In our midst, many teachers and schools cannot afford proprietary Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs). Some teachers have developed modest to moderate digital skills, and feel that open-source or free VLEs are overwhelming. How can we accessibly and manageably include online activity in our teaching? We can resort to general-purpose social media. Why? Because students use them for personal purposes, and so do teachers. Besides, they are pervasive, and adapting them to ELT is simpler than perceived. At this workshop, an analysis of leading social media in the light of generally accepted criteria for the educational cycle will be made. Such analysis will lay the foundation to apply an A-B-C (“aggregate, bookmark, and curate”) rationale to Pinterest, and practice classroom-ready strategies suitable for ESOL educators and learners. Witness firsthand how to manage announcements, post and share content, give feedback, and assess portfolios made by your students with Pinterest’s tools assisting your syllabus and face-to-face class activity. Whether you have a smartphone or not, your line still has internet MBs or ran out of them, you always use computers or occasionally check your e-mail at a cybercafé, this session is for you!

1. Social Media in ELT:
A Case for Pinterest
Andrés Ramos

2. Teachers and schools are faced with:
• Budget constraints
• Equipment
• Infrastructure
• Connectivity
• Standards and practices
• Varying levels of digital literacy.
RESTRICTIONS TO ICT USE

3. Our objectives today:
• To build a framework for relevant use of generic social
media in ELT.
• To devise strategies for such framework.
• To apply such framework and strategies to Pinterest
while identifying its opportunities for education.
LET’S PIN THIS DOWN!!

4. Open Source:
Proprietary:
Free(mium):
VIRTUAL LEARNING
ENVIRONMENTS (VLEs)

5. As platforms developed by entities with a worldwide reach, they:
• Remove a considerable amount of obstacles from the
stakeholders in the educational process
• Enable academic collaboration
• Provide a user experience (UX) appealing to both Digital
Natives and Immigrants.
Coleman, 2013; Duke & Jordan, 2011; Prenski, 2001
SOCIAL MEDIA

6. Development
Planning
Implementation
Monitoring
Evaluation
Research
Planning
Syllabus
Description
Resources
Announcements,
F2F classes
Work assignment
and submission
Content
categories and
classification
Peer review
Feedback
UNESCO, 1995; EU, 2004; UNESCO-IIEP, 2010; UNESCO, 2011
EDUCATIONAL CYCLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
Groups
Mildly
Events
About
Uploads,
links
Posts
Posts,
notes
Albums,
Hashtags
Comments
+IM
Following
Mildly
Weak
Pics, links
Tweets
IM, links
Hashtags
Replies,
Faves+
IM
Repinning
Mildly
Boards, pin
Boards
IMs, Boards
IMs, Boards
Hashtags
Comments,
Repins, IMs

7. UNESCO, 1995; EU, 2004; UNESCO-IIEP, 2010; UNESCO, 2011
EDUCATIONAL CYCLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media are pervasive
tools for knowledge deepening
and creation!

8. Home

9. News

10. Own Activity

11. Messages

12. My Boards

13. To aggregate = To save / keep

14. STRATEGIES FOR AGGREGATION
By saving / keeping pins of our interest, we can:
• Pin on a miscellaneous / general board
• Look back and assign descriptors (hashtags)
• Reclassify
• Discard
• Modify.
Let’s aggregate!
• Each team will “pin” (take) 3-4 pics.
• Post them on your board and say what you like about them.

15. To bookmark = To classify / set aside

16. To bookmark = To classify / set aside

17. Gadot & Levin, 2012; Antonio et al, 2012
STRATEGIES FOR BOOKMARKING
By classifying pins of our interest, we can:
• Use them as reference for planning
• Look further into their info and primary sources
• Contrast them with other pins / sources / resources
• Share them with peers for discussion via comments
• Bring them up as a resource of a syllabus.
Let’s bookmark!
• Choose a category of “pins” and name the board.
• Exchange with other teams to get more pins of your category.
• In your teams, comment on potential use for your ELT class.

18. Strengths:
• Features per se
• Features for class
• Content delivery
Weaknesses:
• Deficiencies per se
• Deficiencies for class
• Incompatible content
Opportunities:
• For or from students
• For or from teachers
• For or from school / others
Threats:
• For or from students
• For or from teachers
• For or from school / others
SWOT ANALYSIS

19. To curate = To preserve as valuable

20. Gadot & Levin, 2012; Antonio et al, 2012
STRATEGIES FOR CURATION
By preserving pins of our interest, we can:
• Make them overt course content
• Generate activities around them
• Use ESOL instructional techniques with them
• Share them as examples of desired work
• Other
Let’s curate!
• In your category, choose the most useful / valuable pin.
• All team members brainstorm on possible classroom activities.
• A team member is the “teacher” and leads their “students” in a
brief exercise.

21. Mihram, 2004; NCTE-CCCC, 2007
BOARDS AS DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
A board of exhibits from a student allows to:
• Preserve different media (images, links)
• Individualize language production
• Develop learner skills
• Expedite assessment
• Measure against rubrics

22. PINNING MY CLASS:
Let’s reflect and ponder Pinterest’s feasibility with these questions:
• How many students have smartphones?
• What are their mobile skills, habits, and attitudes?
• What content categories am I interested in?
• What parts of my course syllabus can I pin?
• To what extent and in which phases will I include it?

23. ELT REFERENCES ON PINTEREST
Some ELT, EdTech services and personalities active on Pinterest:
• Edudemic
• Terry Heick (TeachTought’s community manager)
• Schoology
• Clever Classroom
• Educators Technology
• Nik Peachey
• Shelly Sanchez Terrell
• Larry Ferlazzo
• Doris Molero
• Venezuela TESOL

24. In our midst, many teachers and schools cannot afford
proprietary VLEs. Some teachers have developed modest to
moderate digital skills, and feel that open-source or free VLEs
are overwhelming. We can accessibly and manageably include
online activity in our teaching by resorting to general-purpose
social media. As they are pervasive, adapting them to ELT is
simpler than perceived. We’ve reviewed leading social media in
the light of generally accepted educational practices, and laid
the foundation to apply an A-B-C rationale to Pinterest, thereby
practicing classroom-ready strategies suitable for ESOL. We’ve
also experienced firsthand how to manage announcements,
post and share content, give feedback, and assess portfolios
made by your students with Pinterest’s tools assisting our
syllabus and F2F class activity.
HAPPY PINNING FOR ELT!

25. AndrsRamos
AndresRamosVE

26. Social Media in ELT:
A Case for Pinterest
Andrés Ramos