Jennifer Nelson

Introduction

Timelines are a great education tool that can be created and used by students to help bridge the concept between history and time. With the use of the web, students and teachers are able to research topics, locate images, and create multimedia timelines, share and publish information. Teaching and learning with timelines can be incorporated within the educational standards and span between different grades and curriculum content areas. Some common educational uses of timelines include history of events, depiction of life events, change in culture, and mapping of historical events and time periods. According to Valenza (2007), timelines can be used to:

• build a history of one's township
  
• as a presentation tool
• explore controversial topics with other classes and cultures
  
• explore events that could be missing from history, science, and other textbooks
  
• relate to literature and include analysis
• compare and contrast other timelines
• evaluate and justify events
• learning evaluation strategies
  
• share new knowledge
• increase higher level thinking skills through questioning good descriptions
  
• increase digital citizenship through valid documentation and using copyright-friendly media
  

Getting Started

The following video provides a general overview of two popular Web 2.0 tools and how students and teachers can incorporate timelines into teaching and learning.

Timeline Examples
















Popular Services

Capzles A timeline creator that uses photos, video, blogs, and mp3s with a Flash interface.	TimeRime Education Create, view, and compare timelines.
xtimeline A free web-based timeline easy to create and share with pictures and videos.	OurStory Collaborate and share your timeline with anyone.
Timetoast Create interactive timelines to share on your blog, wiki, or website.	Dipity Share the news through You Tube videos, Flickr images, Twitter, and much more.

Timelines in Educational Settings

There are many excellent timelines already created for classroom use. Check out some of these great examples.

Louvre-Art
HyperHistory-World History
Google-News timeline
The Library of Congress-America during the Age of Revolution
A Shakespeare Timeline-Shakespeare's life
NASA-50 years of NASA's accomplishments
National Geographic-Sea Monsters: An Interactive Timeline
PBS-The Great War



Additional Resources

Education World-Timelines: A Timeless Teaching Tool

• Lesson Plan Ideas
• Multiple grade levels
  

Classroom 2.0-Timelines

• Lesson Plan Ideas
• Links
• Bookmarks

Diigo-Timeline Bookmarks

BeeDocs-Timelines for MacOS X


References/Acknowledgments

Valenza, J. (2007, July 3). Timelining (a 2.0 approach). Retrieved July 30, 2009 from
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334 /post/260011426.html