Thinglink
My exploration of digital tools this week took me on an
unfamiliar journey of how to present learning. I had never heard of Thinglink
before, but feel this could be beneficial in my classroom so decided to explore
it further.
I found Thinglink to be easy to use and navigate around.
There are FAQ’s on the website as well as examples and various other helpful
links if you would like to learn more and see examples of how it can be used.
Thinglink provides you with an embed code which allows you to link your design
in your Blog or Wiki which is a useful function to have for students. When
uploading images, you are able to do this from your other online accounts such
as Facebook and Flickr, which allows for a quicker and easier process in
creating your own Thinglink. Probably one of the most useful technical features
with Thinglink is the ability to follow other people and receive notifications
of interactions with others and statistics on how many times your creation has
been viewed. Thinglink is predominately a single author tool but there is the option
for others to edit and remix your images (this function is found in settings).
The only downside with Thinglink as an educational tool is the need to upgrade
and pay for a version if you wish to work with your students.
SAMR Model based on Thinglink
Thinglink will support my pedagogy and inspire creativity
and collaboration with other students. This is an important learning outcome
that I want all my students to achieve in my classes. Thinglink could be used in a variety of ways
in my Manual Arts workshop. These would range from collating images of various
tools the students have used and then adding their knowledge of that tool and
safety requirements (my Thinglink is an example of this), or collating images
of various types of wood and adding notes about the wood and when/where it
would most likely be used. With this information that the student has acquired,
it would also give an option for the student to present this information when
continuing on their studies to show their Recognized Prior Learning (if
entering into an apprenticeship etc). This would be a useful ICT learning tool
for students as it is an online collection of their knowledge that they can access
and add to and ultimately create their own portfolio of knowledge that they
could refer back to at any stage. It would also be a great tool for students to
collaborate with other students as they can follow each other’s Thinglinks and
add tags and information to their work. From a teacher’s perspective, they
would be able to upload an image and ask students to view and learn from their
tags already created and also ask that students to add their own tags to their
work.
SAMR Model based on Thinglink
S – Teacher
uploads image of the collection of tools students are required to use
A – Teacher adds notes to each tool of its function and safety requirements
M - Students create their own Thinglink and adds additional tool images. They also tag other students work with any additional information that they may know about the tool.
R – Students follow other students and views tools that they have never seen or perhaps used before and are then able to explore that tool and use it and deepen their knowledge through comparative analysis.
A – Teacher adds notes to each tool of its function and safety requirements
M - Students create their own Thinglink and adds additional tool images. They also tag other students work with any additional information that they may know about the tool.
R – Students follow other students and views tools that they have never seen or perhaps used before and are then able to explore that tool and use it and deepen their knowledge through comparative analysis.
Hi Brett. I really like your thinglink design. I somehow overlooked it in the course materials so its lucky that I checked your blog. It looks like a simple yet very effective tool and I will definitely be making use of it in the future.
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