21st Century Skills
 
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I just saw an update in my Facebook account about a new FB feature.  FaceBook has created "Timeline", a multimedia add-on to your FB profile.  This new feature allows you to catalog everything in your life on a digital timeline.  You can upload pictures, videos, sync with apps like Nike+ & Netflix, even leave maps and location information.  The first thing that came to my mind was, "wow now I can organize all of my pictures".  Then, the teacher in me took over on this Sunday afternoon and saw the learning potential.

Imagine if a students could keep a complete digital timeline of everything they accomplish/learn throughout a school year.  They can add links to their blog entries, videos of learning experiences, maps of important places they visited, podcasts, digital photos, etc and create a living personal history.   How better to help a student understand history than to allow them to create their own.  Think of the discussions on bias and embellishment as students reflect on how they are creating their personal history as they study others timelines.  Create FB pages for historical figures and have students create timelines for them.  Link timelines in online textbooks for millions of people to learn from each day.

This powerful tool can help connect students to the study of history and create a living document for them to take with them.  Imagine if your students applied to college or interviewed for a job and they could open an entire education/work history in multimedia format.  The add-on is not currently available, but if you follow the link below you can watch a short video and sign up for notification when it becomes available.

FaceBook Timeline

-Mike

 


Comments

Octavia Hardaway
10/24/2011 05:45

Very interesting!

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Raphael Gisstand
12/06/2011 13:48

Digital timelines can improve learning. Not only will the student learn the information, they can see a visual sequence of events in chronological order for better memorization. I think it will open new avenues to learning.

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02/01/2012 07:13

While I agree that "timeline" might have the potential to aid in students learning. I disagree with the use of FB in the classroom. During my undergrad FB was only for college students and then somewhere down the road they thought, "hey, let everyone have a FB account!" I have seen the horrors of bullying on FB and how children can be cruel to one another through this SOCIAL network. I like the idea of a "TimeLine," but I wish it wasn't through FB. I agree that the TimeLine would be a great digital addition to learning, but FB and I have some differences.

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02/03/2012 16:55

I can agree with both view points "Crystal" and the endless possibilities of the timeline. I would not want to reinvent the wheel but it would be nice to be separate from facebook

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03/01/2012 02:57

I’m very interested in, I just started reading and I’m glad I did. You’re a great blogger, one of the best that I’ve seen. This blog definitely has some information on topic that I just wasn’t aware of. Thanks for bringing this stuff to light.

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03/14/2012 02:16

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03/21/2012 03:37

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05/08/2012 23:26

great feature added in the facebook i.e. timeline.Interesting features, people likes it very much. I wanted to thank you for this great article. I enjoyed every single part of it and I will be waiting for the new updates.

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05/18/2012 00:00

Hi,This is a good post, indeed a great job.. You must have done good research for Facebook, i appreciate your efforts.. Looking for more updates from your side.Thanks

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05/22/2012 01:09

Facebook is one of the most popular social networking site. It is having a huge network of people. The new feature added in it would really help in increasing the reputation of facebook as compared to other networking sites. Thanks.

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05/24/2012 02:31

I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post

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