online learning biography

A History of Online Education

Evan Thompson

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Updated October 17, 2023 · 3 Min Read

The technology boom of the mid-1980s is most remembered for the first personal computer, but that era also saw another important creation: online learning.

Back then, it was sparsely used, mostly by business executives and a few postsecondary institutions. But today, it's become a cornerstone of education – and it preserved school during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Technological advancements have made online education accessible to people worldwide of all different backgrounds. The format is especially popular in the U.S., where about a third of the 20.6 million college students take online classes. Nearly every postsecondary institution in the U.S. offers at least one online program, ranging from non-degree degree programs to full Ph.Ds .

The history of online learning in higher education can sometimes seem too big to wrap your mind around, much like the internet itself, so we've put together a timeline to help you better understand the origins of today's online colleges and degrees.

A Brief Timeline of Online Education

— 1982.

The Western Behavioral Sciences Institute uses computer conferencing to provide a distance education program for business executives.

— 1983

Ron Gordon, Atari's former president, launches the Electronic University Network to make online courses available for people with access to personal computers.

— 1985

Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Florida, creates the first electronic classroom through an accredited online graduate program.

— 1986

The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) launches the first open computer network — a precursor to the internet — allowing institutions to create and distribute electronic information.

— 1993

Jones International University opens in Centennial, Colorado, becoming the first fully web-based , accredited university.

— 1994

CALCampus introduces the first online-only curriculum with real-time instruction and participation — i.e., synchronous learning .

— 1995

Nineteen U.S. governors found Western Governors University to help Western states maximize educational resources through distance learning.

— 1998

California Virtual University — a consortium of California colleges offering around 700 online classes — opens.

The "Boom" of Distance Education

Percent of students taking distance education classes

— 2002

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) launches the OpenCourseWare Project to provide free MIT courses to people worldwide.

— 2012

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), a free online course resource, becomes available through Udacity and enables learners to take classes asynchronously at their own pace.

— 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic forces nearly every college and university to switch to online learning rather than hold classes in person.

Popular Online Programs

Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.

Evan Thompson is a Washington-based writer for TBS covering higher education. He has bylines in the Seattle Times, Tacoma News Tribune, Everett Herald, and others from his past life as a newspaper reporter.

Header Image Credit: Ariel Skelley, Vince Streano | Getty Images

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The History of Online Schooling

Though it may seem that online education had its beginnings in the late 1900s, the concept of distance learning first came into practice in the mid 19th century when the U.S. Postal Service was developed. The notion of reliable, long-distance correspondence led to the development and implementation of what were called commercial ‘correspondence colleges’, where instructional missives would be distributed through the postal service between students and professors. Today, at-distance education programs have become more sophisticated and accessible due to the proliferation of the web and digital technology. Elite institutions around the world now offer open courseware, online degrees, and online classes that are both legitimizing and popularizing the idea of education from a computer.

A few significant advancements have shaped and pushed distance learning forward since the late 1800s. In 1873 the the first official correspondence education program, called the “Society to Encourage Home Studies”, was established in Boston, Massachusetts by Ana Eliot Ticknor. The University of Queensland in Australia founded its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911, which also relied on Australia’s postal system. The University of South Africa, today known as one of the world’s open distance learning mega colleges, became a champion and innovator of distance learning when it reshaped its mission and focus in 1946.

In 1953 the University of House made distance learning history when it began offering the first televised college classes on KUHT (today called HoustonPBS), which was the first public television station in the United States. Referring to itself as the “The Channel That Changes You”, KUHT ran 13-5 hours of educational material each week, accounting for approximately 38% of the channel’s total broadcast time. Many of the courses aired in the evening so that learners who worked during the day had time to view the material.

After the television, the personal computer and the personal web were the next major inventions to revolutionize distance education. In 1989 the University of Phoenix became the first institution to launch a fully online collegiate institution that offered both bachelors and masters degrees. In 1996, entrepreneurs Glen Jones and Bernand Luskin launched Jones International University, which became the first accredited and fully web-based university. Since the creation of these fully online programs and schools, distance learning has continued to grow in many different directions. In 2003 the Blackboard Learning System staff announced that 40,000 instructors were teaching 150,000 online courses to more than 6 million students, across 55 countries.

