Peer Review

Pinterest App for iOS

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Reviewed:: Feb 25, 2016 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: This app leverages the collaborative task of highlighting and annotating the best images on the web by "pinning" photos to themed boards. With few restrictions on topics and a burgeoning collection of infographics, diagrams and inspirational quotes, the Pinterest app is promising in terms of its usage in the classroom.
Type of Material:: Social Networking Tool; Development tool
Recommended Uses:: Instructors could create boards for students to contribute to as a means of building collections of media around a specific topic - this would be particularly useful in world languages courses looking to integrate relevant cultural materials in the classroom. The Pinterest app can be used as a ready reference of ideas for teaching a specific topic. It can serve as a way to organize selected articles, infographics, tools, apps, lists, and more. The strong visual aspect of Pinterest allows for all sorts of ideas and possibilities for bulletin boards, interactive displays, classroom presentations, and open house evenings at school.
Technical Requirements:: Requires iOS 7.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Though the learning goals are not prescribed, the ability to make connections and to assess media is an inferred educational goal. The goals of the Pinterest app are to help users discover and save creative ideas organized around themed "boards."
Target Student Population:: K-12 teachers, higher education faculty, student teachers.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Understanding of how to download and use apps

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: This is not a learning material, but the task of pinning regardless of the assignment, supports various 21st century skills such as creativity, collaboration and critical thinking.
Concerns:: It may be distracting for students with separate non-academic Pinterest activity to focus on finding relevant images for academic driven pin boards. There are ads. It is rated for Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content and Nudity, Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The app allows for collaboration and curation of items to its boards. Building collections by designated themes or concepts is possible. Because of its structure, this app would support cross-curricular collections.
Concerns:: Because of its public online presence, it may be very difficult to limit collections for designated class use. Users may encounter a constant flow of recommendations of people to follow that becomes distracting.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: This app is extremely well-designed, creating a seamless experience for users moving from the website to the iPhone to the iPad - no small feat! The process of creating pins, adding captions, editing boards and exploring images is intuitive and highly function, even with the reduced screen space on the app.
Concerns:: Unless you are well informed about copyright law and fair use, it is easy to misuse the pins.

Other Issues and Comments:: It would be fabulous if some sample activity management for Pinterest was featured on the website for educators looking to integrate the program into their classes.
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