Where Pinterest Didn’t Cut It

This has been a whole week devoted to learning about Pinterest.  I’ve been finding many ways to use it.  With a Friday post devoted to Ontario Educators, I thought that would be a natural use for it.  So, I set about to try and create a board for the Ontario Edubloggers.

Quite frankly, I wasn’t looking forward to the amount of work that it would take.  I haven’t been able to find a way of automating the process and I’m all about automating where possible.  I decided to take baby steps and went to the category of Trustees and Higher Education.  I started and then stopped.

What I did is available here.  https://pinterest.com/dougpete/ontario-educators/

But I stopped.  It wasn’t giving the results that I thought would be helpful.  First of all, one of the links – to Marc Lijour’s blog was broken.  With other tools, it typically isn’t a problem as you can always just enter the URL that you know works when the site is working.  There can be a myriad of reasons why a site isn’t functional.  But, Pinterest doesn’t allow for this.

So, I skipped that and moved on to Robert Hunking’s blog.  He offers a fascinating insight to his own learning as a trustee and that is always nice to read.  But, Robert doesn’t include images in his posts.  So, I’m not able to pin his link to the board.  I know that if I moved on to some others, he isn’t along.

Bottom line is that Pinterest will only allow for active content with at least one piece of imagery or a movie.  There’s another issue that I thought about after the fact.  With Pinterest, you’re pinning a static link to the bulletin board which doesn’t really make a great deal of sense for something as dynamic as a collection of blogs.  As I considered all of this, I dropped the concept.  Not every attempt can be knocked out of the park.

It’s not a problem with Pinterest; I think it’s just a matter of it not being the tool for this sort of job.

The LiveBinder site and the Scoopit site continue to do a great job.  Please check them out to see the great content from Ontario Edubloggers.

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OTR Links 01/13/2012

• Social Networking | Common Craft

  This video introduces the basic ideas behind Social Networking. It focuses on the role of social networking in solving real-world problems,

  tags: Social Networking

• Free Printable 2012 Calendar: Holiday Calendar 2012 & Blank Calendar

  Big collection of free printable calendars

  tags: calendar Calendars printables templates template Printable tools productivity

• The Project Gutenberg E-text of Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley

  Project Gutenberg’s Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley

  This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
  almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
  re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
  with this eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.net

  tags: frankenstein English text

• UnBoxed: online

  The author shares findings from her action research, focusing on the question, “How can I use critique to improve the quality of student feedback, student work and create a culture of collaboration?”

  tags: collaboration Action Research

• EssayTagger.com – Grade Essays Faster

  “Impossible!” you say? Look, we can’t grade the essays for you, but we can reduce the repetitive, inefficient manual labor involved — and in doing so we open up a new world of invaluable student data.

  tags: grading essays essay tools grade English writing language arts

• Open Mobile Learning Badges

  Mobile phones open up new learning opportunities outside of traditional educational structures and practices. Powerful mobile tools—applications, handsets, tablets, device add-ons, cloud applications, etc.—already exist, with many more developed each day. These tools expand the ability to collect, collaborate, and create in myriad ways, influencing environmental studies and service, political and civic activism, history, citizen journalism, citizen science, and community volunteerism, just to name a few.

  tags: badges mobile learning

• 6 Ingredients for the 21st Century Classroom — Campus Technology

  Just stuffing classrooms with gadgets isn’t going to result in real 21st century learning spaces. Today’s institutions must design classrooms that fully support technology and foster a collaborative learning environment. Here are six ways you can transform your classrooms into next-generation learning spaces.

  tags: technology classroom 21stCenturyLearning learning 21st century design

• The Library as a Digital Learning Space — THE Journal

  Wanting to develop a media center/library that would go beyond stacks of unused books, dark study corners, and low lighting, the staff at Simsbury High School in Simsbury, CT, worked with its district superintendent to determine a new direction for the facility. Some of the key questions discussed concerned the need for a physical library in the information age, the role that books would play in the new facility, and how media literacy would be taught to students.