Today it is estimated that 1 out of 4 college students are enrolled in at least one online classes. In 2009 there were over 4.5 million students taking online classes, with a Master of Science in Business Administration (MBA) being the top degree offered in the United States. This trend seems like to continue into the future: currently, 83% of all U.S. institutions that offer online courses say they expect an increase in online enrollment in the coming decade.

The growth of distance learning programs has many important side-effects on higher education. For example, the profile of a typical undergraduate student has changed significantly. The average age of students enrolled at the University of Phoenix is around 33, and more than 50% of all students taking online classes are currently female. Online education has also spurred changes in traditional colleges: now, 93% of all brick and mortar colleges offer online courses. An increasing number of universities, like the University of California Berkeley, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offer free online classes called open courseware that feature video lectures and quizzes taken directly from class discussion.

As technology improves and online programs become respected, education experts predict that the distance education will continue to expand and complexify in the future. Some leaders in the realm predict that the number of online students will grown to almost 19 million by 2014. To encourage this, President Barack Oabama has pledged over $500 million for the creation of new online course materials to fuel the industry.

Further Studies

If you want to play a role in the growing field of online education, the study of computer science can provide you with a strong foundation in the technical and theoretical aspects of computer technology, giving you the skills you need to create innovative tools for distance learners. However, if you are interested in the business aspects of running a profitable online college, a degree in business administration will teach you about the different elements that go into running a successful company, from marketing and management to finance and accounting. Finally, if you want to help make distance learning programs more effective, you can learn about methods and theories for creating quality instruction by enrolling in an education or instructional psychology degree program.

Embrace the convenience of online learning and shape your own path to success.

Explore schools offering programs and courses tailored to your interests, and start your learning journey today.

Biographical Learning

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• Mette Krogh Christensen 2  

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Agency ; Life course ; Lifelong learning

The term “biographical learning” is used to describe the study of the relationships that exists between learning and biography, the influence of biography on learning processes and practices, and biography as a mode of learning (Tedder and Biesta 2007 , p. 3). The word bio means life , and it comes from the Greek word bios . The word graphy means written or told , and it comes from the Greek word grafia and grafein , which means a record , a note , or a memorandum . A biography is most often referred to as the story of a person’s life written or told by somebody else, for example, “The Education of John Dewey: A Biography” by Jay Martin. In this way of understanding the word, a biography is a literary genre and a style of writing like the novel and the poem. Yet, the biographer (the subject) who is writing the biography (the object) is likely to prefer facts about a person’s life history instead of fiction even if biographies may...

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Alheit, P. (1994). The “biographical question” as a challenge to adult education. International Review of Education, 40 (3–5), 283–298.

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Tedder, M., & Biesta, G. (2007). Learning from life and learning for life: Exploring the opportunities for biographical learning in the lives of adults. Working paper 7, Learning Lives Website , www.learninglives.org . Learning Lives Website.

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Dr. Mette Krogh Christensen

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Faculty of Economics and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Education, University of Freiburg, 79085, Freiburg, Germany

Norbert M. Seel

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Christensen, M.K. (2012). Biographical Learning. In: Seel, N.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_799

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Biographies: Creating Timelines of a Life

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Studying the lives of others and reading biographies is of interest and value to young learners. In this lesson, students explore multiple sources to create a timeline about the life of a person of their choosing. The experience requires students to work together and to research and resolve potentially conflicting pieces of information about the life they research. Extension activities include developing essays from the original research.

Featured Resources

Interactive Timeline : Use this online tool to help students record events in a selected person's life.

From Theory to Practice

In order to fill the void in her students' knowledge of people with "admirable qualities," Michele Keating introduced them to the genre of biography. She states: "My objective was to expose students to the many people, past and present, who are worthy of admiration and to explore together the dedication, creativity, and achievements of these people." (66) In the end, the biographical study "broadened their view of people worth admiring." (69)

Biographies can expose our students to a whole world of people who can inspire and motivate them. In this lesson students select their own person of interest and consult multiple sources to get to know them.

This lesson was originally developed with Maggie Chase and Bess Berghoff, Indiana University 1990.

Further Reading

Common Core Standards

This resource has been aligned to the Common Core State Standards for states in which they have been adopted. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, CCSS alignments are forthcoming.

State Standards

This lesson has been aligned to standards in the following states. If a state does not appear in the drop-down, standard alignments are not currently available for that state.

