Thursday, July 08, 2004

Personal E-Portfolio Timelines

Check out this online tool for generating interactive timelines. You enter your data, and then it lets you add photos, links, videos, audio files to each entry. The application then converts your data into a Flash-based timeline. It’s a bit buggy, and it’s weird how it scrolls, but it is very cool to imagine using something like this for a type of e-portfolio. Seems like a stretch? First, consider it as a potential display of past work. You could easily create chronological entries for past projects including a descriptions, thumbnail graphics, video/audio artifacts and links to the actual projects (or reflection about the process) online.

But I see even better potential if you consider using it to plan your future. I threw together a quick learning plan to test it out. It's clunky and ugly, but you I managed to get an image in there and some of the dates link to web pages. Imagine combining this with social software (perhaps using FOAF to find other people sharing your interests and plans), RSS (pull in the feeds related to your current or planned learning and projects), and personal publishing for reflecting on individual entries. I love it.

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