My timeline

Having looked at examples by Mo and Ying, try drawing your own timeline. You can do this on paper – we have provided a document [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]   that you may want to use for this – or online at bubbl.us. (The Open University is not responsible for third party websites or the information you choose to share with them.)

The bubbl.us website has instructions on how to use this free online tool. If you prefer not to use this, or don’t have access to the internet, don’t worry – pen and paper will do just as well. The drawing tools available in most word processing programs, such as Microsoft Word, can also be used to produce your timeline or other diagrams.

If you don’t want to, or have difficulty in producing a diagram, remember that what is important in this activity is the information or understanding from your experience that is brought to mind. If you prefer, you can simply make a list of the high points and low points of the period of your life and reflect on these.

OR

Go to Activity 2.2 in your Reflection Log. Once you have completed your activity, make sure you save the document again. If you want to make any notes for yourself, a page for notes is provided in the Reflection Log following Activity 2.2.

Remember, it’s up to you what you want to include and the time frame you want to focus on – your whole life, or a specific period. It doesn’t need to be to scale. Low points are on the bottom half of the page and high points on the top half, just as Mo and Ying have done. You do not need to include anything that you want to keep private.

If you are in a group and you would like to share your timeline, you can do so by printing it and pinning it up on the wall. If you are working online, save the timeline as an image file and post it to an online forum or via social media.