pin it!: maximizing the benefits of video usage in a preservice teacher classroom using pinterest...

PART III

VIDEO IN AN ONLINE WORLD

PIN IT!: MAXIMIZING THE

BENEFITS OF VIDEO USAGE IN A

PRESERVICE TEACHER

CLASSROOM USING PINTEREST

Denise Chapman and Evan Ortlieb

ABSTRACT

Purpose � This chapter explores how preservice teachers can use videosvia social media to organize their ideas and enhance their understandingof content and pedagogical practices. It exemplifies how teacher develop-ment programs must embrace and become more in tune with societalpractices and norms.

Methodology/approach � The methods of data collection for this studyconsist of participant observation of in-class activities (descriptive fieldnotes reconstructing dialogue and activities), an open-ended question-naire, and a focus group interview.

Findings � Five primary themes were revealed that describe preserviceteachers’ scholarly experiences using Pinterest: igniting digital serendip-ity, Pinterest critic in relation to their thinking, Organizing and nesting

Video Reflection in Literacy Teacher Education and Development: Lessons from

Research and Practice

Literacy Research, Practice and Evaluation, Volume 5, 257�277

Copyright r 2015 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 2048-0458/doi:10.1108/S2048-045820150000005019

257

http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/S2048-045820150000005019

knowledge, Picky pinning researcher, and Expert distributor ofknowledge.

Practical implications � Teacher educators should consider how partici-pants demonstrated a sense of pride in their scholarly creations and somebegan displaying modest amounts of expertise and characteristics of lea-dership within their local community both online and in-person.

Keywords: Pinterest; video; teacher education; literacy; onlinecommunities

Teachers are like videos; they have the potential to captivate our mindsand hearts with their words and illustrations. And in the process, theyunearth deep found attitudes and beliefs about content and culture(Bakhtin, 1981) as the best teachers engage the very core of their studentsand spark interest in learning more (Ortlieb, 2010; Tomlinson, 2014). Theclassroom is like a concert hall whereby teachers conduct while their stu-dents actively engage in fulfilling their roles for the collaborative produc-tion. In our rapidly changing world, it can be argued that currently theconcert hall where teachers conduct this collaborative, community produc-tion now involves technological systems, such as social networking sites(Knight & Kaye, 2014). These are idealistic circumstances that require pre-cision in design and instruction; yet, not everyone is ready for their com-mencement. Teacher education programs are the proper venue forreinvigorating the teaching profession through technology, including socialnetworking technologies in order to meet the demands of multicultural,multilingual, and multinational educational contexts.

As the quality of teacher education programs is currently in questionfrom political and societal factions (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005; Knight,2011; Knight et al., 2012; Sanders & Horn, 1998; Wiseman, 2012; Zeichner,2010), it seems like an ideal time to reconsider some of the fundamentalprinciples used within these programs to showcase what we do well andimprove upon those areas that truly need improvement. Programs follow arange of espoused models including those built upon adapting theories ofcognitive development (Darling-Hammond, Hammerness, Grossman,Rust, & Shulman, 2005), aligning classroom practices toward students’development (Biggs, 1996; Biggs & Tang, 2011), or using available empiri-cal research (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005). As the topic of measuringprofessional growth gains traction (Konig, Blomeke, Paine, Schmidt, &

258 DENISE CHAPMAN AND EVAN ORTLIEB

Hsieh, 2014; Wiens, Hessberg, LoCasale-Crouch, & DeCoster, 2013), wemust start the process of improving teacher education programs by doingjust as we recommend of any teacher � getting to know our students!

Who are they? What are their interests? How do we provide opportu-nities for individual growth and development? How do we challenge themto consider alternative perspectives? Very quickly, it becomes clear that wesometimes fail at these fundamental principles of highly effective teaching(Reutzel & Cooter, 2012). Teacher education is supposed to be centered onpreparing the next generation of teachers with the skills and knowledge tosuccessfully guide children to higher levels of achievement and lifelonglearning. Yet, preservice teacher programs are often far removed from thereal world experiences of its constituents. Dated models of delivery andpedagogical practices are not always in sync with what preservice teachersneed in their preparation for the current challenges faced in schools today(Cochran-Smith, 2004). As echoed by Gage (1978) nearly 40 years ago,there is a scientific basis to the art of teaching.

