EDTECH tools: Tiki-Toki

Image 1: A screenshot of a timeline created with Tiki-Toki. Link to project.

A Prezi presentation of this document is available at the end of this page.

Scenario

To begin, let's imagine you're a U.S. History teacher. One of your objectives is to have students discuss how the Declaration of Independence (D.O.I) had influenced the historical events to come in the next 50 years.

To aid your students, you have a reading of the D.O.I. in an .mp3 file, as well as an image of the document and a video of actors reading the document aloud. In the past, your students would access these files on your class wiki in the computer lab and discuss their thoughts in class, or more recently, logging into the wiki and participating in a small-group forum.

The biggest complaint your students had was trying to visualize where the D.O.I. appears in the enormous Revolutionary period, often losing its historical place in a sea of significant events. After some thought, you consider creating a timeline for your students to display the significant events of the period. On second thought, you decide to ask the students to collaboratively create their own. Where do you and they begin?

WHAT IS TIKI-TOKI?

To begin, let's take a look at Tiki-Toki. To use their own words:

"Tiki-Toki is web-based software for creating beautiful interactive timelines that you can share on the internet."

And beautiful it is. This free timeline generating tool is visually stunning and very easy to set up. To try it out, I created a visual timeline of my career as a teacher. In this timeline, I marked significant events on the timeline such as starting a new teaching position, added what Tiki-Toki refers to as a “story” or text explaining the event, and then attached media files to the event. As a complete project, the timeline gives a visual representation of my career as an educator with links to relevant media such as images, videos, and external websites.

Tiki-Toki is in a process of development. The most recent addition (as of 9/1/2013) is the ability to present the timeline data on a 3D road (See image 2). The road looks a bit like a translucent glass slide on which your timeline data is placed. One can navigate up and down the road via the mouse wheel button.

The ability to embed video, image, and audio files into each entry on the timeline makes it perfect for instructors looking to place, say, relevant media in perspective. To revisit our U.S. History example, Tiki-Toki would allow you to drop those media files you had up on your wiki into a "marker" on the timeline, label it, and place it on the timeline respective to other revolutionary period events. Students will still engage with your media, but they will do so in the rich context of other events placed in their respective moments of history.

Image 2

Strengths

Tiki-Toki is a fantastic tool for attaching contextual media to significant events, and then placing those events on a timeline. From a constructivist standpoint, Tiki-Toki may be considered a desirable tool in that it allows learners to construct their own meaning while creating their project. For example, one must decide which events to place on the timeline, what to write about each event, and which media (if any) to attach to the event. Each decision made will be a manifestation of a complex thought process that involves critical thinking in the pursuit of one’s own learning. 

As Siemens (2004) writes in his exploration of learning theory in the digital age, “real-life learning is messy and complex [and] Classrooms which emulate the ‘fuzziness’ of this learning will be more effective in preparing learners for life-long learning” (Siemens, 2004). Given the freedom to explore the time period using a variety of sources, a student will create a unique timeline that reflects an understanding of events that is increasingly less-fragmented, though appropriately “messy,” than before the project.

However, an understated benefit of the web app, and what I will argue provides a real opportunity for deep learning, is the ability to collaborate on the project with peers in real-time and asynchronously online. By inviting members to contribute to the project, the timeline is no longer restricted to the synthesis of one student, but instead reflects a complex web of understanding and multiple interpretations of events. 

Furthermore, as Hsu and Ching (2012) state in their article on microblogging and Web 2.0, “social engagement critical to learning is extended beyond the cultural perspectives of a local community to groups that are diverse and geographically dispersed, such as groups of learners in online learning environments” (Hsu & Ching). Tiki-Toki provides this framework for online collaboration with anyone that has the technology to do so, which permits one to work with others far outside the local community and incorporate diverse interpretations into the project.

C.N. Buckley and A.M. William in their paper on Web 2.0 technology (2010) recognize this ability to collaborate on a project online with multiple members will “allow for ‘remixing’ of data from various sources...to collaborate to a common cause” and create an artifact that “is greater than the sum of its parts” (p 119):

We now have a ‘connected society’; connected not by face-to-face interaction but by the internet; geographical location is no longer a barrier to discourse and interaction. Whilst the social aspects of learning have long been recognised by educational philosophers such as Vygotsky, it is only recently that new theories of learning have started to emerge that reflect the burgeoning potential of the digitally connected society (Buckley & William, 2010, p 119).

