Intuitive, easy-to-use time line tool for organizing dates and ideas.

This is an easy to use app that can help young students organize and sequence lineally. Users create an avatar and are allowed to save, revisit, and modify their work. This is a great feature for long term use; however, students must be using the same device which can be challenging when used with shared devices. Projects can be e-mailed to teachers or saved to the camera roll and exported to other applications. Timeline is a valuable tool when having students include photos in a timeline and the ability to move timeline points is great for those beginning to learn about timelines. However, beyond these features the app offers little more than using paper and pencil. No customization features are available and completed student work is nearly identical in appearance. There are instances that I find this app useful - specifically when student work includes pictures; however, I prefer to use versatile apps that can be modified for different learning experiences.

My overall opinion is positive. It is limited in styles, but I think the ease of use and ability to create a timeline by date, time, or event outweighs this con. The ability to edit and move items around until satisfied is also a great feature. Students save their drafts and can receive peer or teacher critique before saving the final as a PDF. Finally, having a second page along with the timeline itself that lists the items on the timeline and their descriptions, if any were added, is very helpful for understanding timelines without the creator being present.

Overall, I think this is a great, simple app. RWT Timeline is very easy to set up and use. Its ease of use also lends itself to a wide range of ages and ability levels. Its simplicity, however, is also one of its downfalls. There are few options available to customize and personalize timelines. You can't change font, font size, background color, etc... There are 43 dashes that are used to add events in your timeline. You cannot add or delete these. There is also a character limit for full descriptions of events. Since RWT Timeline is an app, students must use the same device to access their saved material. Unless your students have their own personal devices or are allowed to take school devices home, they must work on them during the school day. Despite all of those seemingly negative aspects of the app, it still has many positives. As I mentioned earlier, it is extremely easy to use. An elementary student could have great success using this app. A high school senior could also use this app as an extra visual for a bigger project. The app is also available for free on both Android and Apple devices. Images can be imported from your device to add to each event. Although you can only save to the device you're using, you do have the option of saving your timeline as an image (jpeg) file. When your timeline is complete, the other option is to email it as a PDF. I have my students email their completed timelines to me so that I can review them and print them out. As a PDF or JPEG, the timeline can then be imported into another program like PowerPoint or Prezi. Finally, this app does not have to be used solely as a timeline. It can be used to represent the life and music of Franz Joseph Haydn. It can also be used to illustrate the water cycle or photosynthesis. There could be more options and functions on this app but overall I think it is a great tool