Teacher education programs have failed, in large part, to stay up-to-date with progressive societal practices and norms, especially with the ubi-quity of social media and digital texts that currently prevails (Tess, 2013;Wong, Kwan, Wang, & Luk, 2013). Distinct features of these digitalresources include pictorial graphic organizers to assist readers in organizingtheir ideas and enhancing their understanding of content (Douglas, Ayres,Langone, Bramlett, & Bell, 2011). Furthermore, videos, provide an alreadyfamiliar digital medium by which the preservice teachers can search, view,evaluate, and share within online environments (Ortlieb, Sargent, &Moreland, 2014), just as they do in their personal lives with nonacademiccontent (e.g., Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, YouTube, etc.). These digitalmediums already have been widely used across domains of higher educa-tion (see Gikas & Grant, 2013; Lopez, 2014; Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb,Herman, & Witty, 2010). Social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter,and Pinterest, utilize video and other digital texts to “allow users to makepersonal profiles, create content, and share messages by connecting withother users in the system” (Tess, 2013, p. A61). While the prevalence ofsocial networking sites on higher education campuses is high and the use ofsocial networking for personal communication is a part of everyday prac-tices for students in higher education (Knight & Kaye, 2014), the viabilityof this technology as a learning medium is still being explored by researchscholars (Tess, 2013). Descriptive research on the usage of social network-ing as a learning medium in teacher education programs remains insuffi-cient (Forkosh-Baruch & Hershkovitz, 2012; Knight & Kaye, 2014). As a

259Maximizing the Benefits of Video Usage Using Pinterest

result, we have designed a research project to explore the use of social net-working sites in the learning and teaching experiences of preservice tea-chers. Specifically, this chapter shares our exploration of the use ofPinterest, a social networking web-based discovery tool, in preservice tea-chers’ active individual learning and communal pedagogical development.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

There are universal instructional design principles that apply to onlinelearning environments (Elias, 2011). Connecting textual content withaudio/visual elements has been the basis for storytelling (Chapman, 2013a,2013b; Faulkner, Chapman, & Kirkby, 2013; Lambert, 2013), biographies,news broadcasts, and now digital social media. Some would venture to saythat communicating information in relation to historical context and/orcurrent society is fundamental to situated learning experiences (Kirshner &Whitson, 1997), that is, to say learning removed from its environmentalcontext is not authentic or meaningful. As society becomes increasinglydigitally adept, it becomes clear that teaching and learning sequences mustinclude multimodal elements that appeal to students’ motivations, interests,and ways of learning (Laurillard, 2013). But this revolution does not startin the elementary classroom. It must begin within teacher education pro-grams to establish a foundation that embraces technology rather than hidesfrom it.

This research project utilizes embedded videos among other visual fea-tures within Pinterest. It is firmly grounded in learning theories such asattraction theory (Ortlieb, 2014) and new literacies (Kress, 2003; Leu,Kinzer, Coiro, & Cammack, 2004; New London Group, 1996) associatedwith social learning in digital spaces. We argue that social networking siteslike Pinterest can serve as online learning environments, providing a forumfor preservice teacher development alongside content learning and sharing.What follows are descriptions of the linkages between this study and attrac-tion theory as well as its connection to new literacies.

Attraction Theory

The influential work of Schank (1995) reminds us that we learn by doing.Hence, it is critical that we, as teachers, understand how learning occurs.


Ortlieb’s (2014) breakthrough work on new learning theories bridges thegap between content learning using digital mediums. Teacher educatorsmust prioritize the learning experiences of preservice teachers by designinglearning experiences in sync with their learning patterns. The componentsof attraction theory explain the process of learning whereby students takean initial stimulus and progress through critical thinking processes leadingup to knowledge acquisition, organization, and synthesis with the assis-tance of a teacher facilitator (see Fig. 1). Becoming active learners in onlineenvironments is necessary for preservice teachers to ignite their interest infurthering their education, personal literacies, and career opportunities; adigital stimulus, also referred to as a jolt, is one such impetus toward learn-ing sequences. After these jolts peak students’ curiosities, students are com-pelled to seek out more information on the topic. Counter examples areincredibly powerful toward learning in teacher education settings especially(e.g., videos of poor classroom management, assessment, or teacher feed-back). The rationale is that differentiation of best practices from poor prac-tices contextualizes what preservice teachers can work toward whileremembering what to avoid. Teacher educators clarify the nuisancesinvolved toward answering questions and providing review sessions, whichallow students to embed these learned concepts into their existingschemata.

