By Allie Davidson, Educational Technology Development Coordinator
I recently went to the CALICO conference at Michigan State University and attended a panel presentation with several instructors who are using the tool ThingLink to increase student engagement and foster critical thinking in the classroom. I think it can be used as a powerful tool to support student learning, so I wanted to share what I learned!
ThingLink is an online platform that allows users to create interactive images by tagging and embedding different types of multimedia directly on to an image. You can see an example of a ThingLink presentation I made below:
I can see many different possibilities for using Thinglink to support student learning. One of the obvious uses for this tool would be for critical or visual analysis of an image. Using Thinglink, students can pinpoint and embed their analyses directly onto the image rather than having to describe in an accompanying text the location to which a certain analysis relates. Another useful application would be to use Thinglink as a presentation software. As a student presents, they can roll their mouse over each tag to showcase more information.
ThingLink might also be useful for students wanting to describe a physical space or object to others in a digital format. Not only can they tag specific locations in the visual space, but these tags can also include multimodal elements related to that area, providing a more in-depth and creative description.
Some quick facts about ThingLink:
- The basic version is free to use. The presenters said that this version works just fine when their students use it for course assignments.
- ThingLink allows students to tag an image with text, web links, images, videos, audio recordings, Google utilities (Docs, Slides, Forms, Maps), social networking sites and more. For a complete list, check out their list of tags.
- Users can also tag videos using ThingLink.
- Students create a URL of their Thinglink to share with others. They can even embed their ThingLink into their cuPortfolio.
My colleague, Mike Barker, who is the computer assisted language learning consulting analyst over at SLaLS, was also at the same CALICO session with me. Mike came up with some great examples of how a language instructor may use the tool in the classroom. I thought his examples would be helpful to share here:
- Find a map of downtown Rome and mark five locations you would like to visit along with a summary of each.
- Find a photograph that represents daily life in Tokyo and label it with at least 15 new vocabulary words.
- Find a video showing a Chinese cultural event or activity and label at least five important characteristics. Be sure to include a short description of why you consider it important.
Have Mike’s examples given you any inspiration for your own teaching? Do you think you might like to use ThingLink in your class? If so, I’d love to hear about it! If you have any questions or would like to discuss how to incorporate the tool into your course, send me an email at allie.davidson@carleton.ca or drop by the EDC at 410 Dunton Tower for a chat.