Using ThingLink for Powerful Professional Development

My toolkit is filled with interactive graphics I’ve created and packed with resources. I use these to successfully jump start the learning of busy educators in places near and far. I frequently update and adapt the resources in my toolkit. They grow with me.

I will be sharing some of my favorite  ThingLink Powered PD resources during a webinar on Tuesday, September 23rd at 8:00 PM EDT. Dan Gallagher will be providing assistance as our webinar moderator so I can share what I’ve created clearly and efficiently for participants to enjoy. 

Can’t make the live broadcast? Sign up to receive the archived video. 

Explore This  Channel of Professional Development Resources

• Great Ways to Use Google Drive
• Digital Differentiation – Flexible Learning Paths
• SAMR Through a Variety of Lenses
• + More

//www.thinglink.com/channelcard/570636444830269442

I hope you will join our next ThingLink Webinar to explore my Toolkit of ThingLink Powered PD Resources. Can’t make the live broadcast? Sign up and receive the archived video. 

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Engage Students in Informed Decision Making

With access to an abundance of online resources, students can become informed decision makers and stakeholders in their own learning.  Use of online polls, surveys, and digital tools for collecting feedback can turn passive observers into active participants. 

The ThingLink Teacher Challenge this week asked educators to explore the use of an interactive image for informing and collecting feedback from an audience. We introduced Polldaddy as an integrated tool for the task. Polldaddy is an excellent choice because rich-media tags support embedding of a poll into an interactive image, allowing the poll to pop up without leaving the page. Of course, there are many web tools available for collecting feedback and any of those tools can be linked to a ThingLink interactive image.

Examples of Using ThingLink for Informed Decision Making

Participants self-published their interactive images on the Padlet wall linked below. Many participants chose to create interactive images to share tech tools and collect feedback about popular choices, which makes the images particularly useful for teachers as we approach the start of the school year. I hope you will explore the Padlet and watch it grow as more participants add images. There is a wealth of expertise here!

Final Thoughts

As we kick off a new school year I encourage teachers to consider creating activities to inform students and collect feedback as alternative to traditional homework assignments. Completing this type of activity prior to class can maximize instructional time and it is certainly more interesting than a worksheet. Just think about the possibilities that exist with ThingLink and tools for collecting feedback!

7 Questions to Inspire Thinking and Ideas: ThingLink App

I had the opportunity to “lead” #1to1ipadchat,with Dena Gynn last week. Follow @Glynn_ed 

In preparation for the event, Dena advised me to write 6 questions to guide a discussion and provide examples. I did that and I also scheduled the timed released tweets through Tweet Deck. These tips from Dena helped tremendously.




I wondered if the prep would help me follow the conversation, since I’ll admit I have a 
difficult time keeping up with Twitter Chats. I did see my questions in the hashtag feed, but they were just there. I don’t think anyone responded, but I did notice some people retweeting them. Still, the answers and questions were hard to follow. We were all talking about other things, and that was a good thing too.

A New View of the Questions & Examples

To organize and share the questions and examples from the Twitter Chat I used a Google Form as a model for a content delivery method that works well with learners, young and old. This Google Form is designed to introduce ideas and provide the opportunity for feedback. 

If you please, you can view the questions and examples without actually responding to any of them. Click on the icon or link and you will be taken away from this blog to the Google form where all questions are optional and feedback is appreciated! 

The Form | Think | View Examples |Get Inspired |Connect 

View live form

6 Ways to Use ThingLink Hashtags

ThingLink hashtags provide teachers and students with a way to easily organize ThingLink content within a safe learning environment. ThingLink hashtags are handy searchable smart phrases that can be used to accomplish some important classroom tasks.


Read more on the ThingLink Blog…

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.

My First ThingLink SlideShow & Calendar

//www.thinglink.com/channelcard/473490904238260225
Click the side arrows to view this ThingLink_EDU Slideshow

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