Learning Technique: Timelines

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• Primary Education
• Lower Secondary (Key Stage 3)
• Upper Secondary (Key Stage 4)
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Introduction

Timeline is a working method that, when used informatively during instruction, consists of a normal slide with hotspots and images. But as a form of processing, you can demonstrate your students' understanding using the drag-and-drop question or drag-and-drop images.

Instructions

What is it?

A timeline helps students to place events in the correct order, make connections and visibly experience relationships of time. The working method is visually stimulating and can be used interactively, allowing abstract concepts to be placed in context and the learning material to be retained easier.

Encourage collaboration with a timeline by turning it into an active, gamified or otherwise, working method with a drag question. Or start the discussion by indicating priorities on a timeline and ask for some critical thinking from your students.

How Do You Make It?

The simplest version of a timeline can be created using a standard slide with the components: symbol, hotspot, and image.

Would you like to turn it into an assessment or a gamified exercise? In that case, use the same components but start with a drag-and-drop question.

Examples of both formats can be found in the lesson at the bottom of this article.

Step 1

 1. Create a blank slide.

 2. Add an image or a neutral background to keep the focus on the facts.

 3. Use the symbol component to create a line.

 4. Add 4-8 hotspots containing the information you want to include in your timeline. Too many hotspots can make the timeline cluttered.

Step 2

 1. Click on a hotspot and add a brief text explaining the event, person, object, or value.

 2. Optionally, attach a relevant image to the hotspot. This enhances the slide and gives students a better understanding.

 

 Would you like to make your timeline interactive?

If so, create your timeline using a drag-and-drop question as the foundation. Follow the steps below.

Step 1 (For an Interactive Timeline)

 1. Create a drag-and-drop slide. A drag-and-drop question allows full design flexibility for your slide, so build your timeline in the same way.

 2. Place the drop targets in the correct positions on your timeline.

 3. Add the corresponding hotspots

Because this activity can be easily adapted to different levels and content, it can be used for almost any subject and level. You can create a simple timeline using only symbols and hotspots.

Would you like to make your timeline more visually appealing? Link the hotspots to images and/or videos.

Working Without Devices?

 • Have students take turns coming up to the board to place hotspots in the correct positions.

 • Encourage participation by using hand signals or mini whiteboards for interactive engagement.

Tip:

Curious about how a slide is structured? Use the slide in your lesson and check the editor to see which components it consists of. You can reuse the layout and customise it with your own content.

Alternatively, save a lesson to your favourites so you can reuse the design whenever needed.

This lesson includes several examples of a timeline, specifically for the subjects: history, english and science.

Timelines

Learning Technique

____

1814

____

+1853

____

1860

____

1863

The Netherlands banned the slave trade.

Abolitionism* became very influential in the Netherlands.

The Netherlands

abolishes slavery 

in Indonesia

The Netherlands abolishes slavery in 

Suriname and the Antilles

____

____

Abolitionism: the pursuit of the abolition of slavery

The freed, formally enslaved people were forced to continue working on the plantations for wages for another ten years. What do you think about that?

Under pressure from GB, the Netherlands banned the slave trade in 1814

Only after 1853 did abolitionism gain much influence in the Netherlands

The Dutch government understood that slavery could not last long, but it feared that the abolition of slavery would be bad for the Dutch economy

As a result, the Netherlands only abolished slavery in Indonesia in 1860 and in Suriname and the Antilles in 1863.

The freed enslaved people were forced to continue working on the plantations for wages for another ten years.

Place the inventions in the correct place on the timeline

______________

__________________

5000 BC

3000 BC

______

______

______

______

______

______

______

0

1928

105

4000 BC

2000 BC

1000 BC

1000

2000

800

2016

______

______________

1200 BC

_________

_________

______________

______________

__________________

2009

Wine

Virtual Reality

Dice

Alphabet

Paper

3D printer

Mechanical Clock

Penicillin

An interactive timeline, where inventions must be placed in the correct order of conception.

This slide shows how quickly the development of modern inventions has advanced. If there were 2000 years between the invention of wine and the dice, then there are also 2000 years between the invention of paper and the 3D printer.

Just think how many lines could be drawn in the last 1000 years and how fast development has gone.

1

2

3

4

5

Tell the fairy tale...

Drag the pictures into the correct order. 

...Or could you make up your own fairy tale?

part

part

part

part

part

A timeline does not always have to consist of fixed facts. Using a timeline, you can have students tell or invent a story.

Give them guidance by choosing visual icons and let the students place them in an order of their own choosing. 

They then create their own story. There is no right or wrong.

__

__

Drag the sentences into the hotspots on the timeline.

Place them in the order they happened.

___________________________________________

__

__

__

1

2

3

4

5

My grandfather was born on May 17, 1955.

Now my grandfather has a pancake restaurant. People come from far and wide to eat his pancakes and listen to his beautiful stories.

When his mother cooked, he stood there and listened to the stories she told. According to grandpa, she was the best pancake maker who ever existed.

His name is Rob and he is the youngest of 5 children. He was always very spoiled by his sisters. But they also sometimes dressed him up as a doll. They put him in their doll's pram and walked with him through the village.

Yesterday I was at his restaurant. He has promised me that I can take over his restaurant. According to grandpa, I will become world famous with my pancakes!

Find more learning techniques 

in the inspiration channel.

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