In case you don’t know what Pinterest is, it is best described as a virtual bulletin board on which you can collect your favorite ideas in the form of images. The surging tide of Pinterest users in the last year has caused much speculation on blogs and news channels about what will happen next with this site. Lately, I have been seeing sprinklings of suggestions for ways Pinterest can be used to benefit students in the classroom. You can see a good infographic on this at EdTech Digest: 16 Ways Educators Use Pinterest.
When I first started using Pinterest, I obsessively pinned items in my account, destined to become a virtual hoarder. I finally realized I wanted to create boards in a less haphazard fashion, and started a new account. It is definitely a work in progress, but you are welcome to take a peek at my “pins” at http://pinterest.com/terrieichholz/
I showed my fifth graders my “Favorite Quotations” board a couple of weeks ago, and had a difficult time transitioning them to a new subject after that! They wanted to read and discuss every quotation, copy some of them into their notebooks, and write the URL of my board down so they could look at it from home.
Due to filtering issues, it can be difficult to use the actual Pinterest site in many districts. Here is a page that gives some suggestions for working around that. Also, be warned that there is a copyright controversy brewing over the site. Despite the possible pitfalls, at the very least, Pinterest can be used to help teachers to share ideas. But, I would also like my students to be able to access my own board to inspire their learning. Having a classroom account would be even better for collaboration and research.
I would love to hear your ideas on the use of Pinterest in the classroom!
