A couple of weeks ago, Prof. Hacker kicked off a series called “Challenging the Presentation Paradigm” with a look at Prezi. This week, we’re going to look at Bee Docs Timeline as an alternative (or a supplement) to presenting lecture content with a more traditional, linear slide program (such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote).
Bee Docs Timeline (http://www.beedocs.com) comes from Bee Docs, a 2 person boutique software developer based in Seattle. As its name suggests, Bee Docs Timeline allows you to create visually compelling (and somewhat interactive) timelines. You can give your timeline a custom look (background, font, colors, etc.) or choose from one of the pre-designed templates (there are only 7, but they all look decent)
Content for your timeline can come from a bunch of different sources. The easiest (and most flexible) way is to manually enter each item on the timeline (each item can include a title, a date range, an image, a text description, and a link to external content – a webpage) The app also features built in support for importing data from a variety of 3rd party apps. GTD apps like Things, The Hit List, and OmniFocus are all supported – allowing you to create timelines from your own personal to-do lists. You can also import data from other 3rd party apps like iCal, iPhoto, and iTunes. Imagine creating a timeline of your photographs or tracks within a playlist – you get the idea.
When it comes to actually displaying the timeline you’ve created, you can present from the app itself (in full screen). Arrow keys or the Apple remote let you move backwards and forwards though events in your timeline. You can also zoom in and out of your timeline – choosing to show specific details, or the overall scope of the timeline. You can also export to video (for Apple TV, iPods/iPhones, and as 1080p HD Quicktime), print (via PDF), and static images. An added feature of Bee Docs Timline is the ability to import your timelines into Apple Keynote, and integrate them into an existing presentation.
Bee Docs Timeline features two presentation”modes”: 2D and 3D. The 2D mode lets you present your timeline in profile. The 3D version gives you the ability to present your timeline in a kind of perspective-based 3D.
Bee Docs Timeline 3D Presentation Mode
You may have noticed that there has been a lot of talk about Apple Keynote and the Apple remote. Yup, that’s right, Bee Docs Timeline is Mac OSX only. Sorry Windows people, you are out of luck. The other big issue is that, as of yet, Bee Docs Timeline doesn’t export to Flash. This is a drawback, as being able to export as Flash and stick your timeline in a webpage is important. The app exports to Quicktime video, which is good (for online deployment). However, with Flash, you get files that are smaller than anything you could get with Quicktime video. With Flash, you also open the door for incredibly rich interactivity (imagine being able to create something like the BBC British History Timeline in Bee Docs Timeline)
The bottom line is that those looking for a fully featured presentation app should really look elsewhere. Bee Docs Timeline isn’t Prezi, PowerPoint, or Keynote – nor does it really intend to be. However, those looking for an interesting (and visually compelling) way of presenting information chronologically, in a way that reveals connections and clarifies relationships might want to take a closer look at Bee Docs Timeline.
Bee Docs Timeline 2D Presentation Mode
The irony is certainly not lost on me that in a discussion about changing the way in which we can ditch linear presentation models, I’m talking about an app that creates content that is pretty linear. However, Bee Docs Timeline creates stuff that has a definite wow factor – and whether we like it or not, visual design has pedagogical value. Compelling design can get you engagement and immersion – and that’s a good thing for lectures and student learning.
So, what do you think? Is Bee Docs Timeline something you’d try out? What about the larger question of compelling visual design having pedagogical value?
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15 Responses to Challenging the Presentation Paradigm: Bee Docs Timeline
Jason Mittell - August 27, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I don’t think I’d use this tool, mostly because I almost never make timelines. But there’s a related functionality that I would love to see implemented in a presentation software, what I might call the “Family Feud tool.” The situation is that I have an open-ended question with multiple answers on a slide, like “What caused the economic downturn of 2008?” Then I’ve got a number of correct answers hidden on the slide, and each time a student provides one of the answers, I can reveal it (but obviously in an unplanned sequence). Does that make sense? And do any hackers know such a tool?
