ThingLink

My Top 5 iPad Apps For 2015

Simon McKenzie

(#Bloggermore2015 2/26)

To Australian readers … I hope you are enjoying our national holiday; even though, in most parts of the nation, tomorrow will see students returning to school for the first day of the new school year. I thought this might be an opportune time to share five of my favourite iPad apps; apps that will have a big role to play in my year. One is new (at least to me) while the rest are returning for another year of great service.

1. ThingLink continues to introduce new features at regular intervals. The ability to take an image or video and add a variety of links (such as further images, information, video or questions) has countless possibilities in the classroom. I have found ThingLink particularly useful for teaching visual literacy and interpretation in Senior History. If you’ve never seen a ThingLink, this link will take you to one of mine

https://www.thinglink.com/scene/311319169452736514

2. Socrative provides teachers with the opportunity to quickly create quizzes or polls. Students can easily respond either from the companion app or from any Web browser. Socrative will even email you the results with valuable analysis. Great too for exit tickets and for younger students there’s the Space Race game … which I’ve been known to play with very enthusiastic Year 12s!

3. Trading Cards quickly became one of my favourites. As the name would imply, teachers and students can make trading cards for a range of uses. The cards are especially useful for student revision but are also a novel way to deliver otherwise “dry” content. A great app from ReadWriteThink; the partially completed example below shows you the possibilities …

Trading Cards; great for History but suitable for all subjects and ages.

Trading Cards; great for History but suitable for all subjects and ages.

4. Weebly will undoubtedly be familiar to many of you and it continues to be my “go to” app for building websites. You will also find that students quickly adapt to the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) design method. Once published, the site can be accessed from any device. The available features in Weebly are too numerous to list here but the link below will take you to one of my sites as an example. (*You should consider, as I have done, buying a PRO subscription for even more features.)

http://elsinoreinashmore.weebly.com

5. Workflow is the new kid on my block. I’m certainly not an experienced user of this app but I’m excited about the possibilities for time impoverished teachers. Workflow allows you to “connect apps and actions together to automate things you do on your device. To build a workflow, just drag and drop.” You can add any workflow to your home screen as an “app” and then launch it with a tap. Check it out; I’m sure you’ll be as impressed and excited (or is that relieved?) as I am.

Well, that’s it for #Bloggermore2015 2/26 … I’ll be back within two weeks for another exciting instalment.

QHTA: Digital Tools for Visual Literacy

Simon McKenzie

Today, June 22 was the first day of school holidays but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to be a presenter at the QHTA (Queensland History Teachers’Association) Annual Conference. The day began with an engaging if occasionally controversial keynote by journalist and author, Anthony Lowenstein who spoke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I also enjoyed a presentation by University of Queensland Classics lecturer, Dr. Tom Stevenson who discussed the life of Hypatia of Alexandria.

I presented a one hour session on three of my favourite digital tools, ThingLink, Pinterest and, of course, Haiku Deck. All three work well together and have been extremely useful and well received in my History classes. For those who participated in my session, the presentation (as promised) is embedded below. Of course, it is also available for my other, regular readers. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can offer any clarification or assistance. Two more presentations in the next few weeks … so I was never going to have a holiday anyway!

 

Digital Tools for Visual Literacy in the History Classroom

Using ThingLink and Hello Slide

Simon McKenzie

One significant part of my role as the Learning Technologies Coordinator at my school is in providing teachers with instruction in the use of effective Web 2.0 tools. Across 2012 I have presented a number of voluntary out-of-hours PD sessions for those interested in building their skill set. One of the best attended sessions focused upon the use of QR Codes, ThingLink and SoundGecko, all of which I have used in my own History and English classrooms.

ThingLink certainly became an instant hit as it allows the user to embed images, videos, links and sounds into an image. The resulting interactive image can be easily shared and, as many of you would already know, it now can be used with both Twitter and Facebook. In my Senior Ancient History class I found ThingLink to be particulary effective in assisting students to “unpack” an artifact. One of the first ThingLinks that I created was of a well known statue from Aphrodisias in Turkey which portrays the emperor Nero and his infamous mother, Agrippina the Younger. This image is embedded below as an example for you to explore. Simply “hover” your mouse over the image and the links will become visible.

Although there are subscription packages available, ThingLink Education offers teachers free accounts with the ability to create up to 100 images. To become a member, simply go to www.thinglink.com

SoundGecko and QR Codes also have myriad uses. To learn a little about these you might wish to view the presentation which follows. It was created with one of my new favourites, Hello Slide, an easy way to turn a PowerPoint presentation into a narrated short video. It’s another great Web 2.0 tool for you to check out, either for your own use or for when the introverts you teach struggle with speaking in front of the class. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to post them here or email me.