Working with Time Toast

Hello! Some of you might remember the post where I told you that some of my students were currently studying the Ancient Egypt in their History subject. 

Well, after talking to the History teacher, we decided to test their knowledge through a common activity.  Besides, students love a transcurricular activity -even more if it involves the use of ICT. And, after all, aren't we a bilingual school?

The activity consisted on the creation of a time line of Ancient Egypt using the TimeToast web page.

My initial objectives were:

-  Learn to use Time Toast for the creation of a time line.

-  Explore new methods, materials and tools used in the History subject.

-  Improve knowledge related to the use of ICT.

The advantages of using TimeToast were related to the digital media. The students' motivation is immediately raised when facing an activity in a digital form.  I decided to implement the activity in class, since some of my students lack computers at home. As for the disadvantages, I can only recall those related to the poor state of computers or the wifi signal. Patience seemed our best friend in those cases :(

Class preparation was crucial to set up the activity. Before presenting the task, I showed my students several examples of time lines and explained the reason why they are so useful in some fields -such as History. 

Once started, my students were generally eagerly working, although some discussions arose regarding the pictures they wanted to use to illustrate their time line -pair work is tough. The final result was OK, although it took me two whole sessions to complete the task -even though I was working with a small group of 16 students. Ideally, the TimeToast activity would have been very useful if implemented by the students at home or having working facilities in the school. Also, many of my students didn't have an email address, so we had to solve that problem before even starting to design their time line online. 

To conclude I must say that the introduction of TimeToast activity definitely increased my students' motivation. However, as a teacher, I should add that the use of ICT in class usually turns into an impossible mission and I like to have a plan B just in case the wifi signal is dead or the computers do not work. 

You can click below to be directed to the 

ANCIENT EGYPT TIME LINE