FTT - Interactive Timelines

Rethinking History With Interactive Time Lines

@joe_edtech/@LisaBerghoff

Creating historical time lines is certainly not something that is new to education. However, creating interactive time lines online really does represent teaching "above the line" in the SAMR model. And in fact, with the power and versatility of these tools, you can do some really outside the box things with interactive time lines. 

When I started writing this post, I was looking at a "free" tool called Tiki Toki - and I haven't even linked it here because the free version is incredibly limiting. But it really sparked my interest because in addition to being able to create traditional time lines of events, enhanced with video, pictures, maps, and text, the creators suggested you could use it to create enhanced project time lines. For instance, if there is a complex, multifaceted group project your students are working on, they could input dates, details, and goals into the time line to help organize their thinking. However, like I said, the free version of Tiki Toki really only lets you create one fairly static time line. When it comes to educational tools - one size does not fit all, and there is usually more than one good choice.

So, I went searching for something better, and genuinely free to use. Christopher Pappas of eLearning Industry provides a list of 10 truly free interactive time line creation tools specifically for the classroom. In my opinion, the best of this list, and one that is completely compatible with Chromebooks, is called myHistro. Combining a truly easy to use multimedia platform with all of the very best ideas from Google Maps, myHistro provides students with a platform for explaining historical events, planning trips, functions, or projects, mapping out important events or plot developments in a piece of literature, or organizing and archiving personal trips. The embedded video below explains how to get a free myHistro account and how to get started on time line creation:

One way to introduce this tool is to provide this software as an option for your students if you are having them create a project for your class. Rather than having them make a PowerPoint presentation or a Prezi, give them the option of making a myHistro time line.