narration and adding music).

Students can use the How to… handout as
they work independently to make a digital
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Creating the Connections

Rotating photos

Editing: Cropping and adding effects

Adding text

Saving the project.
Note: Depending on the student group, you can also omit
editing (cropping and adding effects) and other editing
features (removing red eye and black borders) as they are
reintroduced in later sessions.
5 minutes
The next session
Students will add narration and music to their saved
digital story.
story using their chosen pictures – except
Step 6 (recording narration) & Step 7 (adding
music).

Some students may prefer just to experiment
with the tools to find out what they do.
Emphasise the importance of saving their work
(as a Photo Story 3 document) as they build their
digital story so that it isn’t all lost if problems
occur.
Make sure students appropriately name and save
their work in the folder they created.
Maintain students’ motivation by alerting them
to how they will be refining their story and
building their skills in the next session.
Support activities to build understanding of community groups

Small groups can look at websites of community groups to get more idea of what such groups do. To focus the activity, prepare questions
so students are looking for specific information about the community groups. Student groups could report on the findings to the class,
write a short information text or give a short presentation.

Students can relate their own experiences of community and welfare groups. Language students can discuss the groups that have assisted
students and their families since arriving in Australia.

Language students can participate in a comparative discussion of community groups in Australia and other countries in which they have
spent time.
Customisable materials, © Commonwealth of Australia 2007
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