Ethan Watrall - August 27, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Jason – that sounds a lot like classroom clicker tool. Have you looked into those?
Jason Mittell - August 27, 2009 at 7:59 pm
That’s not what I meant, if I understand the clickers. I’m not thinking about a multiple-choice poll, but rather getting students to brainstorm a list of possible answers to a question. Currently what I do is write the question in a text doc onscreen, and then type the answers as they offer them – but it’s nicer to have them fill-in an already designed slide. Make sense?
GC Fiedler - August 27, 2009 at 8:53 pm
It’s a niche tool – a one trick pony.
If you teach history (or perhaps paleontology) you might find it a great way to represent events – to add to your presentations/lectures. But it’s not much more than that.
And, yes, I own the app.
Ethan Watrall - August 27, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I completely agree that its a one trick pony – but it does that trick very well
George H. Williams - August 27, 2009 at 10:26 pm
I research and teach writing / literature / digital-humanities, and I’d love to use this tool for a few (or more) of my lectures. And thinking of what my colleagues do in other departments on campus, I’m pretty sure there are many disciplines in which visualizing the temporal relationship between discrete data points would be desirable.
I didn’t realize you could import existing data from other programs. That’s impressive. (As a Mac user, I’m one of their target users, but I realize making it Mac-only is a significant handicap.)
Thanks, Ethan!
Ethan Watrall - August 28, 2009 at 4:04 pm
If you bring the timeline into Apple Keynote (and integrate it into a Keynote presentation, you have some level of control – though, nowhere near as if you present from within the app itself.
Brian Croxall - August 28, 2009 at 4:01 pm
In my work with timelines (post coming soon, one assumes), I have spent some time working with the Bee Docs Timeline. As Ethan notes, one of the most critical needs for the tool at present is the ability to export to Flash so that timelines can be used on the web.
But I also wanted to make one thing clear: if you export your timeline to ANY format, it will only play as a video file. There will be no interactivity besides clicking “play.” If you run it in the application itself, you can do a lot with it, but having it play nice anywhere else isn’t an option at the moment. Which is a shame, because it’s really a beautiful application.
Julie Meloni - August 29, 2009 at 5:51 pm
What you’re describing sounds a lot like Brian Croxall’s Google Docs (spreadsheet) + SIMILE timelines.
Kathy - August 29, 2009 at 5:26 pm
….and now that I’m thinking about it, I could also use this to keep track of where we’re going throughout the semester — as we add an author in discussion, that moment gets put into the timeline. Does it link to other sources? Hmm, I might have to tinker with this.
Ethan Watrall - August 29, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I don’t know of a collaborative version of the app – but that is a great idea.
Kathy - August 29, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I have students in my TechnoRomantics class create a timeline for 1780-1837. Each student has 2 or 3 years and must pull resources from a variety of places, including our Special Collections. They can include anything — culture, technology, newspapers, advertisements and more. The last time I taught this class, they really enjoyed this project. We did it in Google Docs. But, that class only had 15 students. My current class has 26. I’d love to use something like Bee Docs for them, but is there a collaborative model to it similar to Google Docs? Otherwise, it could get ugly!
Kathy - August 29, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Oh, that’s perfect. ty
Here’s our original experiment in Google Docs 2 years ago: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ab4f-mJOOMjEZGNqN3dj
New one in Brian’s coming in 2 weeks.
Billie - August 30, 2009 at 11:12 am
I was looking at BeeDocs, but I’m not a Mac user. However, I looked at Brian’s timeline from Google Docs, and I was sold! Awesome work, Brian. I’m starting my own timeline right now.
Keith Dvorak - September 1, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Ethan pointed out that you can bring the timeline video into Keynote which gives you more control, but you can also bring it into Adobe’s Premiere or After Effects (or both) and Apple’s iMovie.
I confess I’ve not yet done that, but I would imagine that gives you even more control, and I wonder if you could then export as Flash video, at least from the CS4 versions of Adobe’s apps.