TOP PICKS | 13 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.
Grades: 2–5
Price: Free
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.
TimelineJS
Timeline tool is useful but limited for coding novices
Bottom line: Check it out if you're a Google classroom looking to create simple, appealing timelines that integrate media and allow for collaboration.
Grades: 7–12
Price: Free
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
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.
Grades: 6–12
Price: $9.99
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