Thinglink
In this application, the user add dots to a photo which are links to other sites. This application is great for highlighting information in a fun and easy way to access it. It was easy for me to create a thinglink, and it lent itself perfectly to the government unit that we were doing in Social Studies. The students thought it was a lot of fun to click on the different links of the picture of the White House and play games, see videos, and read about the White House and the president. They were very engaged. Reflecting on their experience, it was good because they could click on the activities which interested them, and play the games that they wanted to play. Choice is important for engagement, and this app offers choice. I think it might be difficult for third graders to find the links to put a thinglink together safely by themselves, which may be the reason why D90 has it on its not safe list for students. This application can be used for other topics in Social Studies and in Science. We will be studying Native American tribes next and making a thinglink for a specific tribe would be a great way to provide additional research materials.
We've used it with our 3rd graders. You'd be surprised- I bet your students would pick it up quickly. Nevertheless, this is a great repository of extension information for units that you do. The beauty of it is you can build a catalog of these all year long that remain available to the students! And....you know I love your blog titles....!
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