New Literacies

The presentation of the content can affect how it is being processed by theuser (Anderson, 2000). Kress (2003) argues that there is a move from the“centuries�long dominance of writing to the new dominance of the imageand on the other hand, the move from the dominance of medium of thebook to the medium of the screen” (p. 1). He states that these two factorsare creating a revolution in the usage and effect of literacy, tremendously

retrieveexplanation

counterexample

clarification

embeddingwithin

schemata

jolt

curiosity

Fig. 1. Attraction Theory. Source: Ortlieb (2014).


impacting the new generation. Based on the high adaptation rate of compu-ters and other electronic devices by younger generations, they would feelmore comfortable with e-learning applications being more visual than writ-ten text based (Synder, 1997). Hull and Nelson (2005) purport that multiplemodes of information dissemination allow for improved rates of meaningcreation in an age where educational environments are reliant upon multili-teracies (Kress, 2003; New London Group, 1996). In turn, teacher educa-tion programs must utilize the potential of hybrid texts (Kellner, 2000), orthose that use semiotics (such as images, and other audio/video elements)(New London Group, 1996) toward ensuring active learning and construc-tion of meaning as evidenced by Ortlieb’s (2014) e-reading theory. Thisredesign of curriculum in preservice teacher education allows for the releaseof some of the responsibility to those responsible for their career learningand subsequent professional development during their study.

Furthermore, new media and literacies promote “productive hybrid cul-tural spaces” (Moje et al., 2004, p. 43) where new ways of seeing and under-standing curriculum and instruction are fluid. Through communal activitiesin online spaces, potential exists that might not otherwise be possible in tra-ditional classroom spaces. Davies (2006) purports that digital technologiessupport learners toward enhanced levels of visual literacy, including theability to read visual clues. Meaning making processes are not limited bythe teacher’s instructional decisions and modes of delivery (Narey, 2008);instead, they are only limited by the creativity of all participants (Harris,2014).

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Curriculum Design

It’s not what you say but how you say it. While this mantra may not beentirely accurate, it does shift the focus toward the importance of designand how curriculum is disseminated. We know that content design anddelivery can mean the difference between student learning and knowledgeacquisition versus trivial exercises and activities that ultimately lead to frus-tration from all parties. Kress and van Leeuwen (2001) discuss how curri-culum design is more than just its delivery:

[D]esign stands midway between content and expression. It is the conceptual side of

expression, and the expression side of conception. Designs are (uses of) semiotic


resources, in all semiotic modes and combinations of semiotic modes. Designs are

means to realize discourses in the context of a given communication situation. (p. 5)

Enhancing literacy teacher preparation through the use of electronic med-iums builds upon but is not limited to semiotic modes of content presenta-tion (Eco, 1976; Towndrow, Nelson, & Yusuf, 2013). Educational messagesshould promote meaningful learning through the connection to attitudesand stances on theory and practice. Applications such as Pinterest can dojust that by captivating online users’ attention, attitudes, and motivations.

Challenges in DesignNorman (1998) warns that educators must not fall into the following traps:(1) ignoring the needs of the everyday users or (2) trusting their instinctswhile failing to test the product with the users, because of their familiaritywith the product. The same level of commitment given to other aspects ofteacher education must be given to ensuring that embedded technologiesare not only appropriate but well suited to expanding the existing preser-vice teachers’ skills and knowledge of effective pedagogical practice.

Debates have begun as to whether electronic content should be moretextual or visual (Segal-Drori, Korat, & Klein, 2013; Walsh, 2007).Contemporary users are connected to the Internet with nearly 75% of teenspossessing mobile phones (Lenhart, 2010) and profiles on social networkingsites (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010); they are Internet aficiona-dos who have become sophisticated in their online searching and contentdissemination proficiencies. In turn, “their expectations have increased withregard to the visual design of websites and other web/mobile applications”(Misra, 2012, p. 1). How easily content is understood and how easilyaccessed are two of the most important factors in whether or not onebecomes engaged by electronic media (Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, 2010). Itseems timely to take full advantage of the capabilities of electronic mediasuch as visual and video elements in teacher education programs whilebuilding upon what is known about the importance of active engagementtoward meaningful learning (Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997).

