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Sligo Land of Heart's Desire Video

Created by the pupils of Our Lady's of Mercy Sligo using Photostory 3

http://media.scoilnet.ie/ncte/SWC/photostory...sligo.wmv  

Photo Story 3 is a piece of software where learning takes place through fun.  The children gained a love for their locality in a tangible way.  They have begun to identify and connect to the natural and man made features in their environment-i.e (Garavogue river, Ben Bulben,  Knocknarea,  Yeats building, also his grave in Drumcliff and his statue outside the Ulster Bank).

Photo Story 3 is very colourful and attractive and it appeals to all children including children with special needs who are well capable of using this software.  They can have the opportunity to be the sound engineer, recording narration manually using the notebook and doing voice-overs. This is a great opportunity for children with special needs to shine and gain self-esteem and confidence. Children love to hear their own voice-over and take great pride in achieving this.  The voice-overs can be lengthened /shortened to each child’s ability.

The title of this project was "Sligo ... Lands of Hearts' Desire"

Initially the class was broken into 5 groups-

                        1. Rivers in Sligo
                        2. William Butler Yeats
                        3. Location of Sligo
                        4. Sligo in the past and present
                        5. Mountains in Sligo

Each group was given a leader and the children spent time in the computer and class room to research various aspects of their chosen topic.  A special needs assistant was very helpful for this section.  The children collected a huge amount of information for each topic.  They then had to collaborate to decide which information they deemed priority. Each group wrote their script.  One of the children’s grandfathers visited and spoke to them about all the topics.  He presented them with lots of information that wasn’t to be found on the internet. The children decided that they wanted to edit their script on finding this new information.  Once the scripts were ready it was then time to gather the photos. Some children went to the County library to gather photos and information.  Some photos were taken from pictures in books, from internet and from an exhibition in Yeats building.  Primary photographs were taken by a group of children with their teacher who went on a tour of Sligo town and its surroundings.  This part of the project was probably the most time consuming.

Then it was time to delegate voice-overs to each child in the class. They were really excited about using Photo Story as some children had been involved in one previously and they all knew what to expect.  Eventually it was time to use Photo Story. Two children were in charge of connecting up the projector, speakers and microphone.  Two other children were given the title ‘Director’ and ‘Assistant Director’. The Directors job was to use the Notebook and take care of importing pictures, recording voice-overs (all the jobs that were needed to be done that day on the computer).  The Assistant Director had the hard job of keeping all the class quiet while the voice-overs were being recorded. ‘Quiet on set’ was used before each voice-over recording.  The Assistant Director knew that this role meant that you had to be very firm with the class and the majority of the time the class respected this.  The Assistant Directors job was also to let the Director and the student doing the voice-over know who was next.  This allowed the Director to have the picture ready but also a little bit of practise time for the student doing the voice-over. 

The children learnt the importance of team work and patience. Using Photo Story children are involved in their own education in a new way. The children gain the experience of choosing appropriate music to suit the situation. One disadvantage of using the music was that you were not allowed to lower a track in pictures you would have liked to be louder or lower. In our case there were no voice-overs in parts and would have preferred for the music to be louder.  You are allowed though, to choose the volume level of the track. Children gained a sense of ‘achievement’ to be part of this project and their level of I.T. knowledge has strengthened.  Children gained self-discipline throughout this project as they listened carefully and sat quietly while waiting their turn.