Educator Perspectives on Four Unique Implementations of Pinterest in the Classroom

Location

Walsh B

Proposal Track

Practice Report

Session Format

Presentation

Abstract

The use of online discussion forums is a standard educational practice in a variety of courses with online components, though inspiring and maintaining participation in online discussion forums is a common problem for educators. Likewise, educators struggle with the outdated tools of Learning Management Systems, even while the Internet’s Web 2.0 evolution enters its second decade at its most dialogic, creative, and curatorial. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Pinterest are built around discussion, comments, reposting, and sharing of content, and some educators are using these social networks to harness this fervent atmosphere. Pinterest is a popular curatorial social network featuring “virtual pinboards,” wherein users “pin” images and links, sometimes with commentary appended. Pinterest users follow each other’s pinboards, commenting and repurposing content from them. This study of completed practice profiles four uses of Pinterest by educators and their experiences and perspectives of implementing it in online and blended classrooms. Pinterest was used as a discussion board, peer review module, and information repository, and qualitative and quantitative data gathered will be shared for each approach. The challenges of using public social media in education will be highlighted, as well as the educators’ recommendations for the successful implementation of Pinterest.

Keywords

Pinterest, social media, curatorial content, web 2.0, online discussion forums

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Oct 7th, 9:00 AM Oct 7th, 10:15 AM

Educator Perspectives on Four Unique Implementations of Pinterest in the Classroom

Walsh B

The use of online discussion forums is a standard educational practice in a variety of courses with online components, though inspiring and maintaining participation in online discussion forums is a common problem for educators. Likewise, educators struggle with the outdated tools of Learning Management Systems, even while the Internet’s Web 2.0 evolution enters its second decade at its most dialogic, creative, and curatorial. Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, and Pinterest are built around discussion, comments, reposting, and sharing of content, and some educators are using these social networks to harness this fervent atmosphere. Pinterest is a popular curatorial social network featuring “virtual pinboards,” wherein users “pin” images and links, sometimes with commentary appended. Pinterest users follow each other’s pinboards, commenting and repurposing content from them. This study of completed practice profiles four uses of Pinterest by educators and their experiences and perspectives of implementing it in online and blended classrooms. Pinterest was used as a discussion board, peer review module, and information repository, and qualitative and quantitative data gathered will be shared for each approach. The challenges of using public social media in education will be highlighted, as well as the educators’ recommendations for the successful implementation of Pinterest.