Do you ever have students create a collage with cut out magazine pictures? Do you ever have students create a pin board with pictures, pins, and a cork board? Do you ever have students create a vision board for goal setting, planning, or reflecting? Do you ever have students keep a scrapbook of a trip, event, or activity? Have you ever considered virtual pinning?

Virtual Pinning

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Pinterest is a social media site where students can create virtual collages, vision boards, or scrapbooks. To do so, students, link photos, videos, or podcasts on the web to their board. They can invite friends, add pinners, and post comments. Alternatively, students can upload their original photos directly to Pinterest. You can even place pins on a map, powered by Foursquare, to show the geo-location of your pins Pinterest also integrates with Facebook and Twitter.

Virtual pinning is much like social bookmarking but with the use of visual images. The web page must have a pinnable image in order for Pinterest to work. It simply will not pin text. Similarly, it is like social media because users follow each other, make comments, repin images, or collaborate on boards. It is great for planning, visioning, sharing, and collaborating.

VariationsSocial Bookmarking. Although not image driven, social bookmarking is an online tool that is similar to virtual pinning. Social bookmarking allows uses to bookmark or tag weblinks for organizing and sharing. It is also a form of social media as users can follow each other’s links on Facebook and Twitter. One can also import or export their links from one bookmark to another. It is great tool for research or creating an annotated bibliography.

ExamplesUse your imagination. What could your students pin to their virtual pin boards? What would be appropriate pin board for your students to create? Only you know what would be authentic to your field of study, your curriculum, and your students. To get started, consider these ideas:

Visual Arts•Inspiration board•Art periods•Film locations•ePortfolio

Health & Community Studies•Career vision•Community agencies•Play area design•Health talks

Science & Technology•Career search

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•Technology trends•Home designs•Personal trade work

Business Administration•Self portrait•Travel scrapbook•Historical events•Business modelling diagrams

Humanities & Social Sciences•Newcomer expression•Book lists•Plot deconstruction•Vocabulary

MeritsRemember the saying a picture tells a 1,000 words! Pinterest definitely appeals to visual learners. It has great potential as a visioning tool for self-awareness and setting goals as well as a visual tool for planning and story boarding. Due to its inherently social nature, it has great potential for networking. Virtual pinning can be aspirational (Chang, 2012).

Information Literacy. Similar to social bookmarking, virtual pinning can satisfy the Essential Employability Skills Outcomes (EESOs) for information literacy. All students in an Ontario Certificate or Diploma program must demonstrate information management which includes “selecting and using appropriate tools and technology for a task or project” (Queen’s Printer, 2009a); further, students must also demonstrate the ability to “locate, select, organize, and document information using appropriate technology and information systems” as well as “analyze, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources” (Queen’s Printer, 2009a). Similarly, for students enrolled in degrees, the Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations (UDLEs) include a breadth and depth of knowledge outcome where students must demonstrate the ability to “gather, review, evaluate and interpret information” (Queen’s Printer, 2009b). Not only does virtual pinning demonstrate information literacy skills, but it also makes it easy to collaborate and share images. This also meets yet another ESSO for time management where students must demonstrate the ability to “manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects” (Queen’s Printer, 2009a).

Nonverbal. In art therapy, nonverbal forms of expression are a safe emotional outlet for communication that increase personal awareness and meaning (Blythe & Guenette, 2010;

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CAST, 2012). Using images rather than words is a technique used in counselling to help someone express a traumatic experience or painful memory. We can use it with newcomers to Canada and English as a Second Language (ESL) students. These students may not yet have the words to express how they feel or what they need.

Visual Learners. Virtual pinning definitely appeals to visual learners (CAST, 2012; Gardner, 2011). Our visual arts students would be drawn to virtual pinning as a means of expressing design ideas, art work, and even research. For students who are visual learners, using imagery is just simply easier than struggling with linguistics. Personally speaking, it is a great online presentation tool and perhaps a better alternative to a PowerPoint or KeyNote slideshow.

Self Portrait. Creating a self portrait through pinned images can be a very powerful reflection tool. We can use it as an icebreaker introduction activity - who am I? A self portrait can also help students determine their career goals and career vision - where do I want to go? It may help students to determine their values, which in turn, may set their career path. For an art student, it may help him or her to resolve their personal style and expression as an artist.

Career Visioning. Students can create a career vision board to set career goals. Depending on their field, this may be a self-care plan, a personal style or expression, or even career options. Traditionally, this may have been done by cutting out magazine images and pasting them onto bristol board. The idea is similar. Having a vision board to look to periodically, helps students keep focused on their ultimate goals.

Vocabulary. In foreign language teaching, we have long used realia to teach vocabulary. A pin board is a great way to collect and present vocabulary to students. For each word family, we can create distinct boards. Alternatively, we can send students on a scavenger hunt to find images of vocabulary words and create word family boards. Students can write notes, descriptions, and vocabulary words for each pin to learn English, French, Spanish, Italian, and so on.

Story Board. Educators sometimes use story boards to help students understand the chronological order of events. We can adapt this to deconstruct the plot line of a novel read in class. Likewise, students can create a timeline to understand how a historical event unfolded. Similarly, students can deconstruct the cause and effect of an environmental phenomenon. Even film students may wish to plot their film locations on a pin board before determining when and where to shoot what.

