Online Time Lines

I began a review of Tiki Toki, and soon realized that it was a site where one must pay in order to make more than one timeline.  I figure most ACPS teachers probably share my aversion to paying for such things, so I decided to review a number of timeline creators instead.  That quickly turned into a rather overwhelming job, which I simplified by creating the table below.

I can think of three basic uses for these sites:

1. You may want to find a timeline, relevant to a subject you are teaching, to show to the class or have your students refer to for review, etc.
2. You may want to create a timeline to show to your class or to have students refer to.
3. You may want to have students use them to do research and create timelines

In regards to use number one, the heading Bank, below lets you know if there is a bank of timelines which you can draw from. In regards to use two, I thought it was important to know if the timelines may include links to other sites with more information, that is what the Links column refers to.  I'd think the ability to include Photos is critical to making an attractive and engaging timeline, and I see, by glancing at column five, that all but one of the sites includes this.  I also note that you can only upload Videos with a few of them, and with a few more you can embed YouTube videos, but, of course there you run into the filtering problem.  Meograph stands out in the Audio column in that a user can record an audio online while making the timeline.  Comments lets you know if the timeline makes allowance for viewers to leave comments--which I consider a major factor if you are having students produce these timelines--even though it is very seldom that anyone comments on any of the Technology Treasure Chest's postings.  With a few you can not only include a map of where the event took place, but those Maps can be automatically inserted merely by entering the location in a box while creating the event.  The Distinction column serves as a place where I made notes on things which set that site apart from the rest.

Online Timeline Generators

SITE	Free	Bank	Links	Photos	Video	Audio	Comments	Maps	Distinction
Tiki Toki	No	No		Yes	Yes	Yes
Dipity	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Youtubes)	Yes	Yes	No	1st 3 free
Time Toast	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
Timeline JS	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Maybe	No	Yes	No	difficult to work with
Teach-nology	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No		Max 6 ervents, no account needed
SoftSchools	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Vertical or Horz.
ReadWriteThink	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	download & save
TimeGlider	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	free student accounts--3 free timelines
OurStory	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	YouTubes	No	Yes	Yes
Capzles				Yes	Yes	Yes (music)	(blogs)		I can't get this site to come up.
Xtimeline	Like capzles,I can't get it to come up in my browser.
Meograph	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes(Youtubes)-which somehow or another do work at school.	Record a narration online	No	Yes	Have not been able to get embed feature to work.
MyHistro	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes
TimeRime	$0.99/timeline	Yes	No	Yes	Yes(Youtubes)	Yes	No	No	viewer may print out text of individual events
Hstry	Yes	*1 Y/N	No	Yes	Yes (YouTubes)	Yes	Yes	No	classroom management , quiz questions
*1 There is a bank of Timelines, but it is not a searchable bank.

Collaboration was a feature I did not include in the table above.  That is, some of the sites include the ability to set things up so that students can collaborate in the creation of a timeline.  Neither did I mention whether or not you can download or print the final production--if that is important to you, don't forget to check that out before selecting a site  to use.  In addition, how social media friendly a  site is may be of importance to you, and these sites vary widely there as well.

Some of these sites were created with education in mind, even offering to sell you lesson plans, etc. which accompany some of the timelines in their searchable banks.  Others are aimed at people who want to share "where I went on my summer vacation" type of stories with friends and relatives.

Hstry is the site that really stands out as far as being aimed at educators.  Some  of the others are subpages within educational sites.  However, Hstry is both aimed at educators, and specializes in just timelines--so they are really in a league by themselves.  Not only do they include classroom management features, but you can include quiz questions right on the timelines.  I do consider the fact that you have to browse, rather than search, through their existing timelines a big drawback.  The other major drawback I see is that you can't link to sources such as Wikipedia.  So, depending on your goals, you still may wish to chose some other site.

Oh, I might note that with some of the sites you create events which you may or may not string together into a "story".  In other words, some are designed with timeline use primarily in mind, and with others, there is a different primary purpose, but they can be used to create "timelines" if you chose to use them that way.  A final notes, some display the sequence of events in the classic horizontal style while others display them vertically (like a Facebook wall)--and with a few you can choose between those formats.

My introduction to some of these sites came from  the following sources:

Bibliography

Educatorstechnology.com

8 Excellent Free Timeline Creation Tools for Teachers

Educatorstechnology.com,. ' 8 Excellent Free Timeline Creation Tools For Teachers '. N. p., 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.

Teachers, T. and Pappas, C.

TOP 10 FREE Timeline Creation Tools for Teachers - eLearning Industry

Teachers, TOP, and Christopher Pappas. 'TOP 10 FREE Timeline Creation Tools For Teachers - Elearning Industry'. eLearning Industry. N. p., 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015.