ThingLink for Interactive Books

#1 What is ThingLink?
ThingLink is a free user-friendly digital tool that allows us to create and share interactive images. All can be done effortlessly and quickly and one can turn any static image into a multimedia rich interactive graphic by adding video, other images, audio, links to different sources...
In addition to the coloured dots / nubbins, ThingLink now has more graphic icons - we can therefore choose the one that best suits our purpose when tagging images.

#2 ThingLink in the Classroom
Its uses in the classroom are limitless. We can use it for any subject, any grade! Depending on our goals, we can tag the information ourselves or use it as a collaborative tool and ask our students to add /tag info. I've used it before with maps, with famous paintings as you can read here; I've used it with students for introductions as well as to introduce myself.

#3 Using ThingLink for Reading Suggestions
An interesting way of using this innovative and flexible tool in the classroom is also for Reading recommendations and suggestions. Bring books to life by collecting resources, challenging students / potential readers with questions, highlighting important info, presenting the author!
"Gone Girl" is a book I've finished reading recently and absolutely loved it. By then I wrote a short review here (please scroll down as there are already over 100 books!) and once the movie is going to premiere in the beginning of October, I thought about recommending it beforehand :) Here it is:

I'd be very glad to hear from you! Thanks :)
Many thanks to Susan Oxnevad for the #TLChallenge 

Narrable in my classroom

What it is
Narrable is an online platform that allows users to create narrated slideshows. It is very user-friendly and teachers may now create free unlimited projects.

How to create Narrables

Fast and easy steps to follow:

1. Sign up

2. Click “Create” in the top-right corner

3. Upload photos, pictures, images to start with

4. Resize your pics, change order

5. Record audio or upload a file

6. Share your narrable if you wish – by email, on Facebook… I am embedding my first narrable below J

Here is also a Tutorial by the Narrable folks on how to create a narrable.

It’s no news that I am an avid reader and that I instill my students to read even if they start reading in Portuguese; it’s no news either that I love to showcase my students’ work, and not just what’s perfect, but our / their best efforts. Indeed, the students who have moved forward with these book recommendations belong to a very weak class yet they have shown some willingness to overcome their difficulties and improve. While recording – and some recordings took us well over 3 or 4 attempts – the students reported anxiety and trembling voices which says a lot about their commitment. They wish to feel proud of their work as they know it is going to be heard giving their best, even a special needs student included in this slideshow.  This has been our first attempt with narrable and, as such, for a new one, I will only use a mic and / or a mobile phone recording to add to the pics to improve sound quality.
Possible uses
Though I tend to use the web 2.0 tools I come across primarily for book recommendations in English (and in Portuguese for the school library), some other ideas for implementing this tool in the classroom are, for example, for digital storytelling, to tell a story using pics as prompts, to describe historical sites, to introduce yourself using personal pics, for physical description even if with avatars… an endless array of possibilities according to our goals, right?

Now my students' reading recommendations on Narrable.

Well, what do you think?