In 2014 ThingLink worked hard to provide teachers and students with a powerful and flexible tool for teaching and learning that is useful across all content areas. Here are highlights of some of the amazing features available in the ThingLink Classroom, introduced this year.
Safe and Secure Browsing Environment
- Hide related images/disable comments function on scene pages
- Safe and secure classroom environment
- Students can only see images created by other students, teachers and images curated by ThingLink
- Maximum limits to Google Video search automatically applied
- Ability to unlist images from public
Organize your classrooms with groups
- Create groups for each class
- View student work and tag image to provide immediate feedback and for use as an assessment tool
- Promotes team collaboration
- Students can add comments to images and videos created by classmates
- Add unlimited number of students
*ThingLink for Video
- Tag and share videos from YouTube or Brightcove
- Copy & paste video URL and start tagging
- You can tag your images and videos with these rich media contents
- Access directly from your ThingLink profile
Flexible Student Login Options
Students can have an individual account without requiring email
- Students can login with their Google accounts
- Teachers can add students to their own classrooms by generating a set of usernames and passwords
Improved Apps Development
- Students can work on iOS and Android apps
- iOS and Android apps are not required to use ThingLink
- Gives ability to view and edit images created on desktop from tablet or mobile
- Work on projects at home or on class trips
*Icons Designed for your Classroom
- Over 100 preloaded icons for your collection:
- Education icons: numbers 1 to 10, letters A to E, math symbols, arrows & more
- Action icons: read, listen, watch, play, explore
- Social icons: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+
- Transparent icon: provides interactivity without icon
*Custom Icons
- Upload and use your own icons
- Custom icons differentiate learning and support unique teaching needs
- An unlimited number of custom icons can be uploaded
- Teachers and students can upload custom icons
Presentations Like Never Before
- Create a Channel of Interactive Images
- Add multiple interactive images to one Channel
- View as slideshow to make presentations interactive
- Unlimited interactive images can be included in a slideshow
- Add any image on ThingLink to a slideshow
- Can also be used to organize student work or class projects
Google Docs Integration
- Tag images with Google Drive
- Functions directly within image
- Docs, Forms, and Slides
*Background Image Replacement
- Replace an uploaded background image with another background image
- Tags, statistics and image URL remain unchanged
*Create Rich Text Tags
Add power to your tags with bold, italic and heading styles.
*ThingLink EDU Premium
Some features are available only through our premium account. EDU Premium is available for $35.00 per year with unlimited student users. Type SUSANTLEDU into the payment box to reduce the price to $28.00 as a thank you for reading this blog!
Coming Soon! District Invitation Codes
In the beginning of 2015 any district can request their own invitation links allowing teachers and students to use their Google ID or email to sign up to ThingLink’s Freemum EDU or Premium EDU account from desktop or mobile. A district association is free of cost and makes it easier for larger districts to manage group signups, administrators, and upgrades.
