I am a self-taught cook. I never cooked growing up, nor did anyone in my family. In an effort to budget and eat healthier after graduation, I finally decided I should learn how to cook real meals at home. I signed up for a meal subscription box that provided all ingredients and step-by-step instructions.
Eventually, I became more comfortable in the kitchen and ventured out beyond subscription boxes into the world of Pinterest recipes. I made mistakes along the way like making recipes and forgetting to pin them to my board, or pinning them somewhere that felt like it made sense at the time that clearly didn't compute later on. For example, I placed a roasted Chickpea recipe in my board for salads, because at the time I was using them as a salad topper. When I wanted to use them again in a different in a different meal, I couldn't find them. Even a search for "chickpea" didn't bring the desired result because they had been tagged as "vegan croutons."
Luckily, I started to use the system in more effective ways and reworked my account in ways that make more sense to me today.
Tagging and bookmarking. Concepts I understand, but seldom utilize in an academic capacity. Upon reading, Effective Tagging Practices for Online Learning Environments: An Exploratory Study of Approach and Accuracy (Dennen, Bagdy, and Cates 2018), the concept of annotating something for later reference for educational purposes sounded like a no-brainer. Why haven't I thought to treat academic journals that I could revisit for various purposes in different courses the same way I treat a taco recipe?
Such an instance came up this morning. In preparing resources for a group project in another class, I remembered looking at a great article that would be applicable to our current discussion last semester. I did not use said article, because it wasn't an appropriate fit for what I was doing last semester, but found it to be compelling and a perfect fit for this class. The only problem? I could not remember where I found it or what the exact title was. I hadn't saved it in any way.
Beyond my own learning, perhaps a library of pertinent information could be of help to future students of the program or future colleagues.
This week, I want to test Pinterest to see if the platform works, even if the content is less visual. I also plan on creating a Diigo account, a platform I have no prior experience with.
Something that I would like to explore further this week is the idea of OER through the lens of monetized Pinterest accounts. There are countless YouTube videos that discuss making money through the platform. Could something like Google Adsense empower the next generation of academics to focus their efforts in OER and receive (potentially) significant income?
What has your experience been on Pinterest? Have you utilized Diigo prior to this class? Have any tips or tricks to share on either?
I love using Pinterest for recipe ideas. I'm not much of a cook but I love to bake. All of my goto recipes for baked goods such as banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, and peach cobbler are saved on Pinterest. I love how easy it is to go back and find the recipes based on the image they're saved under. I never thought of a pin being difficult to find because of how it is labeled. I don't do a good job of changing the caption to meet my needs before pinning but I can see how I could run into problems like you did with your "vegan croutons". I should probably be more aware of how I label my pins so I can make sure they're always easy to find.
ReplyDeleteI am like you and my primary use of Pinterest is for recipes. I have boards for "superbowl recipes", "crockpot recipes", "meal prep lunches", etc. The majority of my boards are probably all revolving around food and recipes. I have never used Diigo, and I am not sure I really like it too much, but please let us know if you end up enjoying it and have any tips you want to pass on!
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