Sign up for a free account and test-drive the features to see what might work for your classroom. The premade stories and templates include some excellent details and embedded resources, and it's worth spending the time to dig in and find content that might be relevant to your classroom. The wealth of embedded media here offers an interesting opportunity to explore media literacy. Teachers could encourage students to compare how different items of embedded media in a timeline portray the same issue or events. How does one author's portrayal of events differ from another author's account of the same event? How is that important?
Also, check out whether this might be a good format for collaborative work. Consider inviting students to create a Sutori timeline as they review for a history exam or recap the plot of a short story or novel. These timelines could offer students a visual way to organize a series of links to related documents for a document-based question, or a collection of videos or images about a particular event. Encourage students to use the timeline format to build their own multimedia-rich stories to present to their classmates. The great thing about Sutori is that the finished products feel more like social media than PowerPoint, so they could connect better with students and encourage them to think creatively.
Continue readingSutori (formerly HSTRY) is a web-based tool for creating and sharing interactive timelines and presentations. It was originally geared toward history classes, but it's since been repositioned as a tool to develop interactive stories. The developer's premade stories are mostly traditional timelines (users scroll down to navigate through them like a social media feed or webpage), but the community contributions cover all subject areas and range from presentations of knowledge to organizing daily schedules for classrooms.
To get started, teachers can create classes and send students codes to access shared timelines and create their own. A starter template walks users through the creation process, and the timelines are easy to edit and share. There are tons of options for adding content to the timeline (some only by subscription), including text, images, videos, links, quiz questions, and more. The site's free subscription includes basic features for sharing, collaboration, and student management; paid features include more options for embedding content, analyzing student work, and using premade, standards-aligned content and templates.
This is a tool that makes timeline creation -- and presentations -- feel fresh and new. It's terrific that teachers can embed primary source media directly on the timeline and surround those posts with multiple-choice questions and discussion prompts. And it's also terrific that students can collaborate in real time to create their own timelines. For teachers, building your own timeline with this tool might be as simple as adapting an existing outline or slide deck to this new format, but the simple, visual presentation style here has great potential for helping students make connections. Though some of the user-generated stories are uneven, the developer-created stories are solid, and they're a good starting point for creating your own standards-aligned lessons and activities. Just be aware that it's easy during the free trial to get hooked on the paid features, so if Sutori clicks for you, it's likely going to require an annual subscription. Also, while the tool is exceptionally well designed, it still would be nice to see some further customization -- for instance, more color and theme options.
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