Contributed by Sara Potter, Northern Michigan University
Title: Relationships are Pin-teresting
Course: Interpersonal (has been used in Small Group Communication, Media Literacy, Introduction to Public Relations, and Argumentation)
Objectives: To allow students an introduction to the course content, acclimate them to their text, generate interest in the course, encourage active participation, as well as connect them individually to content throughout the course of the semester.
Rationale: Given much of my interpersonal course objectives revolve around students communication self-reflection, and the connection of various concepts and theories to real life, it can be difficult to drum up student’s participation and/or to get them to engage in self-disclosure throughout particular class periods. For one reason or another, some don’t feel as comfortable talking about course concepts in connection to their actual life experiences. On the other hand, college students also love to post photos to their Instagram, post stories and status updates to their Facebook, and even pin their favorite style ideas, sometimes during class. Looking for a way to jump into the course, build interest from the start, and connect with their love of technology and the visual image this assignment was created.
Course Set-up: This was used in a 16 week semester, two-day a week course. However, due to the small amount of time this takes to implement throughout the semester it could be used for any other course structure or time frame. The approximate time it takes to share the various photos varies from topic to topic. On average 10-15 minutes for the students to discuss the photo they’ve chosen and why they’ve chosen it. An instructor has the option to limit or open up the amount of discussion time. This assignment is assigned to students on the first day of class. Their assignments are then used to introduce the chapters at the beginning of a class period or woven into PowerPoint slides, as the concept appears. Instructions and topics are handed out to students that don’t attend the first day, during the next class period in which they attend. The assignment is worth 10 points for the post, the description, and the discussion.
To start the first day of class students are assigned a concept, definition, or theory from the book. Generally, I balance out the concepts, definitions, or theories from each chapter (i.e. if there are 30 students in the course and there are 10 chapters, then 3 topics are chosen for each chapter. Therefore, only 3 students are pinning per chapter). They are then instructed to find or take a photo over the coming weeks that fits this theory or concept to a real life scenario. The timing of their “pin” should also coincide with the chapter in originates from. As such, a student with a topic from chapter 1 would do their assignment almost immediately, while those that have chapter 10 could wait or get started any time.
Once students have found a photo or taken a new one they are then instructed to “pin” the photo with a description of what their topic was and how the picture fits the topic to a public Pinterest board they have been invited to. If a student does not have Pinterest and is unwilling to sign up, they are instructed to send the photo and description to me, and I will pin it on their behalf. Instructions for creating a group Pinterest board are as follows. Instructions for students are also indicated below. I do all of this with them on the first day as a demonstration and I have those that have Pinterest follow along on their laptops or phones, while those that don’t have an account can follow me on the projector screen. I also inform students that they can add comments to their own pins or their classmate’s pins by clicking on the comment button, but to remember to keep opinions civil and criticisms constructive.
Instructor Instructions for Creating a Group Pinterest Board: When you create a new board in Pinterest, you have a “Who can pin?” option. To create a group board, select Me + Contributors. You can add members either by their Pinterest member name or their e-mail address. If you start typing a member name in the text box, Pinterest automatically populates a list of possible matches, and you can select the right person from the list. Then just click the Add button next to the name. Please be sure to ask students on the first day of class, when you assign the assignment, to indicate their Pinterest name so that they can be invited. Otherwise students without an account will receive an e-mail once you invite them via their e-mail. They can simply respond to the e-mail and create a Pinterest account. Again, alternative arrangements are made for those that do not want to partake in social media usage.
Student Instruction for pinning to the group board: Once you’ve created a Pinterest account or logged into your account you will select the icon for your notifications. This will show the invitation to the group board. Click on the invite to view the board and accept. This will connect you to the group board. Next, you will need to upload your own photo from your desktop or tag a photo that you have posted to your Facebook.
To upload your own photo off your computer or from your connected smart phone, you will need to click on the Add+ icon which will then open a pop-up with three options. From there you need to click on the middle icon that has the words “Upload a Pin”. The screen will change to one that just says “Upload a Pin” with a button that says Browse (this is very similar to that of the upload process on Facebook or even to print photos through Walgreens). Next, click Browse and search through the folders and files on our computer/phone until you come to the image or photo you would like to upload. Double click on that photo and the pop-up screen will expand with some new options. The image should now appear (in a small thumbnail version) to the left and next to a menu with the names of the different Boards you have. Choose the group board you accepted an invitation to previously. Lastly, give it a description in the box below the board menu that tells us what your topic is and how this picture fits. (Note, currently you can only use a maximum of 500 characters for your description.) When you are ready, click the red “Pin it” button and your photo will appear on the board you specified in Pinterest.