NCTE/IRA National Standards for the English Language Arts

• 1. Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
• 3. Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
• 5. Students employ a wide range of strategies as they write and use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.
• 7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and nonprint texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

Materials and Technology

• Biography text sets, created using the provided Websites
• Information on your personality of choice
• Strips of paper for timeline note taking (half a sheet of legal paper, 4.25"x14"), pens or pencils) optional instead of online Interactive Timeline)
• Internet access

Biography Selection & Rationale

Preparation

• Review the written lesson and suggested links. Gather sufficient materials to introduce the lesson—ideally 3-4 information resources for up to six personalities, to include 1) biographies written at the 2nd-5th grade level, preferably including numerous pictures and charts, 2) video tapes, and 3) Web resources. Potential personalities include famous presidents [Washington, Lincoln, Kennedy], inventors [Franklin, George Washington Carver, Madame C.J. Walker], scientists [Marie Curie, Edwin Hubble, Samuel Lee Kountz, Jr.], space explorers [Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, John Glenn], or athletes [Jim Thorpe, Ichiro Suzuki, Lance Armstrong]. This initial selection must often be limited to personalities for whom you can locate multiple resources, but should include a range of ages, gender, cultures, occupations, and historical and modern day figures.
• Review use of the Interactive Timeline .
• Conduct a short inquiry of your own on a personality of interest as a means of introducing the lesson. Amelia Earhart is one personality for whom you are likely to find disparate information and various hypotheses regarding her disappearance. See The Last Flight Website for information and additional Web sources.

Student Objectives

Students will

• negotiate with peers to select persons of interest for their study.
• use a variety of information resources to synthesize, create, and communicate what they've learned on a timeline.
• negotiate with peers to select key events.
• research further to resolve conflicting information.

Session One: Introducing the Lesson

• Share your interest in the chosen personality and your quest for more information about that person. Leaf through a magazine article or book, sharing key events, show short clips from a video, and/or share several pieces of information on a Website.
• Highlight instances when the authors of the resources emphasize different aspects of the personality's life or when you run across conflicting dates or information. Share that resolving such conflicts is always a challenge for researchers, and generate with students an initial list of ways they might resolve conflicting source information.
• Introduce the initial set of resources, and invite groups of students to select and support with rationale two personalities worthy of the group's study among the collected resources, as well as two additional personalities (browsing the  Resources section is one source for additional names). Students can make their selections on loose sheets of paper, in a bound notebook, or on the included Biography Selection & Rationale .
• Ask students to work in small groups to make the selections and generate the rationale. If there is time, ask a spokesperson to share how different group members made their selections.
• Create a whole group list of preferred choices, dividing into those for whom resources are already gathered and those that will require a search and gathering of sources.
• Ask students to make an initial choice by adding their initials after the listed name of their choice. Indicate a deadline when resources must be collected for newly generated names—over the weekend is a workable timeframe—and join the students' search for those resources. The personality from the initial set of resources can serve as a "default" choice if resources can't be located, yet note that the quality of the research is enhanced by student commitment to a personality of interest so it can be well worth the effort to help students gather resources.

Session Two: Small Group Research

• Students are seated in groups of 3-5 with sufficient resources so that each student has his or her own text on the same personality (book, magazine article, CD-ROM, Website, video).
• Ask students to browse their texts quietly, mapping the key events on their timeline paper strip. Encourage sufficient flexibility for students to invent their own ways of taking notes on the timeline. Advise that including page numbers, URLs and counter information will aid them in revisiting information if necessary.
• All begin working quietly. Circulate to encourage those who are reading page-by-page to browse key subtitles, charts or photograph annotations. The independent work period should be limited to no more than 30-40 minutes.
• As the small groups begin to finish browsing their texts, encourage them to share the gathered information among themselves. What have they found? What information is new? of interest? a surprise?
• Ask the group to agree on 6-10 key events in the life of their personality. If computer access is limited and the online timeline tool must be shared, create a schedule so each group has the opportunity to enter the key events. Note that entering data and printing out the timeline must be accomplished in one sitting.

