It's been almost a week since I gave out the Pinterest assignment to my 7th grade Rabbinics class. Their reaction to the initial assignment was interesting. Most of them were not aware of the site, but were pretty awed by the basic display of graphics and text that makes up a Pinterest board.
At this point, I've received links to graphics from slightly more than half the class. The "pins" have been from a variety of sources and most strongly relate to the topic. What's been most interesting, though, is that there are other Pinterest users following the board and some of them have "re-pinned" the items on the board.
I'm still trying to decide what the next step will be in this Pinterest experiment. I'm certainly considering using it for other units as I think the challenge of succinctly summing up what a picture means to you is an excellent skill. Furthermore, I think there is value in getting the students to think about a text through a visual media. I'm considering re-using the pictures in the test for this unit, perhaps as a writing prompt.
What's missing, though, is the interactive element that should go hand in hand with a social network. This assignment would be more powerful if I was not serving as the conduit for the students to interact with Pinterest. Given that I'm working with 12 and 13 year old students, I'm not sure that I want to be the person who sets some of them up with their first social networking account.
I'm considering bringing the next version of this assignment into the Google Site that I have successfully used with previous classes.I'm just not sure that it will have the visual flexibility that Pinterest has brought to this project.
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