Timelines 2.0: A Fun, Easy, and Free Classroom Tool
By Chris O’Neal
3/20/08
Timelines are one of the most useful and effective tools I've found that can fit in nicely with any classroom's content area and grade level. They are fantastic vehicles for doing research, being creative, and sharing and publishing information.
In addition, they are easy to use for simple classroom projects such as tracking birthdays, major significant events, and holidays. Furthermore, they offer a rich opportunity to explore the goings-on behind significant events, allowing students to uncover what led up to wars, significant scientific breakthroughs, changes in culture, or shifts in art styles and music. The possibilities are endless.
A fantastic new timeline tool I've been playing with is xtimeline. This free Web-based tool makes it simple to create timelines, and it has built-in capabilities that allow you to conduct research, embed photos and videos, do group editing, and engage in social collaboration.
Imagine combining the power of a traditional timeline tool with the history and edit features of a wiki while making it a social, globally published, living online document. It doesn't get much simpler, or more effective, than this.
Getting started is easy. Just register, log in, and hit Create. Fill in the basic information for your new timeline, then click the next Create button. From there, it's simply a matter of adding your events. You can customize each event with data, images, embedded videos, links to source information, and so on.
Each timeline has a discussion section, so a class can debate certain topics, justify the order of events or their significance, and share more details and suggestions. Users can also embed the timelines into blogs, discussion forums, and emails.
To make things even more classroom friendly, you can set timelines so only selected users can view and discuss them. You can create groups as well, and you can set up a timeline in such a way that anyone can view it, but only invited users can edit and discuss it.
I am having a blast with these timelines, and my daughter is already creating one about her life that makes use of photos and videos. I think this tool is going to be hugely popular in classrooms as teachers begin to notice it. Please share with us what you think. Create a sample timeline and post it here. How would you use this tool in your classroom? How about personally?
While you're exploring, be sure to check out a timeline called Significant Persons of the Renaissance. I find this timeline to be especially well done, with a nice combination of research, images, and well-written details.
Timelines
Thank you for the idea. I am going to go and research it now. I am looking forward to it.
Timeline for chemistry
I can see me using Timelines 2.0 to create a timeline of the chemical discoveries; atomic theory, quantum theory, periodic table, etc. I do not have time to cover a lot of history in class (SOL "timeline"). As an assignment, my students will have to view the timeline and comment.
Timelines 2.0: a fun, easy and free online tool
I practiced making a timeline on the xtimeline site and it's very easy to work with. I liked the resulting timeline and I think this will be a great tool for teachers to use in the classroom. I also searched some of the timelines that were already created, and was impressed with what can be done using this tool.
Timelines as an addition to the curriculum
I agree that timelines are a great addition to any curriculum. I have seen them being used for students' autobiographical information as well as in history class for certain events.
Does anyone else have any ideas in their curricular content where timelines could be used|?
A free Web-based timeline tool
Thanks for the website. I have my students pick biographies to read and this will be a fun website for them to look at in conjunction with their other reading.
Timelines 2.0: A Fun, Easy, and Free Classroom Tool
I just explored this site and was impressed. I think it would be useful for students to use to plot the events from books they read, to use when writing biographies or autobiographies, to compliment a book report on a biography, and many other uses.
Timelines 2.0: A Fun, Easy, and Free Classroom Tool
I am new to blogging and this whole concept of sharing online. However, I am excited to learn about the tool you mentioned. I am going to be exploring it for use in my classroom. Thank you for the idea.
Using timelines in science
I am a High School Biology teacher, and I have used or seen timelines used in a few different science disciplines. When I was in high school, my Earth Science teachers taught a unit on the history of the earth, and we studied the timeline for the earth’s eras and periods, etc. They had us think of the timeline as being the length of a football field, and we had to determine where on that football field we should mark the changes of eras and/or important events in the world's history. We then actually went out to the football field and marked these events so we could get a picture comparing the length of each era and the relative times certain events (especially major extinctions) occurred.
I think that timelines also help with the discussion of the history of genetic discoveries, as it reveals how slowly scientists worked to obtain this information at first, and then, in a more technologically developed world, the information is now all overlapping and being discovered so much more rapidly. Also, in evolutionary studies, I have my students, as a class, make a timeline of the estimated dates different species of humans arose, so they can appreciate the diversity that humans once had, and we can make hypotheses of their possible interactions.
Timelines
I was just cruising the internet looking for some teaching ideas for my classroom and came across your article on timelines. This seems like something very beneficial for kids to participate in and learn about. I also took a minute to explor the xtimeline website that you shared and it is such a great resource (and huge timesaver)! I'm definitely going to use this to model what my first graders birthdays look like on a timeline to get them interested in the idea. Thanks!
Time lines in content areas
I liked the idea of using the time-line to highlight key events in content area. After reading the other postings and thinking about skills lacking in my 7th grade students I have an idea about how to use this wonderful website. My plan is that next year I will have them for extra credit find different key dates that correlate to important math discoveries and they have to find and summarize an artical about the key concept. One of the areas my school is pushing is increasing reading in all the content areas and I have struggled with incorporating this into math. But this gives me an avenue to research over the summer to provide my students with for next year. So thanks.