Intel Seeing Reason Tool

Image Source

There are various Intel Thinking Tools available to teachers to enhance their instructions.  One of Intel’s tools is called the Seeing Reason tool.  This tool allows students to create diagrams which show causality.  I was pretty excited when I found this Web 2.0 tool.

The teacher sets up the workspace for the students by assigning groups and passwords.  Students or groups working together then sign in and start creating their diagram.  Students put factors in boxes, choosing their color.  Then they link them together using the tool.  Colors and thickness of the arrows indicate the extent of the relationship.  When projects are complete, or even during the process, the teacher can leave comments about the diagram.

Summary Video

ThingLink - Graphic Representations of Knowledge in the Classroom

ThingLink can be used in many ways in the classroom.  A graphic can provide background knowledge or an introduction to content, where teachers can use a scavenger hunt to hold students accountable for their learning from the graphic.  The content introduced could be professional development for teachers, where there are numerous websites of tools they can explore. 

Students can create ThingLinks as an alternative to the standard report, especially a research report.   

At the beginning of the year, students can upload an avatar of themselves and tag the picture with information about themselves, as a get-to-know-you type of activity.  A teacher could upload a picture appropriate to a specific unit and each student is responsible for tagging the image with a particular piece of information and a supporting website.  Students could tag a picture with a relevant process/sequence.  They could create a ThingLink with a geographical location and tag it with historical, tourist, or political information.

I made 3 ThingLinks to be used as a part of a math unit, designed to give students practice in making their own word problems.  In the lesson, each student will pick one picture to write a word problem about, tagging it.  Here are the choices: Ballpark and Music. Here is the sample (which is also a possible choice):

81+ Interesting Ways to Use ThingLink in the Classroom

 Coming Soon: An example lesson plan

ThingLink

I learned about ThingLink through another teacher and wanted to explore it some more.

ThingLink is a user-friendly website that allows users to freely interact with images.  ThingLink describes it well as, “every image contains a story and ThingLink help you tell your stories.”

The user uploads an image to their account, and can immediately start tagging the picture with text comments or links to websites with videos or other content.  Various tags can be made anywhere on the image.  When the multimedia thinglink is shared, the receiver can hover over a tag to see the content, and click on the tag to go to the website.

What is ThingLink? video

How to Use ThingLink

Coming Soon: Ways to use ThingLink in the classroom!