Social Media in ELT:

A Case for Pinterest

Andrés Ramos

Teachers and schools are faced with:

• Budget constraints

• Equipment

• Infrastructure

• Connectivity

• Standards and practices

• Varying levels of digital literacy.

RESTRICTIONS TO ICT USE

Our objectives today:

• To build a framework for relevant use of generic social media in ELT.

• To devise strategies for such framework.

• To apply such framework and strategies to Pinterest while identifying its opportunities for education.

LET’S PIN THIS DOWN!!

Open Source:

Proprietary:

Free(mium):

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS (VLEs)

As platforms developed by entities with a worldwide reach, they:

• Remove a considerable amount of obstacles from the stakeholders in the educational process

• Enable academic collaboration

• Provide a user experience (UX) appealing to both Digital Natives and Immigrants.

Coleman, 2013; Duke & Jordan, 2011; Prenski, 2001

SOCIAL MEDIA

Development

Planning

Implementation

Monitoring

Evaluation

Research

Planning

Syllabus Description

Resources

Announcements, F2F classes

Work assignment and submission

Content categories and classification

Peer review

Feedback UNESCO, 1995; EU, 2004; UNESCO-IIEP, 2010; UNESCO, 2011

EDUCATIONAL CYCLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Groups

MildlyEventsAbout

Uploads, links

Posts

Posts, notes

Albums, Hashtags

Comments+IM

Following

Mildly

Weak

Pics, links

Tweets

IM, links

Hashtags

Replies, Faves+

IM

Repinning

Mildly

Boards, pin

Boards

IMs, Boards

IMs, Boards

Hashtags

Comments, Repins, IMs

UNESCO, 1995; EU, 2004; UNESCO-IIEP, 2010; UNESCO, 2011

EDUCATIONAL CYCLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media are pervasive tools for knowledge deepening

and creation!

Home

News

Own Activity

Messages

My Boards

To aggregate = To save / keep

STRATEGIES FOR AGGREGATION

By saving / keeping pins of our interest, we can:

• Pin on a miscellaneous / general board

• Look back and assign descriptors (hashtags)

• Reclassify

• Discard

• Modify.

Let’s aggregate!

• Each team will “pin” (take) 3-4 pics.

• Post them on your board and say what you like about them.

To bookmark = To classify / set aside

To bookmark = To classify / set aside

Gadot & Levin, 2012; Antonio et al, 2012

STRATEGIES FOR BOOKMARKING

By classifying pins of our interest, we can:

• Use them as reference for planning

• Look further into their info and primary sources

• Contrast them with other pins / sources / resources

• Share them with peers for discussion via comments

• Bring them up as a resource of a syllabus.

Let’s bookmark!

• Choose a category of “pins” and name the board.

• Exchange with other teams to get more pins of your category.

• In your teams, comment on potential use for your ELT class.

Strengths:

• Features per se

• Features for class

• Content delivery

Weaknesses:

• Deficiencies per se

• Deficiencies for class

• Incompatible content

Opportunities:

• For or from students

• For or from teachers

• For or from school / others

Threats:

• For or from students

• For or from teachers

• For or from school / others

SWOT ANALYSIS

To curate = To preserve as valuable

Gadot & Levin, 2012; Antonio et al, 2012

STRATEGIES FOR CURATION

By preserving pins of our interest, we can:

• Make them overt course content

• Generate activities around them

• Use ESOL instructional techniques with them

• Share them as examples of desired work

• Other

Let’s curate!

• In your category, choose the most useful / valuable pin.

• All team members brainstorm on possible classroom activities.

• A team member is the “teacher” and leads their “students” in a brief exercise.

Mihram, 2004; NCTE-CCCC, 2007

BOARDS AS DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS

A board of exhibits from a student allows to:

• Preserve different media (images, links)

• Individualize language production

• Develop learner skills

• Expedite assessment

• Measure against rubrics

PINNING MY CLASS:

Let’s reflect and ponder Pinterest’s feasibility with these questions:

• How many students have smartphones?

• What are their mobile skills, habits, and attitudes?

• What content categories am I interested in?

• What parts of my course syllabus can I pin?

• To what extent and in which phases will I include it?

ELT REFERENCES ON PINTEREST

Some ELT, EdTech services and personalities active on Pinterest:

• Edudemic

• Terry Heick (TeachTought’s community manager)

• Schoology

• Clever Classroom

• Educators Technology

• Nik Peachey

• Shelly Sanchez Terrell

• Larry Ferlazzo

• Doris Molero

• Venezuela TESOL

In our midst, many teachers and schools cannot afford proprietary VLEs. Some teachers have developed modest to moderate digital skills, and feel that open-source or free VLEs

are overwhelming. We can accessibly and manageably include online activity in our teaching by resorting to general-purpose social media. As they are pervasive, adapting them to ELT is

simpler than perceived. We’ve reviewed leading social media in the light of generally accepted educational practices, and laid

the foundation to apply an A-B-C rationale to Pinterest, thereby practicing classroom-ready strategies suitable for ESOL. We’ve

also experienced firsthand how to manage announcements, post and share content, give feedback, and assess portfolios

made by your students with Pinterest’s tools assisting our syllabus and F2F class activity.

HAPPY PINNING FOR ELT!

AndrsRamos

AndresRamosVE

Social Media in ELT:

A Case for Pinterest

Andrés Ramos