This week I was tasked with trying two new things – creating
a Thinglink and creating a narrated tutorial using Adobe Spark.
Before Sunday, I had never heard of Thinglink so I had
absolutely no idea what I was to be creating. Once I created my account, and
had some time to experiment and play around with it, I was not too impressed. I only signed up for the free account and
felt that what I could do with it was limited.
I would have liked to have added text to my Thinglink but couldn’t do
that without a bullet. I don’t like that
you have to add a bullet to add another picture, video, or text box. On a positive note, as I was putting my
Thinglink together, I was thinking of ways I could use it in my own classroom,
and I came up with several. One way I
can see using Thinglink is as a virtual tour of my library. I’d like to take a picture, or two, or three,
and post them on my Thinglink and then I’d add bullets to explain library
procedures and where books and different items are located throughout the library. This would help greatly at the beginning of
each school year when the new 6th graders arrive. It’s always a challenge to get 12 different
ELA classes down to the library for orientation the first few weeks of school
and this would alleviate the need to bring down each class; students can just
access my Thinglink via my school website and take their own virtual tour. This would also work for any new student that
comes at the start of the school year or throughout the year. Another way I can see using a Thinglink is as
an author study. I’d like to create a new
Thinglink each month that highlights a different author. The bullets would provide information such as
a link to their website, a list of books the author wrote, maybe a video
interview, etc. Again this information
could be accessed via my school website.
I also had the opportunity to create a narrated tutorial
using Adobe Spark. I already have
experience using Adobe Spark so creating the narrated tutorial was easy. Unlike my experience with Thinglink, I think
Adobe Spark is very user friendly. I
much prefer it over Thinglink. Once I
decided upon my topic and selected my pictures, the hardest part for me was
choosing the theme only because there were so many options. After I decided upon the theme, added the
pictures, and recorded the narration, I added some background music. Again, this also took some time because of
all the different options available. I
do think the music adds a nice touch though and I’m glad I took the time to
listen to the different options. Making
changes to my video was very easy through Adobe Spark. I had to re-record two slides just because my
narration was longer than the amount of time the picture was displayed. I was able to add a few seconds to the
picture display and record my narration again with no problem. I can totally see myself creating a narrated
tutorial using Adobe Spark. The ease
makes it really nice to use. I think it
is a great way to highlight information from previously taught lessons. By adding the link to the Adobe Spark video
on my school website, students can easily access it from anywhere. You can also use the video feature of Adobe
Spark if you are in a flipped classroom environment. It would be easy to create and upload videos
to your website that students can access from home and watch before the next
day’s class.
My building is going 1:1 next year so it will be easy for my
students to access both Thinglink and Adobe Spark videos from their own
devices. Had we not been moving into the
1:1 realm, my building has several laptop carts, iPad carts, and desktop
computers where students can access information from either online
presentation. I’m not sure if I’d use
either of these tools for assessment purposes as I just don’t think either will
meet my content needs. I do see myself
using them (or at least Adobe Spark videos) for instructional purposes and
using them as a tool to share, teach, and/or review information.
Have you ever tried either of these online presentation tools? If so, how do you use them in the classroom?
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