Pinterest as a Professional Learning Network: Continuous Collaboration or Does Collaboration End With the Pin?

• In Event: Educators' Engagement in Networked Learning

Abstract

Pinterest is under scrutiny by educational researchers who seek to understand how teachers collect and communicate about teaching resources. In this paper, we focus on how pre-service and in-service teachers utilize Pinterest within their Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). Using PLNs and Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), we describe pre-service and in-service teachers’ responses to an open-ended survey about their use of Pinterest. We found that over 60% of teachers surveyed (n = 51) did not collaborate with school-based peers when using Pinterest. Reasons for this varied, including lack of institutional or peer support. This work adds to the burgeoning field of research on teachers’ use of social media sites, specifically in how teachers connect to resources and to one another.

Authors

• Lisa Lundgren, Utah State University

• Stephanie Schroeder, The Pennsylvania State University

• Rachelle Curcio, University of South Carolina