Making timelines can be a useful learning activity for all students, including English Language Learners. I actually think students working in small groups to create a big timeline poster is a better overall learning experience. However, I can see the development of online timelines could be a good project in some situations — for example, in sharing information with others around the world working in “sister classes.”
There are many online timeline tools out there. But I’ve only found a few that are easily accessible to English Language Learners and non-tech-savvy students and teachers, free, and allow users to grab images off the web to add to their final product.
My picks for The Best Tools For Making Online Timelines are:
TimeToast (thanks to Denise Krebs for the tip)
Preceden lets you make online timelines. It looks pretty good, but you can only make five timelines on a free account.
Hstry is a nice new online too for creating timelines. Richard Byrne just wrote a post about it, and I’d suggest just you visit his blog to learn more. As he points out, one of the particularly nice features of this free tool is that teachers can create virtual classrooms for their students.(NOTE:Hstry rebranded as Sutori and turned themselves into more of a presentation tool. It seems nice, and I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows but, unless I’m missing something, it appears that they lost the ability to easily create timelines in the process. I might just be missing something, though.)
Six Tools for Creating Online Timelines – A Comparison Chart is from Richard Byrne.
Knightlab Timeline (thanks to Anthippi Harou for the tip)
It’s about time: a round-up of time-lining tools is from Joyce Valenza.
Time.Graphics looks like an easy online tool for creating timelines.It takes seconds to register, and it has a sophisticated, yet simple, interface, and you can easily add multi-media features. Note: Based on comments you can find below in the comments section, it’s expensive to now use.
eStory is a new free online timeline-making tool. It’s a quick-and-easy registration process, has a very intuitive interface, and the timelines themselves are attractive. And, it’s free.
How to Use Canva to Create a Timeline is from Richard Byrne.
How to Make a Timeline Graphic in Google Docs, Word, Excel, Google Sheets, and PowerPoint is from Hubspot.
Of course, you can also use Google Jamboard, too.
Eight Good Tools for Creating and Publishing Timelines is from Richard Byrne.
Two Ways to Make Timelines With Adobe Express is by Richard Byrne.
If you found this list helpful, you might want to see the other over-ninety ones, too.
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http://www.allofme.com/
thanks
James
Nice post. Timelines are becoming a popular way to visualize data and events on the internet.
See LifeSnapz.com as a tool for chronicling and sharing events with trusted groups like classmates, family and friends.
http://www.lifesnapz.com
Thanks,
Bob
LifeSnapz
I also like timetoast, but have used both xtimeline and timetoast with students.
Here are links to a few others:
Top 10 Sites for Creating Timelines by David Kapuler:
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/30300
and one I’ve used for a long time:
http://www.ourstory.com/
I’ve used Timerime with my students.
I liked the look and ease of use of Dipity, but I found that certain events disappeared from view as I zoomed in or out. I’m not sure if others have had that problem.
Hey Larry, I just reviewed my top 10 as well. Hopefully, this will be a nice resource for our readers… http://cyber-kap.blogspot.com/2010/06/top-10-sites-for-creating-timelines.html
It is on Technology & Learning’s online list as well.
Keep up the great work!!
This is a great list. I also like http://www.linethat.com as you can create photobooks from them as well. I think it’s a small company because they’re also really nice and responsive if you have troubles with anything.
Hi, do you know of an online timeline that’s downloadable to a DVD? I’d like to be able to keep a copy for myself. I think the ourstory.com is one of these but would like a site that looks nicer. Tiki-toki looks great but i think it’s purely online.
Sorry, Val, I don’t have an answer to that…
Hi Larry,
There’s a Russell Stannard video on xtimeline here:
http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/timelines/index.html
I guess that’s the one to which you were pointing at:
http://trainingvideos.hscs.wmin.ac.uk/timelines/index.html
Does anyone know where my students (who are under 13) can make a digital timeline without using an email address to register? You have to be 13 for a lot of these.
Thanks!
Pam,
I don’t know about the “under 13” issue, but I have a “best” list sharing sites that let you create temporary email addresses without having to register. Students can use them to register for Web 2.0 sites.
Larry
Thanks Larry, where can I find that list? Sounds like what I need for privacy issues.
Go the list “Best Of” link on my sidebar, and you’ll see it either under teacher resources or technology
I recently came across http://timeline.knightlab.com/
I have used Timeline.js (another name for this same service) with students. One thing that’s really great about this tool is that students populate the timeline by populating a simple google sheet, with each row containing the text, links to images and/or videos, captions, photo-credits, dates, etc.
Students need to find the url for an image, not just the url for a page with the image, which can be confusing at first. A cool feature is that students can see what the timeline will look like with each addition or tweak at each stage, so it really fosters a growth mindset.
The rendered timelines are often quite beautiful, and many students want to show them off to parents/grandparents etc.
Plus, it’s open -source and truly free.
It’s part of a family of tools offered by Knight-Ridder (https://knightlab.northwestern.edu/projects/) that I haven’t tried, but also look promising, including StoryMap.js to embed stories into locations on a map (I’m imagining some interesting possibilities for mashing up TimeLine.js and StoryMap.js, StoryLine, to embed explanatory text into line graphs, SoundCite to embed audio clips into text, and a virtual reality storytelling tool too.
In the past, I’ve assigned students to do the Great Thanksgiving Listen and interview an elder. Next time I do it, I think I’ll ask students to create something using one or more of these tools.
(I am not affiliated with Knight-Ridder in any way, just a fan of TimeLine.js)
Larry, I am a 70-something woman who, with my husband, want to make a timeline of our 50-year marriage on a simple-to-use site. No need for web images, just an easy way to put each year, enter events, and be able to easily add to it later. Before I register with all these sites in order to see how they work, which one would you suggest? Many thanks, Judy White in Ohio
Judy,
I’m sorry, I haven’t used them in awhile, and can’t remember all their details. I suspect any would do.
Larry
Couldn’t find what I needed so I built a timeline tool for a project a while back and made it available to anyone. It doesn’t require anything to use it. Even if saving for later access, you can provide any username – no email needed.
If helpful, you can find it here: http://www.free-timeline.com
If skilled in some html at all, you can insert virtually anything (picture, videos, links, etc.) into the events. Hope it’s helpful.
thanks for the resources to improve my differentation
I just went to https://time.graphics/educators and it’s NOT free anymore. It costs $88 per teacher plus $2 per student per year. So, for 100 students, it would be $288 per year.