The Point of Pinterest in Education

When I first started using Pinterest I posted on some of the potential uses of it in 'Putting the Pinterest in Education'.  Pinterest has continued to increase in its use and a greater number of ways in which it is being used are emerging.  At the bottom of this post is a recent infographic that highlights 16 ways in which educators use Pinterest (taken from www.onlineuniversities.com).  The 16 ways are discussed in relation to four key areas of curating content, organising ideas, calloborating with others, and students' use of Pinterest.

Despite my original optimism for the potential use of Pinterest I have begun to find certain issues with it, all relating to the four key areas noted above.  Firstly, in terms of curating content, I have issues with finding information quickly on Pinterest.  There is a search function, but search results can still turn up a large number of pins and/or multiples of the same graphic.  Attempts to find relevant pins can be quite time-consuming, especially considering the large size of some of the graphics and then having to scroll down through them.  In certain instances search results do not show up any relevant pins at all.  Also, as an educational researcher, I would like to use Pinterest more in terms of my research work to share links to useful research articles under particular boards.  However, I feel many journal websites (and other websites too) have not aligned themselves with Pinterest, as there is no picture to pin.  Even a small graphic with the journal title and/or number would suffice.  I appreciate this is not directly an issue with Pinterest, but indirectly it is for me in using Pinterest.

Secondly, in terms of organising ideas, there is no great structure under which to organise ideas on Pinterest.  Sure enough there are boards that can be organised alphabetically, but once someone moves over a certain number of pins on a board, they may find it difficult to quickly locate what they are looking for within that board.  A visitor to such a board may also find it difficult to locate what they are looking for.  I do not think boards encompass the complexity of organisation that certain classroom ideas/content may necessitate.

Thirdly, in terms of collaborating with others, Pinterest in isolation is only useful for collaboration in finding other pins of interest and following people who linked such pins.  Such interaction would not equate with much meaningful collaboration.  However, Pinterest could certainly have its uses for greater collaboration when combined with other mediums such as Twitter, blogging, e-mail, etc.  Finally, in relation to students' use of Pinterest, I believe Pinterest could be a nice change of pace for a classroom project, but anything of critical mass may run into issues previously mentioned.

Finally, another issue of Pinterest that has been noted relates to potential copyright infringements.  I think deleting a Pinterest account can be a drastic step.  The important thing is to be aware of what you are pinning.  Plagiarism should be avoided in any use of social media.  Use Google's Advanced Search to find images that are free to use or share.

Pin image above taken from here.