Thinglink Wins 2017 EdTechXGlobal Rise Award For Promoting Mobile 360 Storytelling in Schools

ThingLink, 360 interaction application, was announced as a winner of the EdTechXGlobal All Stars Rise Award in London.

Winning the EdTechXGlobal All Stars Rise Award was a very nice recognition for the company taking into account that they competed again almost 180 edtech startups. EdTechXEurope, the largest education technology summit in Europe, held its fifth edition at Kings Place in London. The Award is determined by a global panel of judges, evaluating various factors including revenue growth, scale, innovation and market impact. For each category, the awards showcase the top three start-ups across segmentation, geography and industry trends. Besides ThingLink, two Finnish companies and one Estonian company made it to the top 1o.

Started in Finland, ThingLink built a dynamic platform enabling image augmentation and mobile 360 storytelling for online publishers and 2.5 million teachers and students in 190 countries. In May 2016 ThingLink launched a new editor for enriching 360 photos with additional information.

The editor is often used in schools to easily build interactive 360 learning experiences for tablets or virtual reality viewing. Thousands of students around the world have generated rich audio-visual tours and lessons about nature or historical and cultural sites.

“Although different kinds of virtual experiences can support contextual understanding and orientation of the learners, letting students become storytellers introduces various opportunities for learning”, says Ulla Engestrom, ThingLink founder and CEO.

Here is an example of the Koulu360 project in Savonlinna Finland, where students have created a virtual culture trail documenting museums, churches, historic statues and the castle of Savonlinna.

“Creating an interactive virtual tour is a project that requires planning, creativity, and collaboration using mobile technology. Interactive 360 storytelling directly supports the development of the new literacy skills of the 21st century learner.” – commented Engestrom.

Although the ThingLink editor was targeted to teachers and students, the applications for it have no borders. At ArcticStartup we used it to showcase our largest event Arctic15. Here’s how it looks: