P, p, p, pin it!

I've heard through my web there's something new on the scene.

It is called Pinterest, but what does this mean?

A pin board online, to make and to share.

Finding others finds from here and from there.

Pinterest is one of the "new kids on the block" when it comes to social bookmarking, but it has become very popular, very quickly. I find Pinterest appealing because it is so visual. By pinning an image from a site you want to bookmark, you organize pins onto boards based on groups you make.

Here is my Pinterest page:

Due to its visual nature, I think that Pinterest is especially useful as a bookmarking system for students. In this video from Edudemic, Lisi Gopin discusses using Pinterest in the classroom.

Some great ideas from the video include:

• having images for writing prompts
• collections of resources to share with students
• collections of books

Additionally, Gopin points out that the built-in interactivity allows students to discuss things directly on the pins; there is a comment space under each pin.

I am liking many of these ideas for integrating Pinterest into the classroom. Additionally, the ideas for using Pinterest in the library abound. In 20 Ways Libraries are Using Pinterest Right Now, there are 20 great ideas including:

• creating book lists
• showing new aquisitions
• research

Additionally, this blog post gives some more ideas for Pinterest for Librarians, though most are for the librarians use as opposed to student use.

Recently, there has been some concern about Pinterest and copyright, which, as a teacher-librarian, rightfully worries me. Because Pinterest simply pins any images on a website, people are taking copyrighted images that do not belong to them. This article is about a lawyer who has deleted all her Pinterest boards because of this issue. Her personal blog gives more legal background regarding this issue.

So, this really complicates things! I like Pinterest and find the visual appeal would be useful for students. However, I can not, as a teacher-librarian be using this site that is known to be breaking copyright, either personally or professionally.

Au revoir, Pinterest! :(

The power of Pinterest

Pinter-wrong?

How can you take someone else's work?

Surely that makes you just one big jerk!

It's true we can't take things that we don't own.

I think I hear pinners make a collective groan!

It seems that Pinterest has led to a rash of copyright issues regarding photos. As people "pin"something on their boards, they chose from any images that may be on that page - whether they are available to be shared or not.


Hmmm . . .

Flickr has now added "do not pin" code to any images that are copyrighted or protected. Flickr disables Pinterest pins on copyrighted images 

As teacher-librarians, part of our job is to teach students and teachers about copyright issues. Using photos/images to "pin" as a bookmarking icons is definitely walking on a fine line.

Where am I?

I am still on my web, but where are you?

The spider asks as I wander through.

You've tried so many things on your great big web,

When will you be done? the spider said.

I feel like I need to check in with my progress for this class, and see how I am doing and if I am still on track.

I have been very consumed with creating a video at the moment with students from the environment club at the school. We are putting the final touches on our entry for the BC Green Games. It is created in iMovie, which is not technically Web 2.0, so I am not sure if I should include it as part of my project here.

Anyways . . . where am I?

Facebook

I have set up my Facebook account and have added a bunch of friends. I find it is mostly just something else to check each day for news. I am not interested in most of the items my friends post, but do enjoy seeing the occasional fun photo, etc. I have posted some general questions to my friends and a few pictures of my kids. I have also commented on other's posts.

The most useful part of Facebook for me, so far, is the group that I belong to for the climbing gym where my son trains. I like that the group shows up on my home page and I can immediately see if there is anything new posted by the little number that shows up. This was very useful when there was snow and the gym was cancelled.

I can see how the "group" function would be useful as a school to have for parent communication (elementary) or even for students (secondary).

Twitter or more importantly, Tweetdeck

Part of my inquiry was finding a better way to manage Twitter. I believe I have found that with Tweetdeck.

Integral to my use of Tweetdeck is my installation of Google Chrome. At one point last year, I had actually installed Tweetdeck, but didn't like the fact that it sat on the desktop of my computer. With Chrome, the Tweetdeck plug-in allows it to sit in the web browser on the start-up page. I like this much better.

Tweetdeck has allowed me to organize the information I gather from Twitter. I have also loaded my Facebook account into Tweetdeck, so I can also see my Facebook news feed. I am not sure why the Facebook posts I see are not the same in Tweetdeck as in Facebook. I also can't see the "groups" from Facebook, which means I need to open up Facebook separately as well.

