BP12_220912_Web 2.0_Tools_Timeline

For the purpose of this post I would like to discuss the uses of a tool called timeline. Timeline is a web2.0 tool that allows students to create a timeline of events. There are several applications for this tool. The first is to allow students to create a timeline after you have covered a topic. Timeline is an excellent tool for teachers to evaluate how effectively each student is learning, as they are expected to list the major events within the given topic. It gives the students another opportunity to cover the material again and create something interesting that can be used for further study and revision.
The second potential use of timeline is to document processes, which has a chronological order such as subjects like history and geology or process such as digestion and digenesis. Asking the student to create a timeline of events they have learned will help to keep the information straight and will be an invaluable study tool when it come time for exams. Color-coding of events adds another layer of knowledge to timeline. Once the students have listed out the events, they can use color to categorize each event. For instance in geology, during rock formation you have physical and chemical process, when using time line to described the formation of a rock you can have yellow mean physical and red mean chemical process.
Timeline can be also used by the teacher at the beginning of the topic to give the students an overhead view of the topic about be covered. Students can use the timeline to understand where they are in the grand scheme of things.
Although there are many uses for timeline within the classroom for people from ages 5 to 22, I think that the tool will not be very usable in the corporate classroom in its current state. It looks very cute and gimmicky and does not really have a professional finish with corporate students expect. We also run into the question of privacy and protection of corporate data. I have the tool thumbs up for the classroom but I would not implement it in a corporate classroom.