Pinterest incorporated into classroom curriculum

Pinterest, the newest craze in social media, is moving to the classroom as an accepted educational tool, leaving Facebook and Twitter in the principal's office.

Pinterest, a virtual pinboard where pictures from all over the web can be put together and "pinned" to create a visual representation of the creator's style, tastes and life, has revolutionized the way people share their perceptions of the visual world.

Professionals as well as students and teachers at Stephens have flocked to the new social media platform. It is estimated by that it has gained about 1.5 million users and visits to the site about increased 40 fold in the past 6 months.

Kate Gray, assistant professor and coordinator of the graphic design program, was intrigued and skeptical about the site but decided to explore it further, bringing Pinterest into the classroom to supplement academic activities. Gray created a board and was immediately hooked.

"I didn't get it at first, I wondered ‘what's the big hook?', then I got on and started mousing around and all the sudden, I realized how powerful it was," Gray said, "I loved how it allowed me to connect with people without saying a word and see things that inspire them."

Gray was moved by the simplicity and utility of Pinterest and decided to implement it into her Principles of Design class.

"I really wanted to try and develop some sort of foundation just for creative thinking. Creative thinking today is different than when I was taught it, it was limited in relationship to what we have and what we were exposed to," Gray said. "I didn't want to overexpose and overwhelm my class with traditional tactics like mood boards, so I thought Pinterest would be the perfect application to strengthen the research portion of the creative process."

For Gray's assignment, each student had to create a Pinterest account. They were required to make boards of ideas that inspired them based on the clients needs.

Andrea Albin, a sophomore graphic design major, is one of Gray's students who was asked to complete the task.

"For my creative development assignment, I used Pinterest to research ideas for the specific target market we were working within," Albin said. "For a design student of any kind, the program is definitely a good way to find inspiration. I now have specific boards for each subject."

Before the assignment, Albin had never heard of Pinterest and did not have an account.

"I started (my Pinterest) for class, but I'm addicted now. I will definitely keep updating after," Albin said.

While Twitter and Facebook remain popular, its number of new visitors decreases reaching a threshold point or plateau of growth. As their novelty has worn off, Pinterest has stepped in.

Gray finds the most profound nature of the site is its ability to cultivate creative conversations among students. The gathering of hundreds of pins, each with separate ideas that lead to other sites with even more ideas, can be shared real time in the classroom makes Pinterest a great application for academic settings.

"I loved it because everyone had the opportunity to walk around and view one another's boards and the direction each was heading and an energy grew in the room," Gray said. "Ideating was happening in that moment, using technology that the students are immersed in and know how to use. I loved arriving at that moment."

In recent news, SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy act, has made major headlines with its potential to completely shut down sites such as Pinterest. When exploring the idea of bringing the site into the classroom, Gray, too, was worried about the potential of pinning to turn into a source of copying, not inspiring to new and original work.

"Where is the line between a new idea and copying? Is there such a thing? One of the things that I really want in my program and my classroom is the opportunity for my students to visualize something, and then actually execute it," Gray said.

Pinterest helps students do that. Albin agrees that Pinterest is more than a fad that is fun to get involved in but can be a useful tool in the classroom, and elsewhere.

"Pinterest and other social media sites have a place in the classroom. Several designers have come into class and presented their use in the professional field, to help with clients and find inspiration. There is a level of enjoyment to be had from it, there is place for it in both worlds."