Even with all the options we have available (an overwhelming number) I find there are many times when I want a tool that I am unable to find. This is especially true when I am teaching from a distance and want to work with my students in specific ways with out large expenditures of money. So, I was looking for a way to collectively create a timeline in my class. One that we could all add to, that could hold text and linked citations, but one that would also be visual.
Initially I tried to do this in a wiki within Blackboard (what a big mistake), but it lacked the visual representation I was craving as well as having numerous other problems. Time lines need to be visual to get the whole picture in my mind.
Well, I recently saw a linklog post by Chris Lott that talked about a new blog called Dandelife. This tool is commonly used to tell life stories. OK, so maybe this will work to tell our story?…
This semester the class is trying it out. We are sharing an ID so that we can all post since it is a blog and not a wiki. We could haved used tags to link things together (a suggestion from Kelly at Dandelife), but I wanted it all to be in one place. So, we are on our way. I will post more as the experiment takes shape.
One thing I will reflect on is my role as instructor. I need to be more specific in the design of this assignment. Important lessons have been learned this semester that will just continue to make the assignment better and more meaningful.
You can check out the progress we are making if you are interested. Once we are done, hopefully my students will comment here to let me know how well it worked.
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