Website Review: TimelinesJS

TIMELINEJS is an easy-to-use tool for building timelines.

TimelineJS is an open-source resource for creating professional-quality, interactive timelines. Users create a Google spreadsheet including short narratives and visuals. The images and videos from social media sites can be incorporated into the timelines. Users then provide the URL of the spreadsheet at the Timeline website. It’s then transformed into a timeline.

Librarians will find this an excellent way to teach both Google spreadsheets and the basics of building timelines. This tool can be applied to content across the curriculum.

To visit the website, go to https://timeline.knightlab.com.

Website Review: Histography

HISTOGRAPHY is a website visualization of world history that can be explored many different ways.

After opening the website, users are presented with a timeline containing dots representing historical events from the last four hundred years. Clicking a dot presents an event, date, and image along with a link to a Wikipedia article. Clicking related events, show users historical points that are connected to the original article.

By clicking on the timeline, users can select from eras covering decades or millions of years such as Middle Ages or Age of Reptiles . Users can also explore the resources by choosing selected events from categories such as art, disasters, and discoveries. Resources can also be accessed by selecting from editorial stories.

Librarians will find that students are fascinated by this interactive visualization. Use it to motivate young historians and help them explore history. Incorporate the website into a lesson focusing on timelines and categories of history.

To visit the website, go to http://histography.io/.

Website Review: The Roaring Twenties

THE ROARING TWENTIES is an interactive exploration of the historical soundscape of New York City through primary source documents.

This engaging multimedia project immerses users in the sounds of New York City in the 1920s through three themes: sound, space, and time.

The Introduction discusses the the time period and the primary source materials used as the basis for the website. These include the text of noise complaints, news reel footage, maps, and other historical materials.

The Sound section features sources of city noise including traffic, transportation, building operation, homes, streets, harbor/river, collection deliveries, and miscellaneous. Each category includes specific text and video examples of noises and complaints.

The Space section provides a clickable map of New York City. Users can explore primary source documents and watch video footage related to city noise.

The Time section contains a clickable timeline that can be used to explore noise complaints, videos, news, and other information.

The Info section provides access to background information about the three themes along with links to additional resources.
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Librarians will find this website to be an fascinating way for youth to immerse themselves in this time period while learning about the usefulness of primary sources in research. Partner with both English and History teachers to immerse young adults in this time period.

To visit the website, go to http://vectorsdev.usc.edu/NYCsound/777b.html.

Website Review: Ancient History Encyclopedia

ANCIENT HISTORY ENCYCLOPEDIA is an online encyclopedia with an educational mission.

Focusing on all aspects of the Ancient World, the nonprofit website provides short, interactive articles similar to Wikipedia. Articles contain a bibliography, legal notice, and additional resources to explore. There are many ways to access information. Users can use their search tool or index to locate people, places, and objects. The timeline allows users to search by date or keyword in particular categories such as “Arts & Culture” or “Rulers & Politics”. Interactive maps of the Ancient World, Roman Empire and others help youth explore areas of interest by time period. The Explore option lets students to explore regions of the world. Users can also search the video and image indexes.

Beyond the encyclopedia, the website also provides engaging articles related to travel and culture. Interviews provide interesting insights into people and places. Articles about exhibitions and education are also available.

Librarians will find the website to be an exciting way to engage youth in topics related to Ancient History. Although the website contains ads, they can be removed with a membership that supports the non-profit.

The website’s collaboration feature is a great way to get teachers and students involved with making contributions. Users can submit definitions, illustrations, articles, book reviews, timeline entries, videos, and web links.

Consider the interdisciplinary possibilities of the website. For instance, a Latin dictionary would be useful for language students. The Measurement Conversions page allows users to convert modern measures to Egyptian, Roman, or Greek measures. Think about ways to connect history with mathematics.

To visit the website, go to http://www.ancient.eu/.

Book Review: By the Numbers

BY THE NUMBERS: 110.01 COOL INFOGRAPHICS from National Geographic Kids is packed with amazing statistics, facts, and figures.

The book begins with an introduction to infographics and a table of contents providing quick access to specific types of visuals such as word clouds, heat maps, and timelines. Each two-page spread contains an attractive infographic containing facts, graphs, charts, word clouds, maps, photographs, timelines, diagrams, or other types of engaging images. Featuring measurements, trends, statistics, and other kinds of data, this book will bring numbers alive to middle grade readers.

Covering a wide range of subjects, each reader will find topics of interest to explore. Woven throughout the book are interviews with people who work with numbers ever day as part of their jobs.

Librarians will find this book to be a great way to connect infographics with math and information literacy. Create a display containing this book along with others featuring infographics. Provide youth with tools for creating their own infographic projects.

Published by National Geographic Kids on October 13, 2015.

Website & App Review: News-O-Matic

NEWS-O-MATIC is a subscription-based app that provides engaging nonfiction reading experiences for elementary students. Each weekday, readers are provided with standards-aligned, grade-appropriate news stories to read. The high-interest resources are a wonderful way to promote life-long reading habits. From covering science discoveries to sporting events, NEWS-O-MATIC provides exciting informational reading experiences across the curriculum.

Although the articles are brief, they’re a great starting point for class discussions and may stimulate interest in a more in-depth investigation. In addition to reading experiences, the features often include slideshows, puzzles, games, timelines, maps, or video clips. A read-aloud options is useful for students with special needs. In addition, a Spanish translation is also available.

Student accounts allow youth to take quizzes, write, draw, and record their results.

Available as both an iPad App from iTunes and an Android App from Google, go to http://press4kids.com/ for more information.