{"id":169,"date":"2012-03-27T21:57:05","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T21:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/redpincushion.wordpress.com\/?p=169"},"modified":"2012-03-27T21:57:05","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T21:57:05","slug":"merlot-should-look-like-pinterest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redpincushion.us\/blog\/technology-2\/merlot-should-look-like-pinterest\/","title":{"rendered":"MERLOT should look like Pinterest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am a moderate user of<\/span> Pinterest<\/a>. By that I mean that I occasionally sit down with my phone,\u00a0open the Pinterest app, and browse through the latest pins from the people I follow. I also occasionally pin\u00a0a teaching-related resource to my<\/span> Teaching in Higher Ed pinboard<\/a> when I find something interesting at work. What I love\u00a0about Pinterest is that, as a moderate user of the tool, I can pick and choose when I want to engage\u00a0with it based on my interests and my needs. For example, one day I may get an inkling to sew something for my friend who is due with baby girl #2 in August. I go to Pinterest and I can view the\u00a0pins I have saved or browse new pins to help me find a tutorial I can use.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now let’s look at<\/span> MERLOT<\/a> and other OER (Open Educational Resource) websites. I have found OER sites to be clunky, difficult to\u00a0navigate, and difficult to use quickly and effectively. For instance, if I want to find a tutorial or interactive for my Early Childhood Development classes, I have to navigate my way through a series of menus, filters,\u00a0and information pages that link me to external OERs. I often arrive at those OERs many clicks (and minutes) later and\u00a0find that they in no way address what I need. OH THE FRUSTRATION!!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

But imagine…imagine if MERLOT looked like Pinterest. In my imaginary world, I go to MERLOT and see a\u00a0page filled with “pins” of the latest and most popular OERs. From the images on the pins, I can see how the\u00a0resources look and I can more easily identify whether resources are useful to me. I can also follow\u00a0the OER “pins” of people I admire in higher education, see what they are using in their courses, and create\u00a0my own OER pin boards that highlight resources I like or use.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Pinterest-like interface would also encourage more random browsing through resources that look interesting—something that is absolutely not encouraged by the current MERLOT interface. A Pinterest-like interface may even\u00a0help me, a novice OER user, to collect ideas for OERs that I might want to create by giving me the ability to “mix” OERs \u00a0on categorized pin boards. In short, a Pinterest-like MERLOT would allow me as a user to very quickly and easily engage with OERs when I want or need them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, I am picking on MERLOT only because I think it has enormous potential as an OER website. I could have just as easily picked on\u00a0OER Commons<\/a>\u00a0(though their interface\u00a0is slightly less infuriating).\u00a0My point is that I think all OER websites can learn from Pinterest about how to make their resources more interesting,\u00a0approachable, accessible, and community-driven.<\/span><\/p>\n

You know what? I think we need to move this idea forward…it’s time for action. Who’s interested?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Chaos \u00a0image from\u00a0FlickrCC user Nrbelex<\/a>, used with permissions of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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