Get the tingling sensation for learning with Thinglink
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I have tingles for Thinglink! As they say "a picture speaks a thousand words", I can't stress enough how great this tool is. This website lets you upload pictures and make them interactive by adding tags (just like Facebook I suppose) and linking them to web pages or videos.
Thinglink will get your students to brush up on their reading and listening - perhaps more on the receptive skills than productive - and have them immersed in the topics of the lesson. Hovering over the tags and scanning through the websites is so lively and entertaining for students because it's completely innovative (if you compare to boring PowerPoint slides)! You can even set up quizzes or polls that you can link to the image on Thinglink making the learning more personal and dynamic.
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| All you need is to sign up with your already existing social accounts (Google, Facebook or Twitter) and get right on to tagging. |
From a language learning point of view, Thinglink simply paves the road for maximum L2 production time. You can give students a picture or ask them to upload their own, and have them describe the picture using the tags. With the linking function, you can introduce topics through videos and lead them to webpages which content they can analyse. With all these authentic materials, you can spare your students from the boredom of reading coursebooks and listening to robotic recordings.
How can I use Thinglink in my classroom?
Thinglink is a great schemata builder to get students immersed in the lesson topic. Pictures trigger multiple interpretation which is truly helpful, as to be able to produce meaningful output, students simply need to know what to say. Thinglink pictures will give that initial nudge for students to tap into their background knowledge. Moreover, the links that you can tag on certain parts of the picture will lead them to a a vast source of information, which they can relate and connect to their prior understanding. This is how learning and retention is enhanced - when students are able to establish connections between novel and former ideas.
Have a look at this sample activity I've made. I decided to go with the topic of Smartphone Use because it's so prevalent, and everyone would have a lot to say about that. Here I'd give students a picture of a metaphoric man strapped to shackles with a smartphone instead of the usual iron ball. I thought this image was pretty thought-provoking - sure thing, we can definitely get enslaved by technology when used recklessly (or are we already in this state?). Oh, by the way, to avoid copyright issues, head down over to Pixabay for beautiful royalty-free images completely free of charge.
Have a look at this sample activity I've made. I decided to go with the topic of Smartphone Use because it's so prevalent, and everyone would have a lot to say about that. Here I'd give students a picture of a metaphoric man strapped to shackles with a smartphone instead of the usual iron ball. I thought this image was pretty thought-provoking - sure thing, we can definitely get enslaved by technology when used recklessly (or are we already in this state?). Oh, by the way, to avoid copyright issues, head down over to Pixabay for beautiful royalty-free images completely free of charge.
If you place your cursor on top of the circles, there'll be questions for students to answer and links to articles and studies they should read about for reference. Those are all receptive skills training, but if you embed a link to a collaborative tool like Padlet or Stormboard, students will have plenty of pushed output and interaction with others. Because I want students to share their views on whether smartphones enhance or in fact hinder interaction, I put up links to sites saying the advantages and disadvantages of their use. I'll have the students skim the articles to get the gist and reformulate the main ideas. The same thing goes for the video - deducing the implied message and answering follow-up questions to trigger their own personal thoughts which they should post on Padlet. I guess this is one practical idea for using Thinglink in the ELT classroom as a whole-class activity. Another idea is to use this as some input and practice at home as part of a flipped classroom technique before learning how to write Discussion Essays in the classroom.
Would you consider using Thinglink as a mode of assessment? For a speaking exercise, say, giving a presentation, have students make their own Thinglinks based on the topic they are in charge of researching and present their findings to the class by just relying on the short sentences or phrases they put in the tags. This way you can say goodbye students' bad habits of reading aloud lines and lines of sentences (or even paragraphs) on PowerPoint and not actually using the L2.
Are there any limitations to using this tool?
As the links are pre-determined by the creator, when students work on a Thinglink generated by the teacher, they have limited choice on what to read and which websites to analyse. Certainly this hampers learner autonomy and sets barriers to resources they can use. However, in whole-class teaching with the restraints of time, you need to limit the materials you present. otherwise, students will just feel a loss of direction and would be confused of how to approach the task. On the other hand, you can easily compensate the lack of autonomy by asking students to create their own Thinglinks. Students then would have choice, means and a purpose for putting the target language to use.I hope this post gives you a glimpse of the magic you can do with Thinglink. Give it a shot and you'll get the tingles for Thinglink too!
5 comments
I thought that this kind of tool never did exist, or even if it did, it mush have involved complicated programming - which I would never be able to do. I find that this tool can help me in providing interactive content for my blog. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Adit. Yes, it's really easy to use these techy tools now, and it would be quite a loss not to "exploit" them in our classroom.
DeleteHey my blog buddy ! You have changed your background image and it looks nice:) back to the topic, thank you for introducing a new tool to us, you seems like fancy picture related webs. So do I !!! No wonder we are blog buddies haha😁 I also believe the power of picture in language teaching context, especially the exaggerate picture could capture students' eyes and deepen memory.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Lemon. Yes, pictures really do tap into the minds of the students and activate their prior knowledge. It's great for a pre-reading or pre-listening activity.
DeleteHello Priska,
ReplyDeleteIt is so interesting and inspiring when I first look at the links in the photos. It gives space for people to imagine. You have provided very detailed ideas of how integrating ThingLink in the classroom. Well constructed post that attract readers to continue reading without being bored.