Microsoft Photo Story and Research

As I walked down the primary hallway, I noticed classrooms full of engaged and motivated students who appeared to be focused on the lesson at hand. That's not unusual, but the intense focus still piqued my interest. The topic, I discovered, included practicing the skills needed to gather information in preparation for writing a biography. Students were to use on-line and text resources to gather information about a famous individual and then present a summary of their findings using Microsoft Photo Story, a free application that allows users to create a visual story from digital photos. The value of effectively researching, summarizing, evaluating information, digital editing, and presentation were all on display, not too bad for second grade.