Mobilizing Faculty into the Future: Using Online Technology as Teaching Tools

An advantage of the Pinterest report, as compared to an entirely written or narrative report, is that readers/reviewers
can actually go to the articles used in research, merely by clicking on the Pinterest Pinboard link. The instructor
can readily click, open, skim read, and compare article points to a student summary. During the peer review segment,
students must open each pin to check the linkage and measure the accuracy of the Pinboard summary, written
by the classmate under review.
Students state they find it more difficult to write short, succinct, and well-targeted summaries than to write longer
narrative paragraphs in a lengthy report. The assignment specifically instructs students to use a variety of verbs and
descriptive words.
Methodology 5 – Disadvantages:
The use of Pinterest does demand that all research sources be readily available through public search engines. Thus,
materials posted exclusively with academic search sites cannot be successfully pinned. However, students often find
that an article found through EBSCOhost, for example, can be located via a regular Google search, as well.
Additional Information:
Before creating this assignment for students, the instructor completed the entire Pinterest Project herself, from
creating a Pinboard to writing the accompanying a Memo of Transmittal with Executive Summary and a Works Cited
page. The process was most instructive because it helped her to be predictive about potential hurdles, and the firsthand
knowledge assisted her in answering student questions with greater clarity and specificity.
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