Tech Tip: Pinterest

What is it?

Pinterest is a website that allows you to collect, organize and save images and videos you find on the web. The things you collect are "pinned" to a pinboard, an online bulletin board (or scrapbook or whatever metaphor you prefer).

I made an example for the Abraham Lincoln Awards for this year. It includes book covers (images) and book trailers (videos).

How do I use it?

You can give each of your pinboard some sort of theme.  You can also see the pinboard others have created and "reppin" the items that you like to your own boards. You can also "like", follow, or comment on their boards as well. Create board of possible wedding dresses, Instagram photos you like, cars you want to buy or funny videos--whatever you want. Just make sure to follow Pinterest's Pin Etiquette  when using the site.

You will want to put a Pinterest bookmarklet in your Favorites Bar to be able to pin items to your boards quickly.

How do I use it for school?

Pinterest asks you to put your pinboard in one of several categories when you create it. You can browse or search for content. There are categories for Education, Film/Music/Books, Science and Nature and others. So you might just dive in and explore.

Disclaimer: this is not a site that was built specifically for schools, so there may be some occasional inappropriate content—just like any general web search you might perform on Google.

Here is some advice from others about how educators can use Pinterest in their classroom:

• Stephen's Lighthouse: Pinterest and Education 
• Edutopia: Pinterest for Educators?
• iGeneration: Pinterest as a learning tool: Do the two copute?
• Edudemic: The Teacher's Quick Guide to Pinterest
• Mashable: 16 Ways Educators Use Pinterest

Pin a Quote
http://pinaquote.com/
If you want to pin words, or more specifically a cool quote, you can use Pin a Quote.

How do I sign up?

At the moment, a Pinterest account is available by invitation only. You can request an invite from Pinterest or you can ask someone who has an account to send you one.

If you register using your Twitter or Facebook account, the site will pull your profile picture and other basic information and add it to your Pinterest Profile.

http://pinterest.com/