Learning in Online Spaces

The effectiveness of online environments depends in large part on theirdynamic usage and level of interactivity garnered within students in theirquest to learn (Littlejohn & Pegler, 2014); these third spaces can refer to


social learning arenas where the lines between teacher, learner, and contentprovider become blurred (Bhabha, 1990; Moje et al., 2004). In these spaces,funds of knowledge (Moll, 2000) are developed and shared in ways that fos-ter new understandings while promoting ongoing discourse and reflection(Gee, 1996). Davies (2006) used Flickr (an online photo-sharing service)within her preservice teacher education program; one of her studentsclearly articulated her experiences:

I have learned loads and just can’t stop coming back for more. I have spent hours and

hours just looking, reading, moving round the site as well as to links beyond. I have

found out now why some people say they like learning � I always used to think that

was to do with boring places like school, but now I realise learning stuff is to do with

living your life and really noticing what is going on around you.

Reconnecting with preservice teachers in their social spaces is critical toobtaining buy-in to curricular goals and maintaining optimal levels ofmotivation to learn.

Using constructs of spatiality, or affinity spaces (Gee, 2004), involvesmaximizing social practices in relation to their multimodal constructs.Features include mindful organization of content, learners interacting indifferent roles, and the generation of new content. Moreover, environmentsshould be receptive to new ideas where all knowledge is valued, groupinteractions are encouraged, leadership is porous, and learning is enjoyable.Co-construction of learning environments is centric to learning in onlinespaces (Westberry & Franken, 2013). With the availability of virtually anyinformation at the fingertips of those who seek it, preservice teachers canserve as both retrievers and critical consumers (Laird, 2014). They find rele-vant content by using their existing knowledge as a filter to unwanted infor-mation. And when they are not sure, preservice teachers can seek theassistance of peers and their teacher who can offer their own perspectives.Together, learning occurs as content becomes attractive (Ortlieb, 2014) andlearning becomes socially constructed (Cullen, 1999). This process of elec-tronic sharing of resources is in alignment with current societal practicesand thus, more likely to be easily adopted and deemed valuable by preser-vice teachers (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).

Video Usage in Teacher Education

Watching a video does not guarantee active learning; in fact, the very actof watching is passive unless it is associated with other variables


(Chen, 2012). Moving people from a passive consumption of content to amore mindful organization or social curation of content is necessary forlearning. As such, students must be encouraged to interact with videos byselecting, critiquing, discarding, rating, and collecting those that apply toa pragmatic purpose (Hahn, Rodriguez-Kaarto, & Seliger, 2012). McVee,Bailey, and Shanahan (2008) encourage their preservice teachers to “thinkof literacy and technologies as cultural tools in socio-cultural contexts asopposed to operationalized skills to be learned and enacted” (p. 201).Becoming empowered as reflexive learners propels preservice teachers todiscriminate and reflect upon the usefulness of videos toward the profes-sional development of self, peers, and other constituents (Doering,Hughes, & Huffman, 2003; Phelps, Graham, & Kerr, 2004). This sense ofcollaboration is foundational to new literacies (Gee, 2003; New LondonGroup, 1996) and teacher development (Alvarez, Salavati, Nussbaum, &Milrad, 2013), leading preservice teachers to serve as active contributorsto the overall design and structure of the learning environment(Kapitzke, 2000, p. 213). While collaboration and active learning are uni-versally accepted as important components in the learning environmentsfor preservice teachers, we wanted to explore whether these constructscould be harnessed through using a social networking site (Pinterest) as aviable medium for learning.

Pinterest as a Medium for Collaborative Learning and PedagogicalDevelopment

Pinterest is a relatively new online virtual scrapbooking social platformestablished in March 2010. Currently, Pinterest boasts more than 70 millionusers (Horwitz, 2013) from both the public and private sector. Rankingthird behind Facebook and Twitter on the list of most popular social net-working websites, Pinterest is also an upcoming competitor with Googlefor product searches (Hall, 2012). Interestingly, Pinterest is a social net-working site dominated overwhelmingly by female users (Ottoni et al.,2013). With 80% of its users being female, Pinterest has the largest discre-pancy in gender of any of the major social networking sites. This free,visual discovery tool is also considered a social curation site. As Hansen,Nowlan, and Winter (2012) note:

Pinterest functions as a digital pinboard. It lets users post images and videos from the