Session Three: Debriefing the Initial Research

• Conduct a full group discussion of the groups' work: What went well, what was a challenge? Which texts were helpful? Which were less helpful? How did the group decide on key events? How will they further explore conflicting information?
• Revisit the initial list of strategies to resolve conflicting information. Add strategies as necessary. Try the strategies out on one or two key conflicts as applicable.
• Post the class-generated strategies in the school library for on-going reference.
• Schedule additional small group work time to resolve conflicting information.
• Help teams develop short bibliographies of their resource text set, sharing the protocols for citation of the various sources.
• Create individual online timelines on figures of interest related to another course of study, i.e. world leaders, scientists, women explorers.
• Create autobiographical timelines.
• Recreate paper timelines, using colored pencils or fine tip markers to add illustrations.
• Use timelines as "notes" to write a fuller biography essay. One potential online tool that helps students manage their ideas and writing can be found at The Biography Maker Website .
• Begin another round of biography research, challenging students to research alone or in pairs, using the strategies developed in these introductory lessons.
• Categorize the attributes of the famous people you have studied. See the Images of Greatness Website as one example by a 4th/5th grade class.

Student Assessment / Reflections

• Group conversation
• Calendar Activities
• Student Interactives
• Strategy Guides

Students generate descriptive timelines and can include images in the description.

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Best Practices for Teaching Biographies

Listen to the full episode to hear best practices for teaching biographies:.

Teaching literacy is often surrounded by the genre of fiction. Students understand the characteristics and plot elements, which results in them independently reading fictional books on their own. But there’s another type of genre, nonfiction, and more specifically biographies, which they’re less familiar with. 

February is the perfect time for teaching biographies by incorporating Black History Month. But even without that, incorporating biographies into your classroom is so important. While it’s not as initially engaging as fiction, there are ways to pique students’ interest with this genre. In today’s episode, I’m sharing my simple and best practices for teaching biographies. 

Oftentimes, students don’t like what they don’t understand, so getting them to understand biographies is the first step. Throughout the episode, I walk you through my five simple steps of exploring biographies in order to get students interested in this type of genre. With this exploration, you’ll help students understand how this genre works, how to identify it from a group of texts, and how to recognize the main purpose of this genre. 

Fiction is a genre students already enjoy, but by incorporating these best practices for teaching biographies, this will soon be a genre students will be engaged in and exploring all on their own.

In this episode on teaching biographies, I share:

• 5 tips for teaching biographies in creative and engaging ways
• Why February is the perfect opportunity to teach biographies
• How class findings can be turned into anchor chart references for your students 
• A class example on how to creatively teach biographies

Resources Mentioned:

• Join the Writing Made Simple Membership
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• Grab my free Step-by-Step Writing routine!
• Episode 118, Using Morning Meeting to Support Black History
• Episode 119, 5 Black History Month Activities for Elementary Students

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About The Literacy Dive Podcast:

Do you find yourself seeking new ideas when it comes to literacy instruction in elementary classrooms? The Literacy Dive Podcast was created to offer actionable steps and to share information for teachers, like you, who are always looking to improve their craft! ELA is our jam and we are excited to dive into all things reading and writing with you!

Your host, Megan Polk, is the creator and owner behind The Literacy Dive and loves to support students and their teachers with curriculum, literacy instruction, best practices, and engaging literacy activities.

Dive in with us every Monday for a new episode from Megan! She, and her guests, will chat about various literacy topics and will bring you tips and tricks that can easily be implemented in your classrooms. You can tune in wherever you get your podcasts! Listen to The Literacy Dive Podcast

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I have a huge passion for reading and writing and love to co-mingle the two any chance I get! You can expect to learn new strategies and ways to keep your students engaged during your literacy block! I am so glad you’re here!

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Creating an online bio helps position both you and Illinois Extension as the source for expert, authoritative, and trustworthy information. Expert. Authoritative, Trustworthy. (E.A.T.) are the qualities Google looks for when evaluating and rating a website. To demonstrate expertise list the program topics and academic credentials, including awards in your biography. To demonstrate authority, link to any peer-reviewed articles, news releases, blogs, or videos. Trustworthiness is shown when other organizations mention you or link to your programs and biography. 

