25 students in Professor Nancy Langston's Spring 2016 U.S. Environmental History class at Michigan Technological University created timelines that explore current events and their possible significance. If you have questions or comments, please email Prof. Langston at [email protected]
Here are some of the pedagogical details, for those who have asked:
Timelines: We used hstry.com. I started by creating a free hstry.com educator's account, which allows 200 linked student accounts. This was my first time using it, and I was looking for something easy for students to learn. The accounts allowed students to share their drafts with me so I could comment before publishing the timelines to the world. When you publish each timeline, you get a stable URL that you can add to a google map or website, which allowed me to pull all the individual timelines together into a single website for public consumption.
I then used google maps to geo-tag each location (google maps also allows you to add a photo, some text, and a URL). Then I shared the google map with the public, which allows you to generate code to embed the live map in weebly.
Finally, I used a free weebly account to create the website and embed the google map. I then used the gallery option to add photos that link to each student timeline. It sounds complicated, but creating the google map and the weebly site took perhaps 2 hours of my time after students provided me with the necessary materials from their timelines. I could have had the students do it, but this class is large enough (25 students) that I figured I could do it more efficiently.
I gave them the project details about a month before the end of the semester, and it's worth 200 points out of 500 for their final grade. Students could work alone or in small groups (half chose to work alone). I required a proposal 2 weeks before due date and a draft a week before. Students generally find weebly and wix very easy to use--I now encourage websites as projects, even in my 1st year courses.
Here are some of the pedagogical details, for those who have asked:
Timelines: We used hstry.com. I started by creating a free hstry.com educator's account, which allows 200 linked student accounts. This was my first time using it, and I was looking for something easy for students to learn. The accounts allowed students to share their drafts with me so I could comment before publishing the timelines to the world. When you publish each timeline, you get a stable URL that you can add to a google map or website, which allowed me to pull all the individual timelines together into a single website for public consumption.
I then used google maps to geo-tag each location (google maps also allows you to add a photo, some text, and a URL). Then I shared the google map with the public, which allows you to generate code to embed the live map in weebly.
Finally, I used a free weebly account to create the website and embed the google map. I then used the gallery option to add photos that link to each student timeline. It sounds complicated, but creating the google map and the weebly site took perhaps 2 hours of my time after students provided me with the necessary materials from their timelines. I could have had the students do it, but this class is large enough (25 students) that I figured I could do it more efficiently.
I gave them the project details about a month before the end of the semester, and it's worth 200 points out of 500 for their final grade. Students could work alone or in small groups (half chose to work alone). I required a proposal 2 weeks before due date and a draft a week before. Students generally find weebly and wix very easy to use--I now encourage websites as projects, even in my 1st year courses.