Edmodo and Thinglink

     I spent the whole afternoon trying out the new tools suggested on the course website. I found two of them are very impressive: Edmodo and Thinglink. I had both of them download in my iPhone as well and played around while laying down with my huge belly. I am so excited about discovering their features.

    Edmodo is a Learning Management System. Compare to Blackboard, it is more suitable for k-12 educational settings. In Edmodo, students not only interact with teachers and peers but also can join the activity, complete assignment and take the test. Edmodo is a user-friendly system. The layout and the functions are already clearly presented on the main page. Teachers can choose from "note, assignment, poll, quiz, and snapshot" to make a new post. Edmodo allows teachers to design their own activities by adopting the given tools. One of my future career options is to be an online instructor teaching Mandarin to the world. I think Edmodo can be employed as my first platform to start. However, I knew there are many great learning management systems available as well such as Moodle, Schoology and etc. After participating the activities of EME 6414, I do like Edmodo's cool functions.

         Thinglink is the coolest tool I had tried ever in EME 6414. With Thinglink, people can make the interactive presentation. I feel Thinglink is similar as Prezi.  The difference is Prezi processing in an animation way. And the Thinglink is a multimedia demonstration. The reader can click to explore any related video, images or text. It will be so cool to employ it in the classroom. Here are some of my ideas. Students can use Thinglink as the "introduction project". With the free "image" media, students can upload their voice, pictures, background, and interest with the right icon.  Second, as the teacher, Thinklink can be a good tool to demonstrate a development process such as the development of a country, the water cycle and the work of human body system. With video, text, and images, students will be able to understand the concept with the holistic view. I can imagine Thinglink can make a huge difference in education. Thinglink is an amazing tool that you cannot miss as an educator !