Template for writing your online bio

Online bios often include the following sections:

• Who you are | What you do | Where you do it | Why your work matters?
• Previous experience : (work and volunteer, if it relates to your current job description)
• Education : Degree in what, where from, when (though this is not always necessary)
• Certifications /Trainings (if relevant to your job)
• Awards and Honors (if relevant to your job)
• Research interests
• Recent Publications or Peer-reviewed Articles
• Media Releases
• Media Coverage
• Social media accounts if your accounts focus on your work

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• Select the appropriate program area. Illinois Nutrition Education Programs is only allowed for SNAP-Ed and EFNEP staff.
• Verify the address and phone are correct.
• Be sure the staff titles follow the template .
• Be sure to select appropriate keywords. Choose words from the pre-populated list . 
• If a staff member changes units, the staff will need to be unlinked from the original unit. Submit a request to the Extension IT help desk. 
• No entry is needed in the Short Bio field.  

Check out more suggestions for creating your online bios from the  recorded webinar  presented by Extension Communications and Marketing Manager Judy Mae Bingman . Download the  presentation slides . 

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This section features all of the Biography free audio & video learning resources we've featured in our "Free Resource of the Day Emails" over the past many years with reviews of all of our favorite free resources.

In addition to our bi-weekly E-Magazine, LearnOutLoud.com also sends out our "Free Resource of the Day Email" which features one free audio or video learning title that we've added to our site. You can receive our "Free Resource of the Day Email" by entering your Email address into the box on the right, clicking Subscribe, and then checking the "Free Resource of the Day E-mail" check box in the pop up. This email is sent out Monday through Friday and is a great way to discover new audio & video educational content. You'll be informed of audio books, lectures, speeches, sermons, interviews, and much more all which you can listen to or watch for FREE! Below is a sampling of some of the free resources we have offered in the past through our Free Resource of the Day Email.

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The instructor bio is such a simple, basic part of the course that it can be easy to overlook its importance. When so much time is taken up with assignment rubrics, video scripts, and discussion prompts, thinking of how to describe yourself to students can seem pretty minor.

But it is worth thinking about. The instructor bio is often the first introduction that students will have to you–as an educator, as a subject matter expert, and as a person. So it’s key to make a good first impression with an instructor bio that students will want to read.

Quality Matters requires an instructor bio, as part of their standards for quality online course design. They say:

[The bio] presents the instructor as professional as well as approachable, and includes the essentials, such as the instructor’s name, title, field of expertise, email address, phone number, and times when the instructor is typically online or may be reached by phone.

Expectations of the relationship and communication style between teacher and learner are culturally influenced. Including information about the role of the instructor and how to address the instructor is helpful to learners from all backgrounds.

The self-introduction helps learners get to know the instructor and, in addition to the essentials mentioned above, could include comments on teaching philosophy, a summary of past experience with teaching online courses, personal information such as hobbies, family, travel experiences, etc., and a photograph, audio message, or video (including alternative formats to ensure accessibility).

These recommendations all focus on a crucial element: knowing your audience. The instructor bio is written for your students–not academic peers, not a hiring committee, not the dust jacket of a book. Don’t just copy from a cover letter or CV; the tone you’d take when writing to potential employers is very different than the tone you want to take with students. Students will appreciate an overview of your work and academic history, so they can look for commonalities and things to aspire to. They don’t need the title of every article you’ve published in the last decade, or detailed descriptions of every project you’ve led at your last three jobs.

That leads to our next piece of advice, which is to stay focused. Walls of text are off-putting in any online context, and when confronted with a five-paragraph biography, many students will skip down to the contact information and ignore the rest. That’s not a good first impression! Try to keep your bio around one or two paragraphs in length so that students can read it quickly and learn a bit about you before continuing on to absorb the rest of the introductory material.

This might all sound pretty confining. You want students to be able to find your publications or appreciate the decades of work history that gave you the expertise to feel confident teaching this course, plus add some personal touches about your family and hobbies. But you aren’t limited to sharing only what fits into a brief instructor bio. You can provide students with links to your LinkedIn profile, professional Twitter account, personal website, industry blog–anywhere that you’d be comfortable with students following and connecting with you. This provides an added bonus for SPS students especially, as many of them are adults looking to advance or change their careers. Connecting with an instructor and maintaining that relationship after the class can be a key networking opportunity.

So when it comes time to write your instructor bio, don’t just copy from a cover letter or dash off a few lines about your teaching history. Take some time to think about it, make an outline, brainstorm the kinds of things you would want to know about an instructor if you were about to spend ten weeks learning from them. And then write an introduction that will make students excited about your class, because they get to learn from you.

