Last updated on 27 March 2024
ThingLink is a magic wand on the web that will allow you to transform any image, any video into an incredible multimedia educational resource. One of my favorite tools regularly present in my Best of the best tools of the year.
Since my previous article, ThingLink has continued to evolve. The site is now fully available in French, thus removing the language barrier. New features have also been added, making the app even more powerful and easy to use to create immersive learning experiences and captivating.
Table of Contents
Insert multimedia into a photo to enrich an image
The possibilities for creating interactive images offered by ThingLink are almost unlimited. The principle you probably know. To use ThingLink, take a photo and then, using the built-in editor, add points of interest to it. On each of these points that you place wherever you want in the image, you can then insert a whole range of additional content: an explanatory text, an audio comment, a video, a link to a web page, a … quiz.
Imagine, for example, a historical photo. With ThingLink, it becomes the ideal medium for a history lesson unlike any other. By clicking on the different points of interest, students can discover the names of the characters, listen to a commentary, watch a film about the context, answer a mini-quiz about the event she evokes … A fun way to (re)visit an old photo from every angle!
Make an interactive video
ThingLink also makes it possible to integrate interactivity into videos. Imagine being able to enrich your video tutorials, your clips with contextual annotations, subtitles, tooltips, … links
The film editor follows the same logic as for images. You import your file and then use a timeline to position your interactive points of interest exactly where you want them to appear during viewing. A powerful way to add an extra dimension to your teaching materials.
For example, we can imagine a video in a foreign language including subtitling and the possibility to display the definition of certain vocabulary words.
Interactivity in 360° images
Using ThingLink also offers the ability to create 360° interactive images a place by inserting, again, additional multimedia content in an even more immersive environment. The resources created with ThingLink can be explored from a computer, but also on tablet or laptop and also with virtual reality headsets. Welcome to the future.
Ideal for guided tours for example, to allow your students to dive into a 360° panorama of a foreign city or learn more about a monument by clicking on points of interest.
The application works from any browser on the web. It also offers very successful versions for smartphones and tablets.
Various pedagogical uses
The uses are numerous by both you and your students. Handling is very fast and hassle-free.
ThingLink’s fields of application are vast and require only a little imagination to create activities that your students will love. In languages, you can enrich an image with audio conversations. In geography, an interactive map with tooltips. In science, a film showing an experiment with annotations. In history, an archive image with links to additional resources. For TPEs, presentations including texts, images, clips and quizzes in the same medium.
Teachers can make … augmented course materials and students can visually document a project or output in an interactive way.
An education version for school use
The platform offers an education version for teachers or even for an entire school.
With ThingLink Education, You can create a dedicated space for your class or school, and invite your students to create and share their achievements safely.
The tool is not, no longer, free of charge. A teaching licence for a whole year costs around 60 Euros. There are also licenses in number for establishments from 3 Eur per user.
Little consolation, the ThingLink team has provided for a very generous free trial period of 60 days.
With ThingLink, enrich your educational toolkit. Whether you're a primary, secondary or higher education teacher, ThingLink is clearly a utility to have in its digital nutshell. Easy to handle, hyperpolyvalent, it allows you to simply add a welcome dose of interactivity to all types of visual content used in class: images, infographics, videos, 360° content.
English
Hello Fidel,
It seems to me that the presentation of the site is in French, but the use of the tool is always in English. Unless there is a parameter to change that I have not found.
Simon,
You're absolutely right. I was not precise enough. At the moment only the site is in French, but the creator of Thinglink told me that she had contacted a French company to develop the tool at home. To be followed, then.
no way to have it in French
Hello, here is the reply from Thinglink received on this subject today:
Hello,
Unfortunately, at the moment ThingLink is not available in any language over English. We are planning to add some localizations in the future.
Best looks, »
Warning: as the platform is now paid for, any creation during the trial period then becomes unavailable to share …
I paid for it a few months ago! This is a great pity, because the principle and the rendering are very nice.