Thinglink

Have you ever seen an image that has different places in which to click? Then you click one of those places on the image and it takes you to a video, another image, a website, or other text? Have you wondered how it was created?

Wonder no more!

While there are a few tools that do this, my favorite is Thinglink.

Thinglink is straightforward and intuitive, making using the platform easier than others. In a nutshell, once you login (Google is an option!) you choose the type of interactive "thing" you want to use.  Then you upload your image, click edit, and start tagging.

The possibilities for use are pretty limitless! We've used it to create interactive "Who Am I?" posters in upper grades, with kids linking images, sites, and quotes that represent them. We've used it to create interactive images for teaching. We've used it to create an interactive map, where clicking on one of the cities takes you to a writing piece about that location.

Not only is it a very useful resource to have in your toolbox, it's kind of fun, too!

So? What are you waiting for? Go make your free account and start linking those things!

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Who Am I - part 2

The sixth graders are in the midst of a self-study of sorts, a "Who Am I?" identity exploration, and ThingLink was the perfect vehicle to "techify" their most recent piece.

In setting up student accounts, I was excited to learn that ThingLink is one of the most cost-effective teaching tools I've purchased yet.  At $1 per student, even if we only use it for this project, it will still be worth it (though I have a hunch that it will get quite a lot of use over the next few months!  It was super easy to set-up, too, as similar to Google Classroom and Freckle, students need only a classroom code to join the platform, and logging in with their Google account simplified things even further.

Kids took their "Who Am I?" one-pagers and added at least four ThingLinks to the drawings.  These had to explain the why behind their choices.

Look for some samples soon - I don't want to post without their permission!  In the meantime, create your free account and explore ThingLink!

Communication...

I stumbled across this site, via Mindshift and wow.  Sketchnotes always make so much sense to me, and these are no exception.  I took this particular image and linked the "deeper dive" explanations to each section.  It's definitely worth a few minutes time exploring....