In order for Thinglink to work on a website or blog I needed to embed a Thinglink code in the template by following directions on the site. The directions were clear and the task was accomplished before I knew it was done.
I remained logged in to Thinglink at the same time as I logged in to my blog in order to tag an image already in a blog post. When I scrolled over the image the Thinglink menu appeared which allows users to edit tags, and share or embed the image. I was immediately successful adding a link on the image. See the image on Ontario Library Association Launches New Website!
I experienced difficulty when I decided to add a page to the website and was unable to tag using Thinglink on the new page. I returned to the Thinglink site uploaded a photograph (one click uploading using Flickr images or an image URL) and proceeded to add tags linking Youtube videos, Soundcloud recordings, a web site and web pages directly to the image on the Thinglink site. I saved the image on Thinglink and used the menu offered on the image to access the embed code which worked instantly when I added it to the HTML of a new post.
The Thinglink dashboard allows editing tags and offers statistics for your images in the form of a graph or a list of clicks, views and hovers.
Thinglink is a new tool with benefits over the simple addition of notes found on Flickr. “The main benefit to ThingLink seems to be that it offers granular contextual information about objects inside images.” (MacManus, 2011, para.5) The amount of detail and opportunity to link to a variety of sources of information creates an exciting platform for both teachers and students.
