A Versatile Tool to Use in the Classroom: ThingLink

Check this Thinglink, created by using several digital tools. The words are ones recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Tagxedo was used to create the graphic. PollDaddy was used for the polling.  Thinglink was used to put together the interactive wall. Donna Baumbach, who created this interactive ThingLink quiz, has other Thinglink creations at her site: Donna Baumbach at ThingLink.




When asked how she created this Thinglink, Donna explained:

"I used Tagxedo, but Wordle would work, too. I used PollDaddy to create the polls, and to make the polls open the image, I used the URL: http://polldaddy.com/poll/xxxxxxxxx, where XXXXXXXXXX is the number of the poll from the poll's URL."

Donna read about how to embed a PollDaddy in a Thinglink in this tweet from Greg Kulowelc.

Interested in learning more about using ThingLink in the classroom, check this Thinglink that Donna Baumbach also created. Click in places to open the links in the ThingLink.







Here is a third one that Donna created that could easily be used with elementary-school children and further indicates the versatility of  Thinglink.






Given the possibilities of ThingLink's uses in the classroom, this is one digital tool looking into and adding your own imagination to create instructional materials. This is also a tool that students can use to show their research, understanding of a concept, and interest in teaching others.

The Ten Most Popular Teaching Tools Being Used this Year

Edudemic, a popular media outlet for news about tech in the classroom, just published a post "The 10 Most Popular Teaching Tools Being Used This Year." As you reflect on the year ahead and read the description of each, which do you plan to use and which might you consider? What are your reasons? This post might be worth bookmarking for reference to discuss with other educators as you engage in conversations with them about what tech tools they find the most helpful for their professional work and teaching.

Note the caption under the story's feature picture reminds us of how much the educational professional has changed over time. 

50 Educational Tools Every Teacher Should Know About

Lists like this one proliferate, and you wonder how you could every know all the digital tools recommended on these lists. Thought I would share this one, though, because the recommendations are diverse and solid, and they come from a well-respected source in the field of education: Edudemic. If you don't have Edudemic in your RSS feed or are not following the site on Twitter, you should figure out some way to follow all the wonderful leads provided.

Here is the link to Edudemics' post, "50 Educational Tools Every Teacher Should Know About." The link has been tweeted out approximately 2,500 times, so obviously others also find the list valuable.

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by ScratchEdTeam

After going through the list, let us know which tools on the list you use regularly, which you use occasionally, which you would like to try out, and which you believe should be omitted from the list.

100 Tools for Learning

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011 You might want to go through this presentation quickly the first time, and then pour through it more slowly and jot down some notes of tools to explore.

View more presentations from Jane Hart

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011

by Jane Hart on Nov 13, 2011, 5th Annual Survey of Learning Tools

Which of these tools do you integrate into your teaching or your own learning? How do you use them? Which tools do you want to learn? Which do you see as best promoting literacy?