Pinterest is a digital pinboard application that allows users to discover, collect, share, and store pictures and links to websites from multiple resources. Individuals can, upon creating an account, create various boards devoted to topics assigned by the user. These boards can be used for a variety of means, such as to develop projects, store ideas, organize events, and save pictures and data. For educational purposes, boards can also be used in a multitude of ways. For instance, a teacher could save resources regarding content area topics for students to use in an assignment, creating sort of a pseudo WebQuest. Teachers could also use it to share resources and information that is helpful to the class but not required. Students could also use Pinterest to present somewhat of a digital poster and/or bibliography, allowing students to both visually and textually demonstrate their knowledge as well as provide a way to collaborate and share.
Like most registrations for apps, Pinterest is incredibly easy to set up. Once I entered a username, email, and password, there was a tutorial to learn how to use Pinterest or the option to immediately starting pinning. Another available option is to link the account to a Facebook account, thus improving the ability to share with others.
The overall set up is extremely user-friendly. There is a search bar that, once something is entered, also suggests related tags to help users find what they are looking for. When I clicked on a pin, a window popped up that enabled me to go back, favorite the item, place a location on the item, Facebook it, or even more. This was all in addition to pinning the item to my own board. Another feature is that the boards are able to be made secret, if the user so chooses. Comments are able to be added to the bottom of pins, often including information regarding what the pin itself is about or could be used for. It really is a great way to organize a lot of information in a visually pleasing way.
I very easily designed a board relating an upcoming mythology unit that I am teaching. For my students, I could easily use this to store resources found by students on upcoming units. I could also use it as project in and of itself: students could be asked to pin five links relating to their topic as well as five pictures, storing it on a board. This could provide them not only an opportunity to engage with new technology but to also practice their digital literacy skills at identifying valid and reliable resources. Then, students could look at other student boards in order to learn about the topics that other students researched. I also like the idea of students creating boards to share information on interests with one another, or having a class account with boards focused on information from units as well as class-related materials.
A screenshot of the board created by my school’s librarian.
While I certainly like the creativity of incorporating Pinterest to promote student engagement and motivation, I feel like this resource better serves me as a tool for collecting ideas about behavior management, instructional strategies, and general classroom activities than for student use. However, my intern school’s library uses Pinterest as a resource for students to find out what new books are coming out as well as a reference for other resources, which I think is another creative way to use the program.
My bPortfolio 