How to: ThingLink

Category: Blog, Branches and Groups, SLG Scotland

Over the next few months CILIPS SLG will be highlighting useful tools to our members.  Please email us at SLGScotland@gmail.com  or tweet @SLGScotland for any additional support, or to suggest a tool for us to highlight. 

What is ThingLink?  

ThingLink is a free education technology platform that turns any image into an interactive graphic. 

How is it useful? 

ThingLink will help you create interactive educational content that really engages pupils. You can create a virtual bookshelf, showcase your library in a 360 degree tour or create your own escape room. It can help you unite all of your digital resources – YouTube videos, Wakelets, photos, audio clips and websites – in one location. 

Your creations stay private unless you choose to share them. You can organise your ThingLinks into different folders to make them easier to find. 

When you’re finished your ThingLink, you get a shareable link. This can be included in school newsletters or shared on virtual learning platforms like Teams. If you insert the link as a tab on a Teams channel, it means pupils can explore your ThingLink without leaving Teams. 

The web-based version provides the most usability, but ThingLink is also available as an app. 

Here are some examples of how Pamela McLean (Librarian at St Ninian’s High School, Kirkintilloch) uses ThingLink: 

Good to Know 

ThingLink is great for accessibility. Every bit of text is linked to an immersive reader where viewers can adjust the way the text looks and the way the reader sounds. As the creator, you also have the option to record audio to accompany any text. 

It’s also brilliant for pupils who speak and read English as an additional language, as the immersive reader has a translation option for over 60 different languages.