But, overall, I like Tweetdeck. I currently have the following columns:

• Facebook news feed
• Home - which is all the people I follow on Twitter
• #edtech
• #tlchat
• #pbl - for Project Based Learning, but seems to be some sort of foot fetish thing as well
• #frimm - French immersion
• @me - for tweets where I am mentioned
• inbox - for direct messages to me

I can easily skim through the columns and click on things that interest me for more information. I am not feeling as overwhelmed with Twitter now.

Social Bookmarking

I continue to use Diigo personally for keeping track and organizing links, but after exploring the education side of it and finding no filters to the outside world, I don't think I would use it with students.

I have just begun using Pinterest and find it very appealing because it is so visual. I believe this would also appeal to students, so will explore a bit further and see how I might use Pinterest with students.

Blogging

I have explored Kidblog, which I like, and Blogmeister, which I don't. I am excited to have enticed a teacher to begin blogging with her Grade 3/4 class. Next week, I will help her set up Kidblogs for her class.

Still to come:

• Voki
• Glogster
• Voicethread

Stay tuned . . .

Very Pinteresting!

Pin it here, pin it there

Pin it here, pin it there,

Pinterest is showing up everywhere!

How can I use it in the library?

Will it be helpful, or is it simply ivory?

I am really seeing the appeal of Pinterest, though I have not been using it as much as Diigo. Because I have my "system" for tagging etc. set up for Diigo, I don't really want to switch over to Pinterest. However, I can see how some of my collected bookmarks would fit better into Pinterest. For example, recipes. Rather than having them collected in Diigo and searching for "pancakes," I can keep my recipes collected in Pinterest and see the image of those delicious pancakes. Except, I discovered, not all my recipes have pictures on the page, so there is nothing to "pin" (well, except an image from an advertisement on the page!).

OK - so what about in the library? Will Pinterest be useful for me there?

Here are some ideas for Pinterest for librarians.  Given that Pinterest is so visual, I can see that it would be a useful tool to create boards for student use on projects. Perhaps this is the tool I am looking for to use with classes. Will have to explore this some more . . .


5 Tips for Using Pinterest in Your Classroom
Edu-pinning: Pinterest in Education
Four Ways to Use Pinterest in Education

Good ideas:

• collating sites for lessons & projects
• sharing with others - yes it is another social media!
• grouping/organizing resources - this is useful for students and teachers

A pin for your thoughts?

Isn't Diigo enough, why do you need more?

Something else to keep track of your web, what a bore!

Pinterest is different, I like how it looks,

For visual me, it is like looking at books!

I use Diigo all the time for bookmarking things but thought I would investigate Pinterest as well. I do not know that much about it, but like the visual nature of it, keeping little pictures of the links that have been saved. So, I requested an invite to Pinterest, received it, and created an account.

Pinterest required me to sign in using Facebook or Twitter, like many online applications. While initially this bothered me and I did not want to have everything integrated together, as I get deeper into the "social" aspect of the online world, I am finding it useful to have everything connected. However, I am still struggling with how much to keep my professional and personal lives separate - or not???

Pinterest automatically chose some people for me to "follow" based on the interests I entered. I guess that is a good way to get started, as there is something to play around with.  I left these as is for now. It also suggested some categories for me to use for "boards," but I deleted those and created some of my own. I put the "Pin It" button on my Chrome browser to make it simple to add pins.

I then jumped in and started to explore. I found a good recipe someone had pinned, so I re-pinned it on a "recipe" board I created. I quickly learned that only images can be pinned - so a good link needs to have a good image on the page. I then took a browse through the Pinterest help page to get some more information. I learned that you can follow everything another user does or you can follow specific board.

So, as I am browsing around looking at various "boards" and "pins," one of my first impressions is that Pinterest is going to work for me to collect things for the personal part of my life - recipes, crafts, etc. Right now, I am not seeing how it can be used professionally.

Just figured out that when I push "pin it" on a page, all the images come up and then I can choose which image it is that I actually want to "pin." Got it!

The journey continues . . .