Kristin Hayes discusses a new program called Dipity that allows users to create online timelines for free. With the free plan, users can create up to 3 timelines with 150 events each. Dipity also offers paid membership plans ranging from $4.95 to $99.95 per month. The author has created a timeline of important dates from the Ancient World to provide students historical context. Dipity timelines can include a variety of media like photos, videos, and links. The author believes Dipity is a useful program that can enhance learning across different subject areas.

1. Kristin Hayes
CI 350
Harold Blanco
I have found a new program that I love called Dipity. It meets the first
requirement for Web 2.0 programs: it’s free. When signing up I learned that with
the free plan, you are able to make up to three timelines, and each timeline
can have a maximum of 150 events. Not too shabby considering you could
literally keep creating e-mail accounts on a host website such as Yahoo and
keep signing up for personal accounts whenever you met your quota of three.
We are inherently evil. Anywho, Dipity’s three other memberships range from
$4.95 to $99.95 a month. So, maybe you’re wondering what Dipity is now that I
have gone through their plans, or maybe you know, but Dipity is a website
where you can create timelines. Not just any timeline either. When you click on
“Create a Timeline”, you are able to name the topic and provide a description
of the topic. There are also extensive privacy settings on who can view and can
contribute to the timeline.

2. I have chosen to do a general timeline of Dates from the Ancient World
so that students have a sense of how much time occurred between events
such as the first cave paintings in Lasucaux, France to the construction of the
first pyramid at Saqqara. I know that history is not just a bunch of names and
dates, and I do not expect them to painstakingly memorize the dates and
events. I just feel a timeline is an additional resource that shows the
progression of humanity and the little that we know about the people that
existed before us. Once you have created your timeline, you are now able to
add events. This is where it gets fun. There are so many options on what you
can include in your timeline. There are options to add search engine results for
a keyword, photos, videos, blogs, music, messaging, other peoples’ timelines,
and any RSS feed basically. This could either be used for the simplicity of a
timeline with photographs to using Dipity to create a guided research project by
including some of the features listed above. One immediate example I think of
in my content area is perhaps making a timeline of the Cold War and posting
links with activities on each event. Here is an example of an event that I made
including a photograph of Egyptian art depicting animal domestication as well
as the date.

3. Another cool feature about Dipity is that there are a lot of timelines that
people have created and made available for the public. In the right hand corner
of the website there is a search bar where one can enter search terms to find
specific timelines. I typed in “Ancient Greece”, and many timelines popped up
from the engine. The timeline I chose to view did not use specific dates to
make events around, but that just shows yet another way to organize your
Dipity timeline. Also, there was more than one creator on the Timeline which
further satisfies the Web 2.0 requirements. After reviewing the program and
learning how to use it, I can conclude that Dipity is a useful program that can
be used across disciplines and not just in Social Studies.