Creating a community-generated archive:

Digital tools for storing, citing, and sharing visual artifacts

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

Courses
Introduction to Communication, Communication (general and specialized), Communication Theory,
Political Communication, Visual Communication, etc.
Objective
This activity utilizes social media and bookmarking technology to create a digital archive for classroom
discussion. Students will learn to: (1) identify and archive communicative action in the world around
them, (2) produce and curate digital images, (3) appraise the role of visual imagery in meaning-making,
and (4) work collaboratively to create a digital archive around a central topic. In addition, the creation
of images on Pinterest offers students the opportunity to explore questions of digital and media literacy
(Hobbs, 2010).
Rationale
As educators and professionals aim to maintain pace with rapid changes in communication technology,
classrooms emerge as prime locations for innovation (Okiojie & Olinzock, 2006; McArthur, 2009). The
digital natives (Prensky, 2001, p. 1) in todays classrooms are ready to engage with technology, and are
seeking and securing jobs related to social media and other communication technologies in a variety of
fields. According to Prensky, digital natives are those who grew up using digital technologies whereas
digital immigrants are those who first adopted digital technologies later in life. This activity aims to
provide instructors especially those who may be hesitant to integrate technology into their classrooms
with the tools to successfully combine social media with their course aims.
One aim common to many communication classrooms is the attempt to bridge theory and practice in
tangible ways for students (as evidenced in this journal by Graham and Mazur, 2011; McArthur, 2009;
and Sanders, 2010, among others). This activity invites students to discover communication theories and
practices in action. Then, they utilize digital bookmarking tools to create a class archive for these
discoveries.
Pinterest may be one social media tool in a growing list of options, but as of September 2012, it
outpaced Twitter, YouTube, Yahoo!, Bing, and other contemporaries in volume of referral traffic. It is
currently in second only to Facebook in its referral power (Wong, 2015) and commonly appears on lists
alongside Facebook, Google, and direct links as a driver of web traffic (Soskey, 2012). The defining

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

feature of Pinterest that makes it compelling for classroom use is its ability to archive images with dual
functionality as both a social bookmarking and social networking tool.
Pinterest is a social bookmarking and networking tool that invites users to archive and share images that
they find interesting, pleasing, or helpful. The social bookmarking aspect of the site allows users to
compile information around self-selected topics. Each Pinterest account functions as a set of topicbased, visual bulletin boards. On each bulletin board, the account-holder can pin images of interest
from the Internet. For example, a user might have a Pinterest board titled Recipes. On it, he might pin
images and recipes of foods that he wants to try to make. He might title another board Philosophers
and pin images of famous philosophers that he has found on the web. Both of these boards serve the
purpose of archiving the images and links to their original sites. So, when he wants to return to that site
with information on Aristotle, he can return to his Pinterest board and click through the linked image.
The social networking aspect of the site is created by following other users. A Pinterest user could
search for boards titled Landscaping. After perusing the results, she might select one or more boards
to follow. She could also find her friends or colleagues, or even local businesses, and follow all of their
boards. When a user follows a board, she will see any new additions to that board when she accesses
Pinterest. She might choose to re-pin images to her own boards if she sees things she likes.
One additional function of Pinterest that makes it valuable for this activity is the ability of multiple users
to edit a board together, combining the social bookmarking feature with a sort of wiki-style
environment of shared ownership.
Pinterest users have developed ways to apply Pinterest not only to their own personal lives, but also to
business practice (see Shandrow, 2013) and social advocacy (see Huffington Post, 2012). This activity
seeks to apply Pinterest in the communication classroom by using Pinterest to create a digital classroom
archive of student-selected examples of communication in the world. Students completing this activity
will become more adept at identifying communication theory at work in the world around them and
critically reflecting on communicative practices. Thus, the activity can be modified to match the
curricular aims of many communication courses.
Description of the activity
Each student in the class was asked to create a Pinterest account to add to the classroom discussion
throughout the term. As various communication concepts and theories are discussed them (e.g.
proxemics, examples of digital literacy or illiteracy, media messaging), students were asked to identify
these in the world around them and pin them to a class Pinterest board.
To prepare for this endeavor, the instructor should create an account on Pinterest for the class or topic
and invite students to follow that account. Next, the instructor should create a board for class material.
For this activity, the instructor adds each class member as a contributor to the class board so that it
functions as a multi-user board. Everyone in the class will be able to see and upload images to a single
board. For instructors new to Pinterest, the site offers excellent help services under the Instant

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

Answers tab at http://help.pinterest.com . These services include step-by-step instructions for creating
boards, adding people to multi-user boards, commenting on pins, and navigating the site.
The instructor should set ground rules for using the class Pinterest board. Some of the ground rules used
in this activity included:

Each pin should reflect one of the topics weve covered in class.
Each pin should be accompanied by a caption that places the pin in context (who, what, when,
when, where, why) and connects it to the course topics.
Students are welcome to re-pin images from the Internet, but at least 75% of your overall pins
should be images or videos of your own creation.
Comments on our class pins are welcome and encouraged.