The post Instructor Bio Tips & Tricks appeared first on SPS | Distance Learning .

Christine Scherer Content Specialist – SPS | Distance Learning More posts by Christine

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People throughout history who influenced and changed the world, from Socrates and Plato to Sir Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy.

Over 50 influential women who helped to shape the world in which we live. Including; Sappho, Malala Yousafzai, Indira Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller, Princess Diana, Joan d’Arc, Greta Thunberg and Mother Teresa.

A selection of inspirational people who have helped create a better world. Includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Albert Einstein.

Famous men and women who have campaigned for, and promoted human and civil rights. Includes Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

Great artists such as Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso. Greatest works of art :  Mona Lisa , Statue of David

The great scientists who have changed our world from Archimedes to Albert Einstein and Marie Curie. Also; list of famous inventors .

Famous poets and authors. Great writers including J. R. R. Tolkien, George Orwell, Ernst Hemingway, J.K.Rowling and C.S. Lewis

Saints and sages from different religious and spiritual traditions. Including The Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammed and the Dalai Lama.

100 great sporting personalities from the fields of football, athletics, tennis, gymnastics, boxing and more.

A list of famous Africans, including Nelson Mandela, Haile Selassie, Kofi Annan, Tegla Laroupe, and Wangari Maathai.

Famous military leaders from Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Napoleon to modern military commanders.

Featured biographies

Recently added pages

• Tenzing Norgay – (1914 – 1986) Nepalese-Indian climber who was first to climb Mount Everest.
• Herbert Hoover (1874 – 1964) the 31st US president during the Great Depression
• Sir Edmund Hillary (1919 – 2008) New Zealand climber who became first to climb Mount Everest.
• Simone Weil –  Philosopher, mystic and member of French Resistance.
• James Joyce – Irish contemporary writer.
• George R.R. Martin (1948 – )- Best selling fantasy author of “Game of Thrones”
• Sadhguru (1957 – ) Indian Guru and founder of Isha yoga foundation
• Charles Lindbergh (1902 – 1974) US air pilot who flew from NY to Paris.
• Simon Bolivar (1783–1830) Venezuelan military and political leader who was instrumental in helping Latin American countries achieve independence.
• Diego Maradona (1960 – ) Argentinian footballer. Voted greatest player of 20th Century.
• Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828) Austrian composer of the late classical period.
• Prophet Muhammad (570–632) Founder of Islam.
• Anne Frank (1929-45) Diarist and writer who perished in the Holocaust.
• Karl Marx (1818-1883) Political philosopher and founder of Marxism
• James Watt – inventor of a more powerful steam engine
• 100 most influential people – Influential figures of world history.
• Sappho Biography – The enigmatic poet of Lesbos.
• Sojourner Truth (1797 – 1883) Civil rights campaigner
• Harriet Tubman (1822 – 1913) Escaped slave who helped others to escape on the Underground Railroad.
• Grace Kelly (1929–1982) American film actress and Princess of Monaco.
• Meister Eckhart – (1260–1327) German mystic, philosopher and religious administrator.
• People who promoted religious tolerance – Timeline of religious tolerance.
• People who changed their minds – Some of the greatest u-turns in beliefs and opinions.
• Martin Niemöller (1893–1984) German pastor, imprisoned for opposing Hitler.
• Germans who resisted Hitler – Including: Dietrich Bonhoffer, Claus von Stauffenberg.
• Mozart (1756 – 1791) – Classical composer and musical genius
• Famous historical figures – from the age of the Ramayana to the present day.
• Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) African American, anti-slavery campaigner.

Deposit Photos – I use some photos from this source of stock images.

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3 Creative Ideas for Teaching Biographies Your Students Will Love

There is so much power in teaching our students about history using biographies. We can all learn from the success and failures of others. But biographies often get a bad rap of being dry and boring. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, through this genre, our students can practice many different reading skills and strategies. That’s why I use graphic organizers that will allow my students to recall information from the biographies in creative ways. I am excited to share these 3 creative ideas for teaching biographies using fun and exciting graphic organizers I know your students will love!

Teaching Biographies can be Exciting

When teaching biographies in my classroom I like to immerse my students into the lives of the person they are learning about. From decorating the classroom to dressing up like the person we are studying, the possibilities are endless. This really helps to “bring the person to life” and make the learning more engaging and realistic for our students.

