News from ISTE: ThingLink gives educators free early access to its new video editor

This post was written by Ulla Engestrom and originally published on the ThingLink Blog.

Exciting news: in the past months we have been hard at work building a new editor for annotating video content with rich media. The new editor allows users to add notes and links to existing video content, and this way turn video into a digital discovery platform.

An early access to ThingLink for Video is announced at ISTE, one of the largest international conferences for educational technology. We at ThingLink believe that interactive images and video will become the 21st century textbook, and teachers are driving this change by being fast adopters of, not only new technology, but also a new way of thinking. As the use of video in education grows, ThingLink is empowering teachers and students to easily create interactive video content and facilitate in-video conversations.

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The Ultimate Word Wall with ThingLink & Padlet

I am fortunate to be working with an amazing group of educators this summer for the ThingLink Teacher Challenge. This week's challenge to design an activity to  help students Dig Deeper Into Vocabulary, a topic I am very passionate about.

I also love Word Walls and have been using them for as long as I can remember. While I was once frustrated by trying to keep taped images up on a physical wall, I now find the process to be streamlined and slick with the help of one of my favorite tools, Padlet

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My Interactive PD Calendar - Created with ThingLink

I've been engaging in some constructive play and exploring the use of the new custom icons and slides available at ThingLink EDU. 

My first slideshow is an interactive Professional Development Calendar. I believe the calendar will be able to grow with me throughout the year and I think it will be a lot of fun to use.

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Kick It Up a Notch with Google Docs

I used ThingLink to organize and put together some useful resources for Google Docs for learning. Scroll your mouse over this interactive image to explore the resources.

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A ThingLink Toolkit for Teachers

I am excited to share a ThingLink Teacher Toolkit of Resources.

The toolkit is designed to provide teachers and students with all the resources needed to use ThingLink as an efficient and effective tool for teaching and learning.

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An Interactive Thanksgiving Image

I used ThingLink to create an interactive graphic for Thanksgiving.

Feel free to use it, embed it into your own site, and use the comments section of the blog to send me links you feel would be great additions to the graphic.

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Edublogs 2012 Nominations

Nominations for 2012 Edublog Awards are open. 
The purpose of the Edublog Awards is to 
"promote and demonstrate the educational values of these social media." 



The nomination process supports the goal of the contest because it requires nominations via a blog post with a follow up link to that post submitted to Edublogs. What a great way to share, discover and credit the folks whose work inspires us and contributes to our own success!

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Research Tool Added to Google Presentation

Good news for Google Docs users! The powerful integrated research tool made available in the Google Document last spring has made it's way to the Google Presentation at last. The tool couldn't be easier to use. Just pull down the Tools menu, click on Research and search for information in the research pane that appears on the right side of the screen. Users never have to leave the page.

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Digital Tools for Differentiating Vocabulary: K12Online

If you're looking for innovative ways to use free and user friendly digital tools to help students acquire vocabulary, please check out my session, Digital Tools for Differentiating Vocabulary Instruction at the K12OnlineConference. While you're there you are sure to discover more terrific 20 minute sessions, available for viewing at your convenience.

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Susan Oxnevad ‏@soxnevad

Teaching vocabulary today? Get ideas to "Kick it Up a Notch" at #k12online12 conference. http://bit.ly/Shhp1i  #DigLN  #elearning  #innovate

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TeachEm: Create Guided YouTube Lessons

TeachEm is a free and user friendly digital tool that allows users to capture YouTube content, organize it, and add time stamped flashcards to guide the learning. It's simple, smart and efficient which makes it a good tool for busy teachers interested in implementing a Flipped Classroom instructional model.

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Common Core Connections: Using Multimedia to Present Knowledge & Ideas

Technology can be a powerful tool to help us meet the Common Core Standards and move our students forward to prepare them for success in school and beyond. In general, the Common Core calls for the seamless integration of technology into the curriculum. There are also specific Common Core standards dedicated to using technology. The Speaking and Listening strand across all grade levels asks students to create presentations that are enhanced by a spiraling complexity of multimedia components.

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The Social Side of ThingLink

The folks at ThingLink have recently released some social features to make sharing and collaborating on interactive images a breeze. Please roll your mouse over the image below to explore this ThingLink image and learn more.

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Explore the Great Barrier Reef: Google Wonders Project

The Google Wonders Project is an interactive website that allows visitors to discover many of the wonders of the world. Virtual visitors can get off the beaten path and explore wonders from 6 continents up close through Google's amazing street view technology. Virtual visitors can find factual information, stunning images, 3-D models and YouTube videos right on the page, which makes the World Wonders Project an amazing teaching tool.

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Spin Xpress: Search for Creative Commons Images

Students today have had easy access to a tremendous amount of multimedia content for their entire lives and it's fairly safe to say that they can be careless about using it. When asked to create multimedia projects for school, many students simply search topics and use whatever they can find without giving much thought to copyright unless it has been addressed and reinforced by their teachers. It's never too early to start teaching students about copyright, fair use and Creative Commons.

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Electing a President - An Interactive Graphic

I created an interactive graphic to provide students and their teachers with flexible paths to learn about electing a president and the electoral college. The image was created with ThingLink. I used some of the new storytelling icons to identify different types of resources.

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Common Core Connections: Unpacking Academic Vocabulary

Are you wondering where to begin to adopt the Common Core Vocabulary Standards? While there are many specific vocabulary standards clearly listed in the K-12 Language strand, it's helpful and important to look at Academic Vocabulary from the big picture view known as Shift 6. Let's unpack it.

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Google Docs New Integrated Research Tool

Google Docs has many useful features for helping students develop writing skills. When I recently opened a Google Document to plan a teacher training on Using Google Docs to Facilitate a Writing Workshop I was pleasantly surprised to find a new and powerful integrated research feature which couldn't be easier to use. Just pull down the Tools menu, click on Research and search for information in the research pane that appears on the right side of the screen. Users never have to leave the page.

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Back to School With Google Docs

Last year all of the students in our school district received Google Docs accounts and I was kept quite busy all year getting students up and running and then finding innovative ways to use the tools for learning. Upon reflection,if I got the opportunity to do it all over again there are three things I would make sure to do at the start of the year to kick off Google Docs. 

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ThingLink & Mentor Mob: Nice Integration Feature

Last week I learned that the folks at ThingLink and MentorMob had done some work together to integrate their tools, making it possible to embed a MentorMob playlist directly into a ThingLink graphic. After experimenting a bit I decided to remix some of the content I've been using for years to teach digital citizenship and the result is the creation of Avatar Adventure. For me, the exciting part about designing this learning activity was being able to create something that other people could understand and use. And yes, I certainly learned a lot as I was designing the activity.

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Avatar Adventures: An Interactive Learning Opportunity

I created an interactive learning experience designed to provide students and teachers with opportunities to focus on digital citizenship while engaging in constructive play. I hope many will enjoy using it, contributing to it and interacting with it.


Many thanks to those who have already contributed content!

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