  tags: library learning digital

• Photo Pin : Free Photos for Your Blog or Website via Creative Commons

  Free photos for bloggers

  tags: photos creativecommons blog cc search creative_commons Fotos buscador

• Four Creative Commons Photo Sites You Should Know About « Ed Tech Ideas

  Grabbing images from Google is one of the easiest things there is to do. You simply search, copy, paste. A no-brainer. However, when using someone else’s photos, how do you know if you have permission? Students need to be taught about copyright and how to find royalty-free images that are ok to use in projects. Below are four great sites that I use with my students.

  tags: photos creative commons

• Microsoft’s Bing Eclipses Yahoo In U.S. Search For First Time

  Microsoft Corp. has finally reached a long-sought and expensive goal — its Bing search engine now ranks second behind Google in the Internet’s most lucrative market.

  tags: microsoft bing yahoo u s search first time time

• Teacher’s recommendations for academic uses of 5 fun free presentation tools | Emerging Education Technology

  Course participants offer their ideas about ways to use these fun free tools in instructional situations and other academic applications.

  tags: presentation tools education

• 6 ways to give your Mac a thorough New Year’s cleaning — Apple News, Tips and Reviews

  Although it’s still winter, now is the time to do some spring cleaning on your Mac to help it run more efficient and reliably. Here are six simple steps to take that will get your Mac sparkly clean and running like new.

  tags: ways mac cleaning apple news tips reviews

• 2011 Lesson #8 – Knowing and growing the tribe: some amazing educators | Connected Principals

  Knowing and growing the tribe: some amazing educators

  tags: lesson knowing growing tribe educators connected principals

• How Often Should I Charge My Gadget’s Battery to Prolong Its Lifespan?

  How Often Should I Charge My Gadget’s Battery to Prolong Its Lifespan?

  tags: battery lifehacker 2012

• Using Graphic Novels and Comics in the Classroom | Edutopia

  Here are some specific strategies to ponder as you select a graphic novel or comic to read, or as you consider how students might create their own. Thinking about them will help you focus your purpose in your instruction. All of them are useful, as long as the purpose is clear to the teacher and the learner.

  tags: using graphic novels comics classroom edutopia

• iClarified – Apple News – Apple Makes You Promise Not to Use iTunes to Build a Nuclear Bomb

  Apple’s iTunes Terms and Conditions is a huge document with a lot of rules you agree to abide by in order to use the service.

  tags: apple news promise itunes build bomb

• Four great OS X services you don’t know about | Macworld

  Once you know the basics about services, OS X’s underused shortcuts, your next question is inevitably: Where can I find more? You can add—and even create—your own services. Here are four of the best:

  tags: great os x services know macworld

• The Value of Teachers – NYTimes.com

  Suppose your child is about to enter the fourth grade and has been assigned to an excellent teacher. Then the teacher decides to quit. What should you do?

  tags: value teachers nytimes nytimes com com

• The Value of Online and Blended Learning « Uncategorized « Education Domain: Online Learning

  There is a general lack of information available when it comes to determining the costs associated with online and blended learning. Yet, at a time when all state legislatures and education agencies are wrestling with funding issues, accurate cost data is essential.

  tags: value online blended blended learning learning uncategorized education domain online learning

• UMichigan Professor Uses iPads to Remake the Chalkboard – Mac Rumors

  Apple’s big education announcement may be January 19th in New York City, but that doesn’t mean Apple is the only company innovating in the educational space. University of Michigan professor Perry Samson has developed an iPad app called LectureTools that Samson hopes can turn laptops and iPads from a way to distract bored students into an interactive learning tool that keeps them engaged.

  tags: professor uses ipads mac rumors

• SocialTech: Computer Science is not Digital Literacy

  I’m a huge fan of the current wave of enthusiasm and political will to transform the way that ICT is delivered in schools. This morning at BETT, the UK’s Education Secretary Micheal Gove will outline the Government’s endorsement of the development of Computer Science and hopefully, a more interesting, relevant and creative computing curriculum.

  tags: digilit digital literacy digital-literacy

• Pinterest: A Tool To Curate Relevant Visual Content for Your Audience – Summify

  Pinterest is a virtual pinboard where you can organize and share images and videos you discover on the web.  Think of it as social network of visuals – where you can find images from other people with the same interest or use it to curate your own visual “interest space.”

  tags: tool content audience

• Alternative.to – Power of Choice – alternative search engine

  Search for alternatives to the conventional things…

  tags: search web software alternatives searchengine power find tools

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.