TOP PICKS | 12 TOOLS
Best Timeline Creators and Templates
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Timeline Creation Tools
ReadWriteThink
Excellent free resource for all things reading and writing
Bottom line: A language arts teacher's dream; lesson plans, professional development, and all-around quality support.
Grades: Pre-K–12
Price: Free
RWT Timeline
Simple timeline creation tool for a variety of purposes
Bottom line: Easy-to-use tool lets students create simple, boilerplate timelines.
Sutori
A slick way to share knowledge via interactive timelines and stories
Bottom line: With a super simple design, interactive features, and an imaginative personal approach, it's an easy and flexible tool for all kinds of classrooms.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free, Paid While basic accounts are free, they're limited to 200 student stories. Sutori's Premium accounts, which cost $49/year for educators, allow unlimited story creation, student collaboration (in pairs), and exporting stories to PDF. The $99/year Unlimited account adds the ability to upload custom videos and expands collaboration to larger groups.
Tiki-Toki
Create eye-catching multimedia timelines for any purpose
Bottom line: Multimedia timelines connect events visually, creating pathways for deeper analysis of any chronological story.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free, Paid A free account limits user to one timeline. A teacher account is $125/year and allows for up to 25 timelines (for the teacher) and 50 student accounts (each with 5 timelines). The teacher account also removes ads and allows timelines to be embedded on webpages. Individual accounts range from $7.50-$25/month, depending on number of timelines and editing and embedding features.
Prezi Classic
Stylish presentation creator with a unique 3D zooming effect
Bottom line: An elegant, flexible alternative to other online slide software tools, but it requires some finesse to make the effective use of the features and infinite canvas.
Grades: 8–12
Price: Free, Paid Teachers get a free "Edu Standard" version which includes unlimited storage and privacy controls. The "Edu Plus" upgrade ($84/year) adds offline access and advanced presenter tools.
TimeToast
Simple timeline creator could use more features and options
Bottom line: An easy to use timeline tool for one-off projects, but for sustained use teachers will need to upgrade, and ultimately the features might not be robust enough.
Grades: 8–12
Price: Free, Paid The free Basic version of TimeToast is ad-supported and limited to only one user; however, users can create an unlimited amount of public timelines. The $.99/month Basic plan is ad free, supports 5 users as well as embeddable timelines, moderation of comments on timelines, and collaboration features. The $8.99/month Pro version allows for 35 users.
Interactive Timelines
American Revolution Interactive Timeline for iPad
Give students up-close, detailed access to rare objects and artifacts
Bottom line: A great companion to a real-life museum visit, and a neat resource for exploration in a history class.
American Panorama
Interactive atlas magnifies events in United States history
Bottom line: With layers of learning opportunities, this is a unique interactive resource to supplement curriculum.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
The Knotted Line
Unique, artistic timeline lets kids explore freedom in U.S. history
Bottom line: Students will benefit from this eye-opening and interactive approach to studying history.
Grades: 6–12
Price: Free
Timeline World War 2 with Robert MacNeil
Vast interactive multimedia resource makes history come alive
Bottom line: Forgo the textbook -- students will find the same information and more as they scroll through the timeline and access the multitude of resources.
Smarthistory
Bring traditional art education to life with fresh, interactive multimedia
Bottom line: A worthy supplement to an art history or humanities class.
Grades: 8–12
Price: Free
Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
History and art intersect on the Met's vast, reading-centric site
Bottom line: This resource from the Metropolitan Museum of Art beautifully illustrates art's evolution and is great for research, but more interactivity would help balance out the text-heavy content.
Grades: 9–12
Price: Free