Presented June 16th 2015 at the 2015 OBTC Conference at the University of LaVerne in La Verne, California

1. USING PINTEREST AS A MEDIUM FOR
STUDENT ACTIVE LEARNING THROUGH
INDIVIDUAL DISCOVERY OF RELEVANT
CONTENT
Gordon B. Schmidt
Organizational Leadership
IPFW
OBTC 2015
06/18/2015

2. SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM
With many students familiar with and interested in social
media sites, such sites can be tools for engagement
Sites can be tools or features that help learning
Has anyone here used social media in classroom?

3. WHAT IS PINTEREST?
“Pinterest is a place to discover ideas for all your projects
and interests, hand-picked by people like you” (Pinterest, 2015)
Pinterest is a digital bulletin board that acts as a means of visual
discovery, collection of images and links, easy medium for sharing, and a
storage/organization tool for things of interest to a user
They conceptualize Pinterest
as like a physical pin board
Who uses Pinterest?

4. WHAT FEATURES DOES PINTEREST PROVIDE?
Provides a visual medium in which to store pictures, links, videos,
infographics
You can title boards and sort “pins” to appropriate boards
You can offer personal descriptions or commentary on each thing pinned
You can see other people’s boards and pins
Follow boards to be informed of new content
For a pin you can like the pin or repin it on
one of your own boards
You can also message other users

5. WHAT VALUE DO THESE FEATURES PROVIDE?
Allow users to share content from anywhere on the web or their own
computer (as long as it is/is represented by a visual, a picture or a video)
Creates a visual board users can scroll through to look at content
Boards can be collaborative
Multiple authors on one board
Can repin content from other boards
Can share content from others, too
Through your title or comment you can express your own opinion/info

6. EXAMPLES OF PINTEREST USE IN
CLASSROOM
Pinterest has been used in some classrooms
Suggesting additional reading materials
Giving examples related to content
Students share stories or examples
Posting of student art
Peer review of content
http://edudemic.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/professors-peers-
pinterest.jpg

7. MY CLASS CONTEXT
OLS 37500- Training Methods
Teach students about how to design and run training programs in
organizational settings
Understand general principles of training and running a training program
The course is a hybrid section
In person 1 hour 15 minutes a week, other weekly session online
https://www.pinterest.com/iopsychology/ols-3753m-training-methods-
spring-2015/
Wanted to encourage active learning and discovery

8. HOW I USE IN CLASS
I pair Pinterest posts with Blackboard message board posts
Pinterest is used as a medium for students to share relevant content on a
topic area they found (Tyler, Anderson, & Tyler, 2009)
Students find a relevant video clip, blog entry, or picture and “Pin” it on the
course website
They give a 2 sentence description of the content they pin and how it connects
They then go to the course Blackboard forum to write a more full description
analyzing the content
Other students then comment on those posts

9. EXAMPLE ASSIGNMENT: PERFORMANCE GAP
“Choose a clip online that shows a performance gap at an organization”
(So where workers are not doing behaviors or performing at a level
expected)
The students then write a 2 sentence summary
On Blackboard they discuss how they would do
a needs analysis to figure out why this happened
other students then comment with other
things to look at to figure out the issue

10. EXAMPLE ASSIGNMENT: DESIGN PROGRAM AROUND CLIP
Find a safety training program clip and post to Pinterest
Design a program that could use the clip as part of training

11. POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS IN OTHER CLASSES
“Find a quote on leadership and describe how it relate to or
disagrees with what we have learned in class”
“Find an example of a worker treated unfairly. What type of
organizational justice is being violated?”
“Find a blog/video of a legal case related to employment
discrimination”
“Create own video on topic and post to class Pinterest”
Visual elements often work best for Pinterest

12. PITFALLS AND ISSUES FOR CLASS
Getting students signed up
Need to follow board and get pinning privileges assigned by me
Some students are very familiar with the site while others are not
Need to realize one student understanding how to use doesn’t mean everyone else
will immediately
No sub-boards to better classify content
May need to pair with other learning management system for best use

13. QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION
How might you use Pinterest in your classroom?
What questions do you have?
This presentation can be found on Slideshare:
You can also email me at: schmidtg@ipfw.edu
Or message me on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/gordon-schmidt/13/a90/891