Technology, Authentic Learning, and Teacher Roles: A Story of Using a Social Media Tool to Share and Learn

This article documents the author´s experience of using Pinterest, a social networking site, in teaching EFL learners in a Chinese university through assigning and carrying out a simple but authentic task. By inviting the students to share summer stories in English just before the 2014 fall semester starts the teacher creates an opportunity for the students to use English for real communication. The various problems encountered by the teacher and students alike along the learning journey and how they are resolved through communication in the target language and collaboration among participants reveals the potential power of digital technologies to facilitate authentic learning, bridge formal and informal learning, and foster equal student-teacher relationship.