Knowing this, I began to research various free online timeline makers, and I came across a lot of different ones that looked useful for a presentation of this type. However, one I have not used before is Timetoast. Wanting to see if this would work for our presentation, I signed up for a free account (fast and easy) and got to making a quick test timeline.
What impressed me the most was how easy this was to use, as the user interface is simple and intuitive. You can add pictures (no videos, though), links, and description to each event, and viewers of your timeline can click on each of the events to read the description and view the picture in a larger size. Events are not the only thing you can create, however; you can create timespans to show events that occurred over many years. No matter what you're creating on your timeline, you start all new timelines as drafts, which, after you're all done working your timeline magic, you can then make public, sharing it on Facebook or Twitter to your heart's content.
Timetoast timelines can be made public or private, and there are many ways to share your timeline-either by sharing the link, or embedding it in a webpage (as I have done below for your viewing pleasure; just be aware that the dates aren't solid, as I was making this off the top of my head just to see what Timetoast could do). You can also customize the size and background color of your timeline, and it will generate a new embed code for you.
Another feature I liked was the ability to switch from timeline view to what is called text view. This transforms the timeline into a nice table of events ordered chronologically (duh), making the events and descriptions easy to read. This would be an effective way to show at the end of our presentation exactly all we have done to help our students learn. The ability to leave comments will allow any discussion about our presentation to continue long after the presentation is over.
As a classroom teacher, I also couldn't help but think of ways I could use this the classroom. The uses for this timeline maker in the social studies classroom are obvious; but how to use this in other subject areas? Here are a few quick ideas I came up with:
- In science, I was thinking about having students use this to create evolutionary futures for different organisms, based on their knowledge of how natural selection works.
- For a careers class, you could have them make their employment history, and embed this on a portfolio site or a site where they create a resume.
- In English, you could have them map out the events of a novel, especially if it is a historical novel that spans years or decades.
Any other ideas or other timeline makers you think are useful? Please feel free to share in the comments.