Greetings,
This week I have chosen to focus on the free digital
timeline website called ‘Dipity’. This website allows users to generate
interactive timelines which they can use to embed material, share and collaborate.
It allows students to create timelines that are visually appealing. The content
that is able to be placed on timeline includes video, audio, images, texts,
links, social media, location and time stamps. The technology also allows for
the timeline to be easily converted into a flipbook, list and or map. Thus, adding new aesthetic and educational dimension
to the content.
This technology is particularly useful for both students and
teachers. For teachers it offers an opportunity to distribute a range of
content from one location. It could be used for a plethora of objectives in
regards to students. It would be a very useful means of conductive formative
and summative assessments by asking students to create timelines, maps or flipbooks
that relate to content. It would be
wonderful for history students to be able to create a timeline using a variety
of content that highlights important moments in the lead up to the Second World
War. Students would then have the advantage of creating a corresponding map
that would further their geographical understanding.
Another attractive aspect of the technology is that it
allows students to collaborate. Let’s apply the SAMR model to the aforementioned
interwar period timeline activity. In the early stages students could work
individually or together to create a timeline for the interwar period. Students
might then be asked to focus their attention to certain countries to add depth
to the timeline. Other students may be asked to create a map and link a
location to events. In the later stages of the SAMR structures students could
compare and contrast their timelines. To acknowledge global perspectives they could
research from the perspective of non-western powers. They could go so far as to share the timeline
in a safe internet forum and ask students from around the world how they view
the series of events. With this open discussion students could then apply Bloom’s
Taxonomy and evaluate the similarities and differences of opinion surrounding
the content.
That is just one of many instances in which Dipity is a
valuable online resource. Check it out for yourself: http://www.dipity.com/
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