Make New or Repin? Creating a Multimedia Anthropology Resource in Pinterest

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Pinterest

James Leahy ( international elearning guru) is the TotallyRewired guest blogger this week. Here is his report  from the 2013 Durham Blackboard Conference on Pinterest.

Nick Pearce Durham University http://t.co/8MpZdsYA 

 Multimedia (anthropology) resources in Pinterest (slides on slideshare)  Anthropology is a very visual subject and lends itself perfectly to a social networking site like Pinterest. 

 “Sounds and images can be reappropriated… Encouraging non-linear readings” [sic]

 Students went to  YouTube to find out stuff about Karl Marx as opposed to Googling it!

 Pinterest is a very different demographic toFacebook or Twitter: 83% female globally, mostly from the US Midwest (UK 56% male)

 Nick’s students needed to create 10 pin boards each week with additional reading, in the supporting text underneath the images.

 Most content came from:

• Google scholar
• Academic blogs
• Museum archives
• Newspapers
• Tumblr (Tumblr supports key word searches for images which then can be pinned!)

Problem with scholarly articles. Copyright – some images won’t let you “pin” them legally (if it’s just a question of getting hold of the image then take a screen shot).

 JISC Legal have published information about the legality of using images in sites such as Pinterest: http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/ManageContent/ViewDetail/ID/2705/Pinterest-Image-Sharing-Websites-and-the-Law-5-December-2012.aspx

 Pinterest works by clicking once on the picture to get it enlarged, and again to get to the article.

Would be great if there was a  Pinterest mash up for Blackboard?

 [Dangers of the Disco vicar! Once the teacher invades it or tries to adopt it, they flee! Or just move on.]

 How does assessment work? Feedback in the comments? Perhaps use “Storify”?

Pinterest – What it is and how can academics use it?

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Pinterest

 Last week Lorna Walker, Senior Lecturer in Marketing here at Regent’s College gave an excellent  short introductory talk and demonstration on Pinterest. I had seen Pinterest before and had even signed up with Pinterest but I couldn’t really see the relevance of it in a educational context. Lorna’s presentation changed my mind and certainly gave me a few ideas and showed me the potential of its usefulness!     

Lorna started with the question ‘What is Pinterest?’ and answered it with a brief overview of its main features:

• Virtual scrapbook of images, pictures, infographs, video etc.
• You curate (‘pins’) into themed boards organised around what interests you.
• You can comment on your own pins and other people’s.
• You can share boards with other pinners.

This was followed by a brief demonstration of how to set up a Pinterest account and how to use the basic features of the site; How to Pin, Set up account and profile, Start following people, Pin from the internet (‘pin it’ button), Upload pictures from your computer, Pin from your phone/ipad using app.

The bit I found the most interesting were her suggestions as to what Pinterest could actually be used for? Probably the two most important uses are for curating content and  organising ideas. Here Lorna showed us a variety of Pnterest boards from a variety of different sources: 

• Sociology – Prof Jess
• Pursuing interests – The Thesis Whispere
• Typography, design and branding – Anitranot
• Book Reviews – LSE Review of Books
• Student assignments – Geraldine Saur
• Carreers services – Priceton University
• History – Dan Jackson
• Retail Store design – Gino Van Ossel

What really struck me here was the very visual nature of Pinterest. So much of the content that we use in HE teaching is text based but the boards created in Pinterest are so visual! It just gives a totally different look and feel to the content and looks so different from everything else we do when teaching academic subjects.

It also opens up the possibility for ‘Collaborating’ both inside and outside of the classroom. It would be great to see students creating their own boards in Pinterest. Involving students in this way would make it a more active process, where they could then show their own boards to their peers or the lecturer, maybe even doing presentations using them.

http://pinterest.com/

’10 ways to use Pnterest in the Classroom’:http://teachbytes.com/2012/03/10/10-ways-to-use-pinterest-in-the-classroom/