When it comes to distance or hybrid learning, creating organized spaces for your students to access their learning is one of the most powerful things you can do. Of the many ways to make this happen, setting up a clickable virtual classroom tops the list. You have likely seen, or maybe even created, a Bitmoji classroom, which is a great example of such a space. If you are wondering how to further optimize your virtual real estate, this post will walk you through constructing a three-dimensional online classroom using Thinglink. Especially if your students are already familiar with your classroom, this could be a great way to maintain consistency across settings and tap into the power of students' spatial intelligence.
i. Create a list of resources you want students to have access to.
Don't worry about making an exhaustive list right off the bat. This can, and likely will be, an ongoing inventory you're frequently updating. Think about essentials as well as enrichment. Some examples:
Daily Slides
Daily Schedule
Book List
Vocabulary Words
Unit Overview
ii. Match up spaces in your classroom with your list items.
These spaces are going to be the locations to hyperlink the corresponding resources. Look for where these already exist. For example, do you want your students to have access to the daily schedule? This is likely already posted on your wall! If there are items on the list that don't have their own spaces in the classroom, go ahead and think about where they potentially could go, even if more figuratively than literally. For example, if you listed daily slide sets as an important resource, maybe they could be tied to a computer, or a calendar.
Other potential spots for linking:
Anchor Charts
Shelves
Bulletin Boards
Cabinets
Desks
Speakers
Whiteboards
SMART boards
Doors
Activity Centers
Manipulatives
1. Stage your room.
Stand in the middle of your room. Spinning in place to get a full view, make sure all the areas of interest are visible and clear from where you stand.
2. Take a 360 degree photo of your classroom.
Using an app such as Google Street View, capture the space. You may want to put some tape on the ground
where you stand, to make sure your vantage point stays consistent, and to minimize any glitchy-looking spots in the photo. Also, for privacy purposes, make sure you don't publish the photo to the web when you're done; instead, save it to your camera roll.
3. Upload your 360 photo to Thinglink.
You'll want to create an account if you don't already have one. When you're ready to upload, go to Create > Upload 360/VR Image.
4. Get busy linking!
You can review Thinglink's help articles for detailed explanations of linking resources to your image.
5. Share with students.
If you would like your students to have access to your Thinglink through a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Google Classroom, then you'll want to generate a shareable link. You can share this on Google Classroom just like you would any other URL. Here's what it would like if you choose this option. If you would like to upload it to a Content Management System (CMS) such as a teacher website, you'll want to embed the Thinglink directly on the destination page (This is the option used below for this post).
As you can see in the example below, the picture isn't perfect, but that's okay! It should still give you an idea of the tool's capabilities. One of the helpful things about 3-D Virtual Thinglink Classroom is that your Thinglink will update wherever you have it linked/embedded, so you can feel free to continue adding or editing as you see fit without worrying about having to republish it on your LMS/CMS. Another awesome feature of Thinglink is its "Tour" capability, in which you can embed other Thinglinks within your Thinglink. So if you're acing this how-to, then go on with your creative self, and experiment with creating a multilayered virtual classroom, or maybe even collaborate to create a virtual hallway or school! With a little bit of time, your students will be soaring thanks to the layout and organization provided by your 3-D Virtual Classroom. Let us know how it goes! Tag us on Instagram, and/or comment with your students' response to their new virtual space.
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