ThingLink Mobile – New Ways to Explain Student Work!

Screen Shot 2013-05-24 at 8.19.15 PMI read on Twitter that ThingLink had released a mobile app, so I wanted to give it a try.  If you know me, you know ThingLink has become my very favorite “pre-teaching” tool this year.

Once I downloaded the app on my iPad, I searched through my camera roll for an image to link some things to.  I stumbled upon some digital samples of student work from the “scratchpad” feature built in to the HMH Fuse App we used as a textbook this year in my Algebra classes.  To test ThingLink Mobile, I chose a sample showing student work for solving and graphing a 1-step inequality.

As I strategically placed my first nubbin 😉 I thought, why not have students create work using a drawing app, then use these “work images” in ThingLink Mobile to explain their thinking?  I have to admit… I did not plan this strategy at all… it just kind of happened!  I’m excited to give it a try, and I think it has great classroom potential!

Since students will generate their own mathematical work on a specific topic by “drawing” it, the math symbol issue that rears its ugly head so often when integrating technology and mathematics becomes a non-issue.  Kids can explain anything they can draw themselves!  On the flip side, with students using text in ThingLink to explain their mathematical steps, they’re forced to use language to describe their work succinctly.  Again, math syntax is a non-issue because we’d want kids to explain their thinking in sentences.  And how cool is it that a “nubbin” can be strategically placed within work without covering it up?  Imagine having many of these student-generated-and-annotated work samples for students to reference – what a cool way to study and review!

Filing this strategy away for the fall!  What do you think?

Curious about other strategies for using ThingLink in the classroom?  Check out this ThingLink Doc.

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6 Responses to ThingLink Mobile – New Ways to Explain Student Work!

  1. Kirstyn says:

    I love this idea! How do you hold each student accountable for their work? That is, do you check each one of these? That can translate into A LOT of time! And, if you do check them, how? Do they put it in your Dropbox? Do you access each iPad?

    • Cathy Yenca says:

      Hi Kirstyn!

      Since ThingLink Mobile is so new, and our school year is over, I haven’t yet used this idea with students. ThingLinks can be embedded online, so my plan might be to have students e-mail me the html code so I can embed these on my website for students to explore and discuss. Also, this could simply be formative, and perhaps one ThingLink could be created collaboratively by a small group of students, so there aren’t hundreds of these things. I thought it might be a good way to do a “jigsaw” to review for a test – have small groups each create one, present them to the class during review time, and afterwards I can embed them all online. Then students can access all of them to help review for an assessment on their own. Just some ideas I’m tossing around…

  2. T. Miller says:

    So does each student have a thinglink account? Or do you give them access to your account? Or is there a way to link your students’ accounts to yours?

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