Digital Timelines

Post date: Feb 03, 2014 4:1:39 PM

Earlier this year, Mr. Dillon worked with his students on creating digital timelines - one for human learning and the other for their learning. It was quite a fascinating connection for the students to see the difference between the development of human learning (beginning to walk, using fire, writing the first alphabet, learning plants need water to grow, etc.) that spanned centuries, to when they themselves learned these things in a matter of years.

Students worked with a word processing program (NeoOffice) in our iMac lab. They explored the drawing tools to place objects on the page to make the timeline, and then they used text tools to place their data on the appropriate points along the line. They were able to customize their own timelines with colors and fonts. The most important part about this lesson, however, was not the technology used but rather the connection they were able to make between the amount of time it took the human race to develop the skills they have mastered already in their lifetime!

Two samples of the student work for this project are below.