Tuesday, March 10, 2015

ThingLink: Always Improving for EDU



This week I was notified by Susan Oxnevad that I was chosen to be a ThingLink Expert Educator. Exciting news as I have been a fan of ThingLink for over a year. Creating media rich and interactive images is a powerful tool for both students and teachers. To the right is an image I created about Bacteria for an introduction to a unit You can see my more of my creations here.
ThingLink is a free webtool for educators. You can use the web or mobile version to create interactive images packed with resources. Students can do this on mobile devices with or without wifi, which makes it great for field trips! ThingLink images can be used by teachers and students to enhance learning. From introducing new content to providing feedback on student work it is a powerful tool. To learn about these ideas and more  you can view my presentation about iPad authoring tools.

New Features Announced Today

I am super excited about some of the changes happening with ThingLink that will help schools use this awesome tool in the classrooms. Until now, I have mostly been using it to share information and create images for teachers in my work as an Educational Technology Coordinator, but now I am hoping to see more teachers use it with students. Today, ThingLink announced verified accounts for school districts along with the release of an updated iOS app that is well suited for educational use, making ThingLink EDU better than ever for teaching and learning!

Here is a summary of the new features (from Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners Blog)


Benefits of Verified District Accounts

A verified organization on ThingLink EDU serves three goals. First, verification is used to establish authenticity of an organization. Once this is done, the organization gets an invitation code that can be used to easily invite staff and students to ThingLink EDU. A verified organization account will be equipped with a dashboard to easily manage teachers, students, and groups. Third, a verified organization account gives schools and districts easy access to all of the ThingLink resources created by teachers and students across the district. These features make it easier than ever for teachers and students to create, share and curate multimedia rich content with ThingLink.


ThingLink iOS app Updated for Educational Use

More great news! The ThingLink iOS app has been updated with education in mind. When browsing for existing ThingLink content, students can only see images created by other teachers and students. Safe-search has been enabled to provide students with age appropriate content when searching for media to annotate images. The updated version of the app now includes student and teacher signup options with invitation codes, making it easy to manage students and engage them on mobile devices like never before.


Explore this slideshow channel of interactive image to learn how ThingLink can be used on a field trip on a mobile device without wireless. Be sure to click the arrow to advance to the next image to see how students can extend the learning at school and at home, using whatever device is handy at the moment.




How To Request a Verified Status for Your Organization

ThingLink has the ability to transform teaching and learning, so grab your verified district account, add the updated iOS app and embrace this amazing EDU tool!
Send an email to support@thinglink.com


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