Interactive timeline tool for the Sakai learning environment
This project is generously and jointly funded by the Whitman College Support for Innovation in Teaching and Learning Fund and the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education (NITLE) Instructional Innovation Fund (IIF).
Whitman ~ Pomona ~ Claremont-McKenna
November, 2007 – June 2009
What ?
“[A] timeline is … like Google Maps for time-based information.” It provides a visual representation of chronological events. Sarah Hurlburt and Mike Osterman of Whitman College, in collaboration with IT and faculty members from Whitman, Pomona and Claremont-McKenna Colleges, are developping an interactive timeline application for the CLEo/Sakai learning environment. This application builds on an open-source timeline tool from SIMILE, a joint project conducted by the MIT Libraries and MIT CSAIL. (http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/) Specifically, we wish to make it possible for users (students and instructors) not only to manipulate the timeline, zooming, dragging and searching like you might do with a map application, but also to contribute information to the timeline, whose overall shape and emphasis will evolve through their contributions. Students working with this technology will thus acquire a new level of awareness of their critical responsibility in the creation as well as the consumption of information. In keeping with the mission of the liberal arts college, our goal is to transform an elaborate, but static document into a learning community, one in which students will actively research, communicate and analyze information on a continuous, peer-to-peer basis both inside and outside the classroom
Who is it for?
Current research into learning styles indicates that students with a preference for visual and/or kinesthetic modes of information presentation make up approximately one third of the population. These students are typically disadvantaged in higher education compared to students with a strong textual preference, or students with strong aural abilities – the two modes of information presentation that dominate in the traditional classroom. Visual and kinesthetic learners, however, will struggle in this environment. The timeline module will improve the learning experience for these students by providing them with the information they need in the format that they understand and retain the most quickly and easily. It will also enable professors who do not normally (because of their own learning styles) present in a kinesthetic or visual format to better support these students.
Once in place, the timeline tool will have potential applications in nearly every field. It may be used to graphically represent the distribution of any information set over time, whether it be the history of rock and roll, the geological transformations of the Pacific Northwest, the life cycle of a protozoan, or the major literary movements of the 19th century.
