Thinglink: 5 ways to use it in your classroom

A recent post on Free Technology for Teachers really caught my eye:

This little add-on is pretty clever - it allows you to add scroll-over text to any image in your blog.  Take the example below - scroll your mouse over the picture.

Through installing the add-on, I am able to add these text points - and links - anywhere in a picture.  I also have the option of allowing others to do the same - anyone can come on and add their commentary.

This brings us to classroom applications...





1.  To prompt classroom discussions.  To spur discussion on a topic, you could do something similar to the example above - create a picture with several scrollable text points.  Each one can pose a question - historic, analytic, whatever.  In the classroom, students can be grouped for small discussions, each group given access to the image on a shared laptop /tablet.  For five minutes, each group discusses the prompts, choosing one on which they'll focus.  This can then lead into a whole-group discussion / analysis of the image.

Consider the possibilities for art history, connecting images / art objects to texts being studied, etc.

2.  As a discussion extension on a blog.  Earlier, I talked about setting up a blog for novel discussions across teams.  A good discussion prompt would be one of these pictures - using it as a menu, with several discussion bases embedded in it, based on which students post their entries and build off of one another's ideas.

3.  For group presentations / collective assignments.  Student groups could each be assigned an image, with a requirement to label / analyze x amount of elements.  For example, a colleague of mine - Jeremy Mularella - starts his science class with a lab safety unit which culminates in a CSI-styled investigation of a lab accident, to determine which safety rules were violated.  This could be augmented with posted shots of the 'crime scene,' on which students tag the various elements of the scene which portray broken safety rules.

4.  To create descriptive how-tos.  When walking students (or associates) through a a problem, or elements of a diagram, etc.  This could be a very useful tool for giving additional information on a particular image.  A scroll-over of specific materials laid out for a lab, etc.  I sometimes post screen shots of exemplars - I could use the scroll-overs to highlight elements of the example that are particularly note worthy.

5.  For a visual quiz / self-test.  In a language class, or any class with vocabulary, including an image that has visual representations of the terms could be very useful - the terms themselves are not visible until the mouse interacts with them, so a student could quiz themselves and then use the scroll-over feature to check their answers.