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by Emily Corken '13, Communications Assistant

Social media seems to be everywhere these days, so why not use it in the classroom! One way to incorporate social media in education is with Pinterest. Pinterest is a virtual pinboard that lets you share images on the web and search for inspiration. Austin wrote about Pinterest back in the Fall of 2011. As a student at the University of Minnesota, I have found Pinterest to be a useful tool in the classroom.

Last semester, in my Basic Media Design course, I was required to join Pinterest and to follow and post to the class board. Some of our Pinterest assignments included pinning images that were linked to class concepts and pinning links related to graphic design resources.

The best part about using Pinterest is that the boards are still accessible even though the semester is over. I have been able to stay connected to the course by looking back on the boards to find new resources and tools for graphic design. This has opened my eyes to the positive potential of using social media in the classroom.

Pinterest can also be a great tool for educators, beyond pinning with students. Educators can connect with other professionals in the field to share ideas and materials. It is an easy and fun way to follow trends and to find inspiration.

In this edition of ATK, I want to provide with you the links to the first eight tips of the Fall 2011 semester. We've covered everything from adding an event to the Cooke 110 calendar to how to update your faculty/staff biography. I urge you to take a moment and read (or read again!) a post that you may have missed. And, if you have any suggestions for next week's edition of this blog, please send me an email at stair@umn.edu.

Entries from ATK to date

New sites and tools pop up everyday and it can be challenging to keep track of them all. Today, I want to share with you two [newish] sites that could have creative applications to teaching, learning, and personal productivity--not to mention these sites are just really, really cool.

Pinterest debuted last spring and has been steadily growing a following among social media enthusiasts and designers. Reminiscent of physical style boards, Pinterest is basically a photo-sharing website where users curate and collect theme-based image collections. The tool could be an interesting way to have students share and store images about a certain topic. I can see this being particularly pertinent to our sport marketing, sport media, and branding classes.

Polyvore is the creative cousin to Pinterest. Polyvore is a free, easy-to-use web-based application for mixing and matching images from anywhere on the web. While generally used for fashion, art, and interior design, it seems like there might be some creative possibilites for using Polyvore in the School of Kinesiology.

I would love to hear what you think about these sites -- and about any other sites that are not traditionally thought of to enhance teaching and learning, but that you incorporate in your classroom or in your work day.

NB: Pinterest and Polyvore are very addictive, so beware!