Introduction:
Our Story is a collaborative timeline which allows users to share important life events with family and friends as well as larger communities to which they might belong. It claims to be “easier, richer and more fun than a blog”. It can be used in education as a means of reflection. As a student creates a timeline critical reflective skills are being used. In the reflective process, “[students] need to contextually locate [themselves] within the experience and explore available theory, knowledge and experience to understand the experience in different ways.” (http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/lenses/occasionalpapers/col10004/m10126.html)
Click here to check out Our Story
Benefits:
Educational Application: Mathematics
Students could be asked to use the timeline to create a “how to” guidebook. For example, in mathematics the students could state the necessary steps to make a bar chart.
Our Story is a collaborative timeline which allows users to share important life events with family and friends as well as larger communities to which they might belong. It claims to be “easier, richer and more fun than a blog”. It can be used in education as a means of reflection. As a student creates a timeline critical reflective skills are being used. In the reflective process, “[students] need to contextually locate [themselves] within the experience and explore available theory, knowledge and experience to understand the experience in different ways.” (http://www.health.heacademy.ac.uk/lenses/occasionalpapers/col10004/m10126.html)
Click here to check out Our Story
Benefits:
- Free
- Students may work collaboratively. If they each have an account, each member can add to the timeline.
- Stories and photos are easy to add
- Fun, creative tool
- Privacy may be set to “Only My Connections”
- There are prompts for uncreative users
- Can be connected to Facebook
- Standard members can only add 6 pictures per story (however 6 photos per guest are allowed so if working collaboratively there could be a decent number of photos included).
- Restricted to using dates and cannot necessarily use a step-by-step process
- After registering, I received this message: “Your account has been created but it is not activated yet. Please use the activation link we sent to you at the email address you used to register. Please check the sections of bulk and junk emails too.” I never received the message in the first account I created so had to create it a second time.
- Saved a draft of a ‘story’ which could not be found later
- Stories of people you don’t even know appear on the home page.
Educational Application: Mathematics
Students could be asked to use the timeline to create a “how to” guidebook. For example, in mathematics the students could state the necessary steps to make a bar chart.
(Please note the above is a very simple version of what the students could create and dates would have to be ignored).
Example of a Learning Objective for Mathematics:
Given a set of raw data the student will correctly create and interpret a bar chart.
Educational Application: Humanities:
Students could use the timeline to certain period of history from the viewpoint of a certain person. For example, from the point of view of a woman living in Tanzania from 1900 to 1962, the student will explore what the woman’s life would have been like and include stories told from her point of view regarding critical moments in Tanzanian history. They could include images of events she may have experienced or even show videos of music she may have listened to.
Example of a Learning Objective for Humanities:
Students will apply their knowledge of a given period in history to accurately describe the possible life experiences of a person who lived during that period.
Example of a Learning Objective for Mathematics:
Given a set of raw data the student will correctly create and interpret a bar chart.
Educational Application: Humanities:
Students could use the timeline to certain period of history from the viewpoint of a certain person. For example, from the point of view of a woman living in Tanzania from 1900 to 1962, the student will explore what the woman’s life would have been like and include stories told from her point of view regarding critical moments in Tanzanian history. They could include images of events she may have experienced or even show videos of music she may have listened to.
Example of a Learning Objective for Humanities:
Students will apply their knowledge of a given period in history to accurately describe the possible life experiences of a person who lived during that period.