The instructor should monitor the Pinterest board, commenting on good observations, asking for
clarification, and providing examples of how to best pin items and how to author corresponding
captions. In this respect, the activity also becomes a lesson in writing succinctly, while including clarity
and context. Throughout the length of the activity, the instructor and the students in the class can refer
back to the board for in-class examples. Instructor modeling of these references early in the activity
might inspire students to seek examples from their classmates pins as well.
Debriefing
To debrief the Pinterest board assignment, instructors in this activity had students analyze the content
to discover what themes were present and what themes were absent. Thus, students in the course
critically examined their own work and that of their classmates to discover new perspectives and varied
ways of thinking and learning. Students were asked to respond to the following questions:

What did you learn by creating an archive of course content on Pinterest?

How did your photographic choices change or alter the situations you documented and shared?
What communication concepts from our course were included in our archive, and what
concepts were left out?
How did your images contribute to or add value to the overall class archive?
Appraisal

This activity began as a vehicle for capturing the co-curricular experiences of the students outside of the
classroom. The Pinterest assignment was fun and educational for both students and instructors. In the
initial version of this activity, the intent was simply to create an archive, but instructors immediately
recognized the value of such an archive for connecting theory and practice. Figure 1 demonstrates the
variety of images created and pinned by students to capture their course content outside the classroom.
In their evaluations of the course, students commented that the Pinterest exercise helped them to see
course concepts through the eyes of their classmates. In the example board, several students
commented early on that the Pinterest boards seemed to reflect the positive nature of the subject

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

matter (in this case the Democratic National Convention, which was held two miles from the university
campus) rather than a well-rounded view of the event. Other students responded to this claim later in
the board, posting images of protesters, trash, and the displaced homeless. This self-correction was one
of the most interesting developments in the board.
The Pinterest board could be used for a variety of course aims. In this example, the board was used as a
barometer for the students understanding of the material, a source for in-class examples, and a starting
point for discussion. The board also became a digital archive of class-based information and could be
utilized as a ready-made site for exam review or end-of-course reflections. In a research methods
course, the board could become a teaching tool for content analysis methodologies. Students could also
organize their pins on the board around a central concept to create a themed photo essay or tell the
story of a particular experience. In all of these examples, the core issue is the connection between
communication concepts and lived experience. In the arena of digital and media literacy, the Pinterest
activity invited students to create mediated messages. The creation of media messages in a social media
environment has its own set of learning outcomes that could be examined through this activity (for
more information, see Hobbs, 2010).
Limitations of this activity relate to access, group size, and synchronicity. When this activity was first
devised, Pinterest was an invitation-only platform. That limitation has been removed allowing all
Internet users to create Pinterest accounts.
On the issue of group size, instructors have attempted this activity with groups as small as ten and as
large as one hundred. The hundred-person boards produce a vast archive of information and examples,
but the consistency of ideas is limited. This limitation could be addressed using multiple Pinterest boards
for multiple topics. The ten-person boards create an adequate set of examples, but the variety of
perspectives is limited to the personal characteristics of the ten students.
Synchronicity remains an intriguing variable for this activity. The question that the activity prompted
was: should pins occur in real time or can pins be captured from Internet sources days, months, or years
past? Even though instructors who tried this activity privileged currency of images, the answer to this
question would depend on the aims of the course.
In sum, this activity created an opportunity to blend course aims with the integration of current
technology. Utilizing social media, specifically Pinterest, captured the imaginations of current students
and connected them to course material through their computers, mobile phones, and tablets. As
instructors seek to investigate new avenues for learning, social media remains an available resource that
can promote academic learning when instructors apply its structures to course content.
References & Suggested Readings
Graham, E. E., & Mazur, J. P. (2011). The Interpersonal Competence Development Project: The
intersection of theory and practice. Communication Teacher, 25 (3), 159-165.
Hobbs, R. (2010). Digital and Media Literacy: A plan of action. Washington, DC: Aspen Institute.

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

Huffington Post (2012). Pinterest for non-profits: 7 organizations to watch. Retrieved June 2013, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/21/pinterest-nonprofit-organizations_n_1282855.html
McArthur, J. (2009). Composing Podcasts: Engaging digital natives in the communication classroom.
Communication Teacher, 23 (1), 15-18.
Okojie, M. C., & Olinzock, A. (2006). Developing a positive mind-set toward the use of technology
for classroom instruction. International Journal of Instructional Media, 33, 33-41.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9, 1-6.
Sanders, M. L. (2010). The Interpersonal Development Project: Bridging theory and practice in
interpersonal communication courses. Communication Teacher, 24 (3), 165-169.
Shandrow, K. L. (2013). 10 questions to ask when creating your companys Pinterest page. Retrieved
March 2013, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225936
Soskey, G. (2012, Sept. 6). Pinterest beats out Yahoo! (Organic Search) to become 4th largest traffic
source in the world. Retrieved Sept. 2012, from http://blog.shareaholic.com/2012/09/pinterest-trafficdata-august/

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

Figure 1. A sample Pinterest board compiled by students in an experiential special topics seminar about
national political conventions during the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC.

John A. McArthur
Queens University of Charlotte
jamcarthur.com | @jamcarthur | #NCA15

Figure 2. A Pinterest Archive from a course on Space/Place and User Experience