No matter what biography you are focusing on, these 3 creative ideas for teaching biographies are going to be so fun your kids will be begging for more!

1. EXTRA! EXTRA!

Read all about it in this year’s edition of the 3rd grade Daily Times. And that’s the hook! One of my favorite ways to immerse my students into learning is to turn them all into little reporters. At the end of our biography unit, we create a newspaper. It includes articles about each of the people of influence we focused on. I can’t tell you how excited my students get when they hear they will be writing and “publishing” a newspaper!

I like to put students in groups of 3 or 4. Then, give each one a person they will be focusing on. As a group, they must choose graphic organizers to will help them record information about their person. They can read an article that I provide, get information from a book, or research the person on a safe search site.

After reading the information about their person, they use the graphic organizers they chose to record important information about the person. This is the “interview” for the article.

Pulling it all Together

Next, it’s time to put the information from the graphic organizers all together. They will write all of the information in one article that will be included in our newspaper. The newspaper can be tangible if you want your students to assemble it and include their own drawings. But, it can also be digital with each group focusing on specific slides. This can then be projected on a whiteboard or viewed on a tablet or computer.

Not only is it a great way for students to learn from informative text, but it also gives you a fun and easy way to assess their learning. Sharing the newspaper in the school library is sure to be a hit. Teachers or librarians can read the newspaper articles to classes when they visit the library. So cool!

This really is such a great way for me to teach biographies in an easy way my students love!

2. The Life and Times…

This is a fun timeline activity that begs to be interactive! When teaching biographies, I love to use timelines because it gives students a concrete visual of when key events took place. This helps students better able to identify with the life of the person they are studying.

For example, if we are focusing on Amelia Earheart, I create a huge timeline that goes around my classroom. We start at the beginning and focus each day on an aspect of her life. We add information to the timeline as we go, and this is where those awesome graphic organizers come into play.

With a cause and effect graphic organizer, I can ask my students to think critically about events in the life of Amelia Earheart. Then we can discuss how those events shaped her future. As we learn about other things that are happening in the world, we can add those to the timeline as well.

I can’t tell you how awesome it is to get those “lightbulb” moments! I love when students make connections between world events and the person they are studying.

The end of our timeline activity concludes with a flipbook with all the information we have learned about Amelia Earheart. My kids really love this activity because they are allowed to get up and walk around. They take their clipboards to make notes from the timeline to help them complete the information for the flipbook. It’s a great way for them to show off their learning when they take it home.

3. Pick a Person

This is a really fun way to build excitement when teaching biographies. I put the names of all the people I want my students to choose from when working on their biographies. Then, after arranging my class into 4 or 5 groups, it’s time for the choosing ceremony. Each team gets to reach inside a basket and draw the name of a person. This will be the person they will be responsible for reporting on at the end of the unit.

Next, each group has to do some research on the person of influence they will be focusing on. This could mean a special trip to the library for the group to check out a book, some safe search research on the computer, or even a look through our biographies section of our class book boxes. I think this is a great way to give your students a little independence and responsibility they will be overjoyed to get.

Graphic organizers are so great for biographies because there is so much information available out there. It can feel overwhelming for kids to try to organize their thoughts and recall important facts and details about the lives of the people we are studying. They are a great way to get our students to really focus on what’s important and what they want to include in their presentations.

The Presentations

Now, it’s time for the really fun part! I give my students some time to think about how they could present their information to the class. Some groups like to use technology and create a video slideshow, a recorded skit, or even a self-made news clip featuring their famous person. Other groups may want to get creative and make a poster with visual images representing the information they learned about the person they are focusing on.

If a free choice scenario isn’t your cup of tea, consider making a list of presentation options you would be comfortable with. By giving students some choice in their final presentation you really get to see them tap into strengths and creativity. No matter how you choose to have your students present the information, chances are they will have a blast doing it!

Grab Your Free Biography Graphic Organizers

I have put together my favorite graphic organizers to use when teaching biographies and you can grab them for free! Just join the Keep ’em Thinking community to get access to the Free Resource Library. You can find these biography graphic organizers and lots more!

Just sign-up below and grab your free graphic organizers today!

Teaching Biographies is a Breeze

Teaching biographies really is a breeze! With customizable graphic organizers to help your students, they will not only focus on the information they are learning but recall it.

