Introduction
ThingLink is a visual learning solution that uses multimedia to create a learning platform that is interactive, versatile, and makes meaningful connections between the learner and its content. Thinglink's effectiveness and purpose is based entirely on the educator's teaching style and can be utilized across all domains, ability level, and grade levels.
Interactive
Thinglinks are comprised of "tags" that act as a sort of portal to content created or utilized by the educator. From blog posts to videos, to google forms and spreadsheets, ThingLink has a tag that is compatible with the different media types. Karalee Nakatasuka is a certified ThingLinks teacher and uses hyperdocs, photos, and 360° presentations in her ThingLinks to create virtual field trips to historical places. "Our students engage in the material the more we motivate them, to become creators, problem solvers, not passive recipients of information" (Nakatasuka, 2019).
Pierette Appasamy is a histology professor at the University of Michigan Medical School and creates "workshops" using ThingLinks through scaffolding, starting with an introduction into how ThingsLinks can be utilized, to annotating their own slide, to creating their own workshop to articulate their understanding (Appasamy, 2018).
Versatility
ThinkLink has been can be used from professional settings, to marketing strategies, to elementary education classrooms. ThingLinks are simple to create and easy to use. Each tag is can lead the user to a specific location. Whether that being a social media website for a local business or an educational platform that send the learner on a learning journey through a visual map. The creativity is in the hands of the creator, or the ThingLinker. Loops are tags that support ThingLinks. In a sort of inception way, a ThingLink can lead the user back to an intended ThingLink. Appasamy utilized ThinkLinks as a presentation platform for identifying characteristics in cells and tissues (Appasamy, 2018). "The options are endless" (Nakatasuka, 2019).
Creative Solution
I've used ThingLinks in my classroom since the start of the pandemic. As a special education teacher, it is hard to teach routine and structure to atypical students in a traditional classroom setting and being launched into online learning forced me to think outside of the box. With the help of google slides, the snipping tool, and ThingLink I was able to create a virtual classroom that I could use to engage my students through the remainder of the year. Using basic the pulse options for the tags and a desperate attempt to create a how-to interactive tutorial I was able to teach reach my students successfully. Just a simple link is all they needed to access their learning material and the loop tags provided the link needed to connect my students and their resources no matter where they were in the lesson.
I have attached a link to my individual ThingLink used for my classroom. Keep in mind, our district utilized google classroom for assessments and google meets for virtual meetings. When you click on their faces, you will see a link that was shared with all of their service providers and parents. The student was expected to stay on their link all day with service providers, teachers, or support staff.
References
Keller, J.M. & Deimann, M. (2018). Motivation, volition, and performance. In Dempsey, R.A.R.J. V. (2017). Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. [VitalSource Bookshelf]. Retrieved from https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134237039/
Natkasuka, K. (2018, January 1). Making History Come to Life, ThingLink Virtual Museums Retrieved November 12, 2020, from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=13&sid=4f06dce8-31f1-44dd-b4db-a3d8bc7081bb%40sessionmgr101
Appasamy, Pierette (2018). Fostering Student Engagement with Digital Microscopic Images Using ThingLink, an Image Annotation Program. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.oclc.fullsail.edu:81/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=fcb09d81-b002-4ac1-92ba-8abda74c1cfb%40sdc-v-sessmgr01
Thinglink Introduction
In the blog article by Lelund (2020, November 13), Thinglink is described as an interactive learning platform using multimedia to create visual learning solutions. Using tags to connect students with content, Thinglink allows educators to incorporate video, spreadsheets, quizzes, documents, and more into their lessons.
Arousing Curiosity
According to Reiser and Dempsey (2018, p. 80) curiosity and motivation go hand in hand. Curiosity is awakened when there is a perceived gap in current knowledge. The options available in Thinglink have the ability to allow curious minds to explore objects they may not already understand. When a student is presented a visual they are not familiar with, they can interact with the linked content that will educate them on…
ThingLinks: Feedback
Lelund wrote about a teacher, Karalee Nakatasuka, who is a certified ThingLinks teacher. She uses hyper Docs, photos, and 360º presentations in her ThingLinks to create virtual field trips to historical sites (2020). This is a great idea, and I believe that it also can be implemented with goals. These tags and virtual classrooms will keep a learner engaged from the almost endless interactions. If the Teacher creates these tags and sets goals the learners will also have a curiosity to learn more, which turns me back to Nakatasuka. She makes these virtual field trips for her students. Setting a goal for the students to meet, there reward could be getting to go on this, “field trip.” She…
Response to Pencil, Paper, ThingLink
ThingLink is an interactive tool that enables educators to place live links within an image using animated icons. As soon as I watched the video, I had to stop and write down several ideas that I had for implementing ThingLink. It seems the possibilities are endless. What a fantastic tool!
Motivating Factors
A successfully designed instructional tool must integrate three performance influencers: capability, opportunity, and motivation. Capability refers to the knowledge the user must have, opportunity refers to the necessary resources being available, and finally, motivation which is the desire to pursue the goal. While each is equally important, the first two are usually present if the tool is being implemented, therefore the focus must…
I believe this is one of the most important strategies to use for learner engagement, and that’s visual stimulants. Video can make a connection between the student and the subject matter. It curates their curiosity to learn more by discovery causing thoughts of what if or what else to I need to know more. I see that the functionality of Thinglink’s is very versatile from education as well as corporate usage. The navigation tabs make it easy to find what our looking for especially with each of the tags leading to a specific user. This would give the student user motivation with their expectation being met through a preview visual map. This is very engaging to see what’s coming up…
Thank you for this informative post. I have never heard of nor seen ThingLink but after reading your post, I'm thinking about using it in my syllabus as a way to show students around the classroom and point out where their instruments are to be stored, how to disinfect their area, etc. Considering that students today are digital natives (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008), I can see how this type of interactive digital learning would be very successful in the classroom. Also, according to Botula (2016), students of various literacy levels and learning styles benefit from the application's emphasis on images. In my class, I could use a photo of a guitar fretboard and add links to frets describing positions, finger…