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Planning. Virtual pin boards are great for planning anything from a simple wish list to a large scale event. Pinterest is popular with wedding planners, tourist boards, and major retailers. Students at Loyalist College used Pinterest to plan the design for their equivalent of the Oscars, the Sparkie Awards. View their design ideas and pins (personal communication, Michelle Grimes).

Networking. Pinterest is intensely social. We can like pins, repin, share pins and boards, invite pinners, follow our friends, and make comments. Students can share their original work with community parters. On the other hand, students can manage their privacy settings to selectively share and even share secret boards. Because of the any time, any place, and any pace nature of the Internet, a pin board would appeal to busy adult learners (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).

ChallengesPerhaps the greatest concern with Pinterest is copyright. First, we must emulate and teach respect for copyright. We can show students how to find open source images and how to evaluate web sources. Likewise, we can show students how to protect their own intellectual property. We can show students how to manage their privacy settings, use opt-out codes, and secret boards. Lastly, as Pinterest is social media, we should teach students how to respect others online (Shea, 2004).

Copyright. Even though Pinterest has always linked back to the original web source for pins, there has been some copyright backlash. In response, Pinterest introduced an opt-out code to prevent Pinterest from pinning images (Albanesius, 2012). Some companies take advantage of the brand awareness and soft marketing potential by having a Pin it button on their site to make it super easy to pin. Make sure the images one pins were posted to the web by the original source to respect copyright. For students who are concerned about sharing their pins or boards, they can adjust their privacy settings and create secret boards.

Intellectual Property. As mentioned, students can restrict who sees their pins and pin boards. They can use the opt-out code to prevent others from repinning their images. They can create secret boards. They can selectively share by inviting others to comment or pin. On the other hand, they can share their boards for networking or invite pinners for collaboration.

Image Search. Before students start to pin, show them how to search for open images. Sites that want you to pin their images will have a Pin it button to make it super easy to do so. Otherwise, students should check the license for the image. We can find many free to use or share images on Google Advanced Image Search or Flickr Creative Commons. Look for authentic and reputable sources.

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Evaluating Web Sources. In much the same way that we evaluate web sources for CRAAP - Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose (ALA, 2013), we can evaluate image sources. If there is no copyright, use common sense. If it seems like the uploader of the image has infringed on copyright, do not pin it; on the other hand, if it is certain that the uploader has the copyright to do so, then pin it! Likewise, when we repin an image with Pinterest, we should check the source of the original pinner. You may also need to review with students how to search for information online using simple search phrasing or Boolean search operators (Google, 2012).

Instructional DesignUse a backwards design approach. First, start with your learning outcomes. Second, create your assessments. Third, plan your instructional activities. Finally, choose a technology to enhance the lesson.

Design. Consider your curriculum; look carefully at your accreditation standards, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and lesson learning outcomes. Will virtual pinning fulfill the learning outcomes? How will you evaluate what the students learn through virtual pinning? What technologies will you and your students need to learn in order to pin? Will virtual pinning enhance the learning experience?

Develop. Review the use of visual information in your field of study. What is commonly used? How could it be better? Reflect on how virtual pinning could enhance your personal or professional practices.

Deliver. Decide what students will do before, during, and after the virtual pinning activity. Before creating a pin board, students might research a topic or pitch a group design project. While pinning, students can critically evaluate websites, images, and videos for specific criteria. After they compile and categorize their pins, they can share their boards with peers and industry

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Pinterest

partners for discussion. The virtual pinning activity should be authentic, active, and applied.

TechnologyThe most popular virtual pinning site is Pinterest; it works on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. We can also upload our own images to Pinterest. We can add the Pin It button to our toolbar so that whenever we find a picture or video that we like, we can simply hit the Pin It button, and it will add the link to our pin board page.

ReferencesAlbanesius, C. (2012, February 21). Pinterest tackles copyright issues with opt-out code.

PC Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2400498,00.asp

Blythe, S.C. & Guenette, F.L. (2010). Magazine picture collage in group supervision. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 44(3), p.296-306.

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). (2012). Universal Design for Learning. Retrieved from http://www.cast.org/index.html

Chang, A. (2012). Should you care about Pinterest? Macworld, 29(6), p.60-61. Retrieved f r o m h t t p : / / w w w . m a c w o r l d . c o m / a r t i c l e / 1 1 6 5 6 2 2 /opinion_should_you_care_about_pinterest_.html

Gardner, H. (2011). Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Queen’s Printer of Ontario. (2009a). Essential employability skills. Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). Retrieved from http://www.tcu.gov.on.ca/pepg/audiences/colleges/progstan/essential.html

Queen’s Printer for Ontario. (2009b). Degree level standards. Postsecondary Education Quality Assessment Board (PEQAB). Retrieved from http://www.peqab.ca/standards.html

Shea, V. (2004). Netiquette. Retrieved from http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/index.html

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Written by Paula OggPhotography by Jonathan Eger

CreditsBookry Ltd

Common Craft LLC© Centre for Teaching & Learning 2016

Published by Sheridan College All rights reserved

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