To pin a photo from your Facebook requires a different set of directions. Currently, Facebook doesn’t allow you to Pin directly from your page to Pinterest. However, there is an easy go around to this. Disclaimer though, only use photos you have taken and have the legal rights to. Once you’ve found the photo you want to pin right click on the image (or control + click on a Mac) and in the drop down menu that appears, select “Open image in new tab.” This will open the photo in a new tab and you can use your Pinterest icon to pin it from there. Same goes though, be sure when you pin it to include the topic you received and a short description of how your photo fits it.
Other Instructions: There is a work around to pinning photos from Instagram but it requires students to sign-up for another account. I usually only give those students that are really excited about learning this and want to do this the directions. I’ll include them here just in case the opportunity presents itself.
Go to Pinterest’s Goodies page and add the “Pin It” bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmark bar. Next, go to Statigr.am and sign up for an account. Once you do and login, you’ll see your new Statigram dashboard. Click on “My Photos” and your Instagram photo feed will appear. Click on the “Pin It” bookmarklet and you will get a popup that displays all of your Instagram photos. Simply select the photo you want to pin, pick the group board you were invited to via the drop down menu, fill-in your caption and submit. You can also tweet your photo straight from Statigram if you wish to go further.
Appraisal: The students in my courses over the last few semesters have loved this assignment. A downside is that often they post more than one photo and get a bit “pin” happy. At the start of the new chapter I load up the Pinterest board and scroll through the photos for the topics that will be found in the chapter. I’ll ask the student who posted the pin to briefly discuss their photo. For many students in the courses the stories from one student parallels their own stories and a discussion usually follows after a series of “me too” or “same here” comments from the others. Students that are really engaged in the technology will even pin to the site while they are in class learning about a subject. A particular example was during the lecture on Expectancy Violation Theory. A student raised his hand and indicated that he just posted “the best photo for this.” I went to Pinterest and loaded it for everyone to view. There on the screen was his roommate being scared by a kid in a Freddie Kruger mask and the aftermath of the experience. This sparked a chain of students trying to find their best photos and sharing their EVT stories. Students that aren’t as comfortable with the use of social media have typically jumped in and reported that their study time for other classes has been “hijacked by thinking about Interpersonal and the photos they’re posting.” I have only had 1 student opt out of participating in over 4 sections, relatively 120+ students. This student sent me the information, I posted on their behalf, and they were still able to discuss their photo in class with the others. This has been the biggest discussion generating, self-disclosure inducing assignment/activity I’ve done. From the start it gets students talking and keeps them engaged the whole way through, as each day there are new pins to connect to and discuss. Each student is also given a fair chance to speak and to be connected to the process. An alternative I often do is to copy the photos off of Pinterest and put them right into my PowerPoint slide as the concept appears. This has seemed to keep the discussion focused and the class time moving forward. Outside of the 30 topics a class that this generates discussion on there have been other points brought up through this, such as; the use of social media for networking (connecting all of your different profiles together by a common name so others can easily follow), the need for independence versus conformity, social identity versus personal and professional identities, reflections of self and even face management strategies. Lastly, while the instructions seem complicated, to most of us with Pinterest we already do these things, but can now include a learning option with them. To those without it, give it a try. While the directions seem like multiple steps, it’s really a simple process that’s fast and fun to do. But just to warn you, they will come into class and demand that you look at their pin before starting.
One variation on class type, I have used this in Small Group using the same approach, only with small group concepts and even in Argumentation asking students to pin flyers, signage, articles, or videos that are examples of Fact, Value, or Policy arguments, noting in them use of audience, Elaboration Likelihood Model, framing, Toulmin Model, etc. In these two other examples I have also seen this generate a good amount of discussion and a general excitement for classroom content.
On a final note and another slight variation would be to simply have all student use a hashtag you create to tag all photos in Instagram and go straight through there to view the photos. I find the board to be easier to navigate and I can keep them semester after semester to refer back to.
References
Crystal, the Weekend Homemaker. (2014, September 26). Pinterest FAQ; How do I upload my own photos to Pinterest? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://theweekendhomemaker.com/pinterest-faq-how-do-i-upload-my-own-images-pinterest
Help. Pinterest Basics. (2014, September 26). Retrieved from https://help.pinterest.com/en/articles/group-boards#Web
Rosales, L. (2012, January 28). Pinterest tip on how to post photos from Facebook. The America Genius. Retrieved from http://agbeat.com/social-media/pinterest-tip-on-how-to-pin-photos-from-facebook/
Smith, C. (2012, October 6). How to pin an Instagram photo to a Pinterest Board. Digital Marketing Ramblings. Retrieved from http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/how-to-pin-an-instagram-photo-to-a-pinterest-board/#.VCYWQRburVo
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