Internet � either while viewing a website or by using a URL � and add user-created


photos, both of which are referred to as pinning. Pinterest provides a bookmarklet

script (a downloadable “pin this” button users can add to their browsers) that allows

users to pin virtually any image or video found on the Internet. An image or video is

referred to as a pin and is organized onto categorized user-created boards. Users can

add a description of up to 500 characters to a pin. Already existing pins can be added

to a user’s board, referred to as repinning. One can also use a heart icon to like a pin

and can add comments below the description. (p. 2)

Pinterest community members engage in social networking, as they share,like, and comment on posted content as well as follow other Pinterest users.The social engagement plus the collecting capability of Pinterest make it asocial curation space (Hall & Zarro, 2012). Lerman and Jones (2006) gofurther by highlighting the nature of social curation as a space where parti-cipants can actively construct, evaluate, and distribute knowledge. Giventhe popularity of Pinterest and the medium’s apparent attraction to femaleusers, it could be argued that this social networking site may ignite criticalthinking leading to knowledge acquisition, organization, and synthesis withthe encouragement of a teacher educator.

METHODS

The purpose of this study is to explore the usage of a popular social net-working site for the learning and teaching of preservice literacy teachers.Specifically, the aim of this project is to develop an understanding of theuse of Pinterest, a social networking web-based discovery tool, in preserviceteachers’ active individual learning and communal pedagogical develop-ment. The research questions that guide this study are as follows:

• In what ways do preservice teachers describe and make sense of theiractive individual learning and development when using Pinterest?

• In what ways do preservice teachers describe and make sense of theircommunal pedagogical development when using Pinterest?

Preservice teachers in this study were introduced to Pinterest as a meansfor searching and identifying community resources they could use in theirfuture teaching settings. They were encouraged to explore Pinterest muchlike a child playing in a sandbox � no right or wrong way, just explore andbe open to sharing your experiences. Pinterest was one of several tools thatthe preservice teachers were introduced to for optimizing their preparationto enter the teaching field. Preservice teachers were asked to use Pinterest


as a tool for investigating various community resources, local events, scho-larly understandings, pedagogies, teaching ideas and materials.

Data Collection and Analysis

The methods of data collection for this study consist of participant obser-vation of in-class activities (descriptive field notes reconstructing dialogueand activities), an open-ended, (GoogleForms) questionnaire, and a focusgroup interview. This study is a part of a broader research project investi-gating final year students’ views about working collaboratively with otherprofessionals. Final year preservice teachers in a Bachelor of EarlyChildhood/Primary Education course (all females) were sent an optionalquestionnaire asking for their feedback on their experience using Pinterestas a tool for understanding the resources in the communities they wished toteach. Specifically, students were asked

• How would you describe your experience using Pinterest as a universitystudent?

• Tell us about your experience using Pinterest as a preservice teacher.• What did you enjoy/not enjoy most about using Pinterest?

Anonymous feedback was obtained from 48 students. Eight students volun-teered to participate in audio-recorded structured interviews about colla-borative partnerships, which transformed into a free-flowing exploratoryfocus group involving probing questions that yielded data related to theuse of Pinterest in their studies. Data were entered into NVivo for Mac forcoding. When possible, words of the participants were used verbatim toform specific codes/themes. For clarity on this phenomenon and to mini-mize threats to trustworthiness, triangulation was used. As recommendedby Merriam (2009) multiple analysts and rich, thick descriptive sourceswere utilized.

FINDINGS

Thematic analysis of the data sets from the interview and questionnaireshows five primary themes/patterns that preservice teachers use to describetheir scholarly experiences using Pinterest (see Fig. 2). Each of these themesappeared to lead or build upon the other, in that a theme or themes belowa given theme were also mentioned.


Igniting Digital Serendipity

The first category of Igniting Digital Serendipity was generally marked bythe use of adjectives to describe their feelings of their initial experiencesusing Pinterest in a scholarly setting. Preservice teachers used phrases like“I am now obsessed!,” “I’m totally addicted to it,” “Inspirational,” “Easyand interactive.” Expressions of joy were paired with their initial learningexperiences of using Pinterest. One participant described this as a “giddyprocess.” The following quote best illustrates this category:

It’s not just reading things. It’s digital serendipity! You’ll look at something and that

would lead you off to something else and then you’ll end up miles away looking at

something completely unrelated to the first thing, but it’s all interesting. It’s like shiny

things, shiny things, shiny, shiny, shiny.

