Last week ThingLink, one of my most favorite edtech tools, released a significant update to one of their most active communities: Education. Be sure to check out the following new features that take this resource to the next level:

» Google Plus login.

» Student sign-up: Teachers can now register new students on their behalf.  The students do not need to have a working email address, yet they all will receive an individual user account.

» Automatic group creation via teacher sign-up: Teachers will automatically receive one group to which they can add students by listing their names.

» Automatic teacher and student sign-up based on email domain. School districts can now apply for ThingLink Educational status—which means that students can automatically sign up with their own accounts and receive teacher/student privileges.

» Safe browsing environment: When a user is assigned student status, they can only view images created by other people with student status, teacher status, or images specifically curated by the ThingLink Staff.  This affects search, streams, hashtags, and channels.

» Google Video safe search: If the user is assigned student status, we automatically apply the maximum limits to Google Video search.

But wait… There’s more!

The next three weeks are going to be all about ThingLink for educational use. In fact, Susan Oxnevad has been named ThingLink’s guest blogger for February and March. In addition to insightful articles, Susan will also create video tutorials and demonstrate how teachers can make the best use of the new features. Check out her first article on Creating Interactive Albums with ThingLink’s new Channel feature.

Stay tuned for many more tips and tricks related to integrating ThingLink into classroom activities!