The authors go on to cite the importance of connecting to other individuals for input and information, and “how learning can reside outside the individual and how individuals can contribute to a social network of understanding and knowledge” (Buckley & William, 2010, p 119). The best online tools will allow, if not encourage, this type of group interaction and production. As Siemens (2004) points out, “The capacity to form connections between sources of information, and thereby create useful information patterns, is required to learn in our knowledge economy” (Siemens). Although still in development, Tiki-toki is an example of such a tool.

Weaknesses

Before discussing design weaknesses, I should point out two major barriers to using Tiki-Toki. One, a free account is limited to the creation of one timeline, limited uploaded media, and, a severe drawback, one cannot invite others to join in the project. By upgrading, that is paying for an account, you have unlimited access to the “features” listed above. Two, Tiki-Toki requires an account which must be associated with an email address to use. While not as problematic as the account limitation issue, it still may prevent some people from signing up if they do not have an active email account or prefer to to associate the account with Tiki-Toki.

As for the design, there are some weaknesses. For example, any timeline creation software is restricted by the inherent limitations of what one can do with a timeline. A timeline is useful for visually displaying events relative to other data, such as time (year, month, day) and “relevant” events. A timeline alone is likely not the best tool, for example, for teaching a new workplace skill or delivering a syllabus to students. Instead, it should be considered one component of a whole toolkit that is used to convey meaning. A Tiki-Toki timeline, therefore, would be an excellent addition to a comprehensive class blog or wiki.
Dennis and Belshaw (2013) bring up a larger issue that deserves attention. If the instructor or students do not understand why they are creating a timeline, and instead only understand how to create a timeline, opportunities for significant learning are greatly diminished:

...being innovative with new tools does not mean that the work your students will produce will be inherently more analytical or more detailed despite it looking more impressive (initially)...In essence, clear principles create the means to use a range of technological tools to create outstanding learning. In other words, technology is best thought of as an amplifier and in the hands of a skilled history teacher, the work can be amazing. In the hands of someone who does not share...deep professional principles, the technology will be used, but the outcome will be less than satisfactory in terms of learning (Dennis & Belshaw, 2013, p 162).

The lure of shiny new tech exists, and even the best-intentioned instructor can fall for tools that fail to help students complete learning goals. Also, if a low-tech version of a tool did not help students succeed, it is important for an instructor to question why a high-tech version would be any different. If creating a paper-pen-and-scissors timeline did little to help students develop their understanding of events the first time, what would make using Tiki-Toki to create a timeline any different? Furthermore, if the instructor and her students are not trained to use Tiki-Toki in a way that utilizes the features that encourage deep learning, e.g. contextualized embedded media, the quality of learning during the project is compromised.


In conclusion, Tiki-Toki is an excellent timeline creation tool that encourages collaboration, multiple modalities (embedded media combined with written text), and creativity. A true Web 2.0 product, Tiki-Toki represents the next generation of web based tools capable of rendering impressive visual displays of data. Unfortunately, the impressive learning benefits, such as inviting members to collaborate, are unlocked only by purchasing a premium account and many instructors may find the paywall impassable. Cost aside, Tiki-Toki tools represents a promising new way to encourage deep learning of events.

References

Buckley, C. N., & William, A. M. (2010). Web 2.0 Technology for Problem-Based and Collaborative Learning: A Case Study. In (Ed.), Adult Learning in the Digital Age: Perspectives on Online Technologies and Outcomes (pp. 118-125). Hershey, PA: . doi:10.4018/978-1-60566-828-4.ch011

Dennis, N., & Belshaw, D. (2013). Tools for the tech savvy history teacher. In T. Haydn (Ed.), Using new technologies to enhance teaching and learning in history. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Hsu, Y., & Ching, Y. (2012). Mobile microblogging: Using Twitter and mobile devices in an online course to promote learning in authentic contexts. The International Review Of Research In Open And Distance Learning, 13(4), 211-227. Retrieved from http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1222/2313

Siemens, G. (2004, December 12). Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/connectivism.htm