Are You Pinning?
I don’t know about you, but I definitely dream in color. I love anything creative, and I’ve always dreamed of having my own very large, organized craft room that’s complete with wall-to-wall vision boards and cabinetry that holds everything in a specific place. This is right up my Type A alley. So, when I came across Pinterest over a year ago, I felt like I hit the jackpot. My very own VIRTUAL craft room!
Of course, it’s easy to think of the countless ways to use Pinterest personally—planning birthday parties, decorating my home, searching for new recipes, creating wish lists, collecting do-it-yourself project ideas, mapping out vacations and so on. And this is exactly how I use Pinterest—to assemble, arrange, admire and aspire.
But how are educators using Pinterest these days? Well, it seems as though the options for educators would be endless as well. Composing student lesson plans; sharing resource ideas; designing classroom projects; requesting feedback from peers; collaborating with other educators, parents and students; and, above all, visual organization made easier than ever.
Educators can search practically any topic and discover a multitude of resources, research, pictures, videos and websites supporting almost any topic imaginable. For example, an educator may have an idea for a future social studies project. The educator can search Pinterest for any helpful information pertaining to that idea and collect all of it on a virtual pinboard titled “Social Studies Project Fall 2012.” Simple as that! No need for large folders, cutting out pictures or trying to devise methods of managing content for their classroom. Just log in to Pinterest and everything is literally at your fingertips.
Not surprisingly, Pinterest has experienced phenomenal growth in the past year. In fact, there has been a 2,702% increase in total unique visitors since May 2011. Pinterest receives more referral traffic than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. This new form of social media provides similar elements to our dear friends Facebook and Twitter by allowing users to follow other people and share ideas, which we like to call “repinning”.
Because I am a visual learner (as the majority of us are), pinning and repinning are two words that have now become a part of my everyday vocabulary thanks to the ingenious idea of using technology to promote visual organization.
I see the value in my personal life as well as in the lives of teachers, librarians, students, parents, administrators and more. Everyone will have something to pin.
What do you dream about pinning?
So, are you pinning? Let us know below or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter!
Monique Mize is ENA’s Customer Marketing & Event Manager.
Photo courtesy of stock.xchng.
Share this Post!
About Monique Mize
Stay Connected.
