Sunday, June 17, 2012

ThingLink...Enabling Smart Learning

Last year I connected with ThingLink and have had an opportunity to share interactive images with my students at Van Meter School.  

ThingLink is a wonderful application that lets teachers and students make images interactive.  Last week I had a great conversation with Neil Vineberg, CMO of ThingLink.  Neil filled me in on what was new at ThingLink and some amazing examples that others have created.  

Interactive images help students develop 21st century learning skills and enrich their enthusiasm for learning.  Teachers can use ThingLink to build interactive learning modules (ILM's) that activate and inspire students with creative and effective learning experiences.  

The University of Adelaide's professor Allan Carrington recently wrote...

"21st century teaching is about interactivity and student engagement."  He suggests that teachers need to "move from content-centered teaching to activity-centered and from teacher-centered to student-centered."

I agree, and think ThingLink is the most effective application I know for creating a fully interactive learning experience for students, and one that teachers and students can both easily create.  

With ThingLink's easy-to-use editor, teachers can create immersive and engaging experiences by adding tags to any image in a few minutes: 
  • Creative rich interactive stories around historical events using media (video, sound, photos, written words, etc...) found online.
  • Annotate graphs and timelines.
  • Record an instructional message to students inside an image.
  • Embed interactive images into student blogs. 
  • Enable students to curate content inside an image to demonstrate understanding of a topic.
To learn more about ThingLink, click on this link and hover your mouse over the interactive image.  There are links to interesting content developed by teachers from across the globe.
To sign up for a free account, visit the ThingLink website.

You can also view more examples in the ThingLink Gallery. 
ThingLink will be exhibiting at ISTE (Booth 2134) and I'll be meeting with their team to share ideas.  If you are attending, stop by their booth to say HI!

You can contact Neil Vineberg at neil@thinglink.com for more information as well.

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