They often expressed how they lost track of time during these blissfulexploratory binges of Pinterest digging. Overall, preservice teachersdescribed this set of experiences as an easy, yet deceptively addictiveexploratory process.

Pinterest Critic in Relation to their Thinking

Preservice teacher discussions about their experiences using Pinterest withinthe university context also involved the theme of Pinterest Critic in Relationto their Thinking. While they found Pinterest to be valuable to their studies,this theme notes a desire for an improved product that meets both their

Expert Distributor ofKnowledge

Picky PinningResearcher

Organizing & NestingKnowledge

Complexityof

Thinking

Pinterest Critic inRelation to their Thinking

Igniting Digital Serendipity

Fig. 2. Patterns of Preservice Teachers Described Thinking.


scholarly needs as well as their unique way to thinking. For example, onestudent shared:

Okay, there are a couple of things I’d change about Pinterest such as the ability to turn

a public board into a private board would be one but that’s just about the program

itself. Hopefully Pinterest will evolve and become even more user friendly.

However, the critique often went from negative to positive, as illustrated inthis preservice teacher’s remarks:

I’ve avoided it for years, thinking it was gimmicky but because it is multimodal it beats

“bookmarks” and “favourites” hands down. Of course it’s easy to forget what is there

but as soon as you’re on your page it all comes back with the pictures and descriptions.

Anything you want is in one place …. I would also say that it can take time to work

out a few things but it’s worth it ….

In sum, preservice teachers in this phase became aware of various system-based flaws that needed troubleshooting in order to fully experiencePinterest in a way that matched their scholarly needs. Needing to continuetheir exploratory process yielded a concerted effort on the part of preser-vice teachers to make the system work for them by supporting their indivi-dualized thinking needs.

Organizing and Nesting Knowledge

A large amount of discussion revolved around preservice teachers’ use ofPinterest in terms of the category Organizing and Nesting Knowledge. Thistheme focused both on preservice teachers’ active individual learning anddevelopment as well as their communal pedagogical development. Forinstance, the following quote describes their views on using Pinterest toorganize material related to their individual learning of concepts:

The best part of Pinterest is creating boards. The Internet is a huge ocean of informa-

tion and resources to make a relevant board to a certain topic and to pin and to gain

access to it in seconds is amazing from my point of view. The most appealing is that

you can present it in a very interesting eye catching way that you get drawn to it.

Preservice teachers also talked about using Pinterest as an organizationaltool for teaching both self and others in their future teaching context.During several in-class small group times, I observed students swappingways to organize their material but also their best finds (pins). One studentdescribed this process as, “Oooo I’ve got my little nest of knowledge here.It’s like trading Pokeman cards, but it’s a win-win because we both get to


keep the finds � the teaching ideas.” Another student noted, “I love howversatile the site actually is. I use it for teaching resources most weeks add-ing simple projects to create with the children. I can easily look up the infor-mation anywhere and show other staff, the children or parents.” This themeinvolved using Pinterest as a means for organizing effective teaching ideas,organizing for understanding, and organizing for making their teachingothers easier.

Picky Pinning Researcher

Some students spoke about how their passion for pinning and organizingthese pins lead to this next theme of using Pinterest, which was the role of aPicky Pinning Researcher. They pointed out that there was a point whenthey had to be critical with the amount of information they kept withintheir Pinterest boards. One preservice teacher stated, “At the beginningevery pin looked appealing for me but after ‘being overwhelmed’ is over Ibegan to compare and value and weigh the contents before using the pins.”

However, it was also noted that they needed to be critical of the contentin terms of the value it would bring to their thinking and their teachingpractices. This is illustrated in the following individual quotes:

I believe that there needs to be an assurance that what people pin is reputable and that

they have looked at sites to see they are appropriate and meaningful not just a nice

picture.

As I pinned, I critically assessed the relevance of each pin and it seemed to give me dee-

per insight into my pedagogy. It has helped things come together I guess you could say.

I analyzed each pin, how I can help either myself, staff, children or families with it.

How easy it would be to access the resource or service in practice and how well I under-

stood it. Hello

I think using the Pinterest is more modern approach in university education. It is more

like a research based approach and it allows the user to access into masssssive data base

and at the same time to think beyond the ordinary way of learning. It was awesome.

