Week 6: Digital Timelines
Two week ago my students completed a research paper about the evolutionary history of an animal. Then they presented their research to the class and part of the requirements were to include a timeline of the changes and adaptations throughout history. Many students did a nice job presenting the different species in chronological order, but very few of them created a timeline. While I was at ASTE, I learned about the various ways for students to produce digital timelines and I was immediately thinking about how to revamp this particular assignment!
Digital timelines allow for timelines to be so much more than just the chronological order of events. Online timelines give the creator the option to include text, images, multimedia, hyperlinks, and so much more!
Here are the different digital timelines I was introduced to at ASTE and quick tutorial/introduction videos of each:
Time.Graphics is a free timeline creator that allow you to easily incorporate text, video, and graphics. Timelines can be downloaded & shared.
History in Motion creates a timeline of historical events showing movement on a map.
myHistro is a timeline builder and map creation tool rolled into one.
Sutori Timeline Maker is a free or paid timeline creator. It is marketed as a collaborative presentation tool and most of the “timelines” I looked at were more like a fluid presentation of assignments than actual timelines. With that being said, it still looks like a great resource and could be used to create a more traditional timeline.
Tiki-Toki Timelines is an online timeline maker software for creating beautiful interactive timelines that you can share on the web. This one was the most visually appealing one to me and I think my students would enjoy using this program.
There are so many amazing, free tools out there for creating a digital, interactive timeline. The thought had never even crossed my mind to create a digital timeline and now I am excited thinking about all the ways I could use these in my classroom!
Resource: Carrie Day; Engaging Learners Through Technology at ASTE
Great post Heather! I agree the old school format concept of timelines needed to be disrupted! I like that you are incorporating what's possible with new software applications right into the class room. I just recently learned about Tiki Toki and showed it to our communications guru as an idea generator around company history. AHFC has a lot of cool historical facts and milestones that could be representing in this new style of timeline format. Some of these offer multiple ways to display and engage with a timeline, very cool!
ReplyDelete-Sandor
Amazing post! I really like how you compiled several tools for creating timelines. Timelines are great for engaging visual learners. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDelete-Galina
Wow, so many great looking tools. To make the map move through history might be such a fun thing to watch.
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