I am a “unique” Pinterest user; I use Pinterest as a bookmark tool. From what I can tell, most people who use Pinterest pin things for others to see or to simply entertain themselves by doing the “Pin” action. I’ll admit, I use it for that too, but not as often as for bookmarks.
Bookmarking on Pinterest
Using Pinterest to store my bookmarks started when I was collaborating with a consultant on a project where she was the content expert. She had a ton of resources to share and I had a few to add I wanted her to see. I decided using a collaborative Pinterest board was the best way for the two of us to share our resources and be able to revisit the list easily.
Another benefit to using Pinterest for bookmarks is that the visuals are much easier to spot than a bookmark in a list. For each bookmark, I try to include a visual that means something to me. Of course, there is one downfall, and that is for the links that do not have a visual link, you cannot “Pin” them. I bet there is a workaround by creating a visual and uploading the link as a differently formatted link than the original. I haven’t figured this out, yet.
Pinterest for Education
Because Pinterest allows you to add a visual to many links, it is also a good place to house educational information. Informational visuals, like infographics and flowcharts, present very well on Pinterest. The advantage here is that you can link it to the blog or website of origin if the students or learners want more information about the visual. They can also comment on pins to show participation and consumption.
I predict that visual social media, similar to Pinterest, will be used often in the delivery of educational material. It is possible to create a private Pinterest board that has many collaborators or students. As a learning team activity, for instance, students can post to this board and create a new learning content area unique to their connections and interests. It can also be a supplemental resource for teachers to provide to students of many ages.
I can foresee Pinterest, or a social media tool similar, becoming a commonly used tool in training and education. There are limitations, but there are also great collaborative features that offer potential for mass sharing between large working groups.
As an example of a board I use to keep track of bookmarks, here is Instructional Design Resources Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/sophiebigeyes/instructional-design-resources/
Recommended Tutorial- Pinterest 2015 Tutorial for Education