Preservice teachers became particular about their pins and described peerswho were not selective about what they pinned and creatively collected asmissing an essential part of the Pinterest experience. Overall, being particu-lar was deemed to be good and even became a badge of honor and an indi-cator of high-level thinking.


Expert Distributor of Knowledge

Preservice teachers who tended to excel throughout their university stu-dies espoused this final theme � Expert Distributor of Knowledge. Thissmall group of students expressed the importance of their Pinterestboards representing themselves as professionals and leaders. Thistheme linked to their individual learning of the field of education aswell as the advocating of their pedagogical development. One studentemphasized:

Using Pinterest made me realize that serious pinning requires a connection with “self”

so that pinned items align with my beliefs, values and knowledge. When I’m pinning

something that represents “self” I don’t want the pin to be tokenistic because it won’t

convey the deep and multifaceted context of my beliefs as a teacher.

Another student extended this view and shared how she is seeing herself asan expert distributing key knowledge to other experts in the field:

Yes, yes it’s amazing. I even meet the local health minister for special needs and told

her and [a non-profit organization] about my site and how I am building on it and gave

them my Pinterest link.

Students who expressed this perspective generally espoused a viewpointthat teaching was both a passion and whole life commitment.

The patterns of thinking found in preservice teachers using Pinterestindicated a complexity of thinking that was progressive and supportive topreservice teachers learning. Each participant experienced the “IgnitingDigital Serendipity” and shared their delight in the enveloping discoveryresult that took place each time that entered the Pinterest space.Preservice teachers then began describing their need for a system thatmatched their unique ways to thinking and noted their troubleshootingfor this. Organization and critical selection of pins were mentioned andrepresented two clear and prominent patterns of thinking for preserviceteachers. The final phrase involved Pinterest being used as a space forflexing and distributing of their expert knowledge. This pattern was notedby a small number of participants and was described as a significant andawarding platform to have reached. By in large, participants usingPinterest experienced distinct patterns of thinking when engaged in thePinterest space for their preservice teacher needs, which cajoled studentstoward various inclinations to learn.


DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION

Higher education campuses have embraced the use of social networkingsites for everyday communication; however, universities using these popu-lar social media spaces as scholarly mediums for learning and teachingneed more exploration (Knight & Kaye, 2014). These practices promoteteachers as videos, where they engage in pedagogies that capture attentionand agitate students’ natural inclinations to learn. The multimodal text andfamiliarity of social networking sites lend the possibility for these hybridcontexts to ignite students’ scholarly interest, encourage their active criticalthinking, as well as extend their personal literacies and career possibilities.Within this study, preservice teachers in their final year of study describedways that they make sense of their active individual learning and commu-nal pedagogical development when using Pinterest. Preservice teachers inthis study detailed how they use Pinterest as a medium for igniting theirscholarly learning, organizing and critiquing scholarly knowledge, as wellas asserting their expertise of their field of study. This fits with Ortlieb’s(2014) attraction theory, while capitalizing on learning experiences that arein step with learning patterns. Preservice teachers were observed andexpressed their joy in using an online learning space that utilized moreaccessible literacies. Participants demonstrated a sense of pride in theirscholarly creations and some began displaying modest amounts of expertiseand characteristics of leadership within their local community both onlineand in-person.

More descriptive qualitative studies are needed to extend the literatureexploring the scholarly possibilities of social networking sites. While thisstudy describes ways in which preservice teachers made sense of their learn-ing and teaching within the Pinterest space, more foundational inquiry isneeded in this area, as well as how these multimodal environments can con-tinue to ignite student interest. Suggestions for future studies includeexploring how preservice teachers link their experiences at the university totheir experiences in their future teacher spaces. Is the use of the student-created social networking space continued or replicated in the schoolsetting? Some preservice teachers in this study spoke about the pride thatthey had when their pins were re-pinned; future studies might investigatehow this experience of gaining a following based on one’s expertise influ-ences their learning and teaching. The current study also warrants moreexploration into what role gender plays in the use of the social networkingsites as spaces for learning and teaching, and how videos can serve as joltsto students’ curiosities within attractive pedagogy in teacher education.


Overall, the scholarly conversation surrounding social networking sites asspaces for learning and teaching is in its infancy. As we continue toadvance our technologies within the public venue, our innovative uses oftechnology in higher education should match the public efforts.

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