And . . . if you need some ready-to-use biographies check out the Keep ’em Thinking store . You can find a variety of biography resources that are perfect to use with the graphic organizers.

Be sure to save these creative ways for teaching biographies ideas to your favorite Pinterest teacher board so you can come back any time for even more fun and exciting biography activities!

• Read more about: Critical Thinking , Picture Books , Reading and ELA , Thinking Skills , Writing

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Double Your Online Teaching Credibility in 10 Minutes

When you teach online, many of your skills and achievements go unnoticed.

Your colleagues don’t see you often. They don’t really know that much about you.

And your students read your emails, and respond to your feedback. But overall, they know less about you than your colleagues do.

This kind of invisibility is certainly frustrating.

But even worse – it can also damage your career, and your job satisfaction. When no-one knows about your achievements, you often run into two problems…

• You’re overlooked for career opportunities, and
• Students are less likely to respect your opinion, and more likely to question your judgement.

What if you could address both those problems – and it would only take about 10 minutes?

You just need to update your Teacher Bio.

But Writing About Your Online Teaching Career is Awkward, Right?

We spend most of our days writing – everything from constructive feedback on papers, to reassuring emails.

But when it comes to writing about  yourself , it’s very common to hit a wall…

It can be embarrassing to talk about your strengths and achievements. It feels pushy and somehow egotistical.

But learning how to write an effective online teaching profile is absolutely essential.

How a Good Teacher Bio Makes Your Job Easier

There are so many benefits of getting your online teaching profile right.

A good teacher bio can have magical outcomes. It can:

• Transform you from a faceless instructor to a human being your students can relate to
• Get you more respect from colleagues and students… and
• Help you stand out when it comes to internal career opportunities – because everyone else is your organisation has neglected their online teaching profiles too!

This really doesn’t have to be the hardest writing task of the year…

Here’s how to turn your online teacher bio from blah to magic.

5 Essential Elements for a Magical Online Teacher Bio

1.   outline your qualifications and experience.

These elements are the cornerstone of your teacher biography. They do the heavy lifting for you, and explain why you got hired in the first place.

This element is also the best shortcut to establishing your authority. If you’ve toiled for years to get all those letters after your name, own them and be proud!

2.   Summarise your publications

Chances are you do more than simply teach online.

If you’ve written, edited, or consulted on books, articles, blog posts or course materials, people need to know that.

Why not get credit for all your additional work – and at the same time underline that you’re a published expert in your field?

3.   Include a little personal information

Nothing weird, of course.

Naturally, choose a personal tidbit that’s appropriate, and shows you in a good light.

If you like hiking, have an impressive collection of tropical fish, or can make a mean cherry cheesecake, for example, these hobbies will add a flourish to your profile.

They make you more approachable. But not all ‘achievements’ have a place in your teacher bio.

You don’t need to mention that you hold the current world title for the most hotdogs eaten in an hour. Or that your famous chilli is  so  hot it’s actually landed people in the ER.

You want to engage your readers, not terrify them.

4.   Use a warm tone

The primary audience for your teacher bio will be students.

In this electronic age, many students tune out the formal rhetoric they get through official channels.

Now clearly, you don’t have to write your teacher bio like a text message, or adopt an overly casual tone. But students will respond better to some informality, and a little warmth.

Infuse your online teaching profile with your own voice in a friendly yet professional way. You’ll make your learners feel more welcome, and part of an engaged learning community.

5.   Don’t forget the photo

It’s too easy to not bother with a picture at all – or to use a holiday snap taken the last time you went somewhere exotic (even if that was a decade ago).

But a current photo that’s in focus and clearly shows your smiling face can give a positive boost to your online teacher bio.

After all, we’re communicating in a learning environment that’s missing most of the visual cues that are the norm in a face-to-face classroom.

A photo warms up a setting that some students experience as sterile and cold. And you can also use your profile picture can as your email avatar.

When your photo appears with every email you send, you remind your students that they’re talking to a real live person who cares about their progress.

When you include these elements in your profile, you increase student engagement. You demonstrate that you’re a flesh and blood professional who deserves their respect.

It takes only a few minutes to improve your online teaching profile – but the increased professional credibility you’ll enjoy will last for much longer.

Graphics used under license from Deposit Photos, Shutterstock and Canva.

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