Visiting Maitland Youth Centre

Last Thursday I went to Maitland Youth Centre to visit Tony Head, as part of the LinksToLearning Learnscope project WorldWideGraffiti. Our project is looking at using digital storytelling software to as a tool to use in engaging these early school leavers.

I arrived to the front door of the centre to find a sign saying "Around the Back". It took a while for Tony to emerge from the new studio at the rear of the centre. He'd been mucking around in the studio with some of the kids.

After the kids left, Tony and I went inside and sat in front of the mighty PC. Tony had already downlaoded the free digital story telling software Microsoft Photo Story 3 and put otgether a cool story with the kids.

Their story showed a few of them setting up a couple of drum kits and having a jam. Over the top was a soundtrack Tony had recorded in the new studio, of a drum jam. It was a simple story called "Too Much Noise (Is Never Enough)" which showcased the new studio and the music created in it. It also showcased the talents of the kids, both in the drumming on the soundtrack, and via their input in to creating the photo story.

I gave Tony a few pointers about images and file size.

Tony's original file was over 32 megabytes, which is far too large for email or putting on the internet. Using the software that came with Tony's ordinary digital camera, we were able to reduce the size of the photos to about 35% of their original size. The batch process (which should be a function in most basic photosoftware) helped us to do this to all of the photos in one click. The file sizes of the photos went from about 1.5 megabytes to only a few hundred (you can go smaller still for a smaller file size).

We put the new, smaller images in the photo story.

When saving the photo story, we selected the "Save for Email" option. This gave us a file of only 750 kilobytes, which is just fine for emailing to a friend. We did notice that when we played this file, the photo story dispplays in a smaller 'screen'.

Tony had done a great job installing and using the software, even involving the kids straight away. We simply went through some of the finer points of files and images to get the best reulst for sharing the photo story.

Next, Tony is interested in building a website, which connects to blogs by the kids, and showcasing the progress of the centre.

Rock on, Tony and Team Hunter!!