Learnist Aims to Carve Out Social Learning Niche

If you're a fan of the social media site Pinterest, then you may want to take note of Learnist, a site designed to help its members share educational interests with one another.

Grockit, a company known for test preparation and social education, first introduced Learnist in late May. According to the company's blog, Learnist is intended to help encourage vetted content and share didactic material. It appears and functions much like Pinterest, giving participants the ability to share ideas with others and group them into genres. You'll find material for all levels, not just higher education. As KQED's Jennifer Roland pointed out in the MediaShift blog on June 6, Learnist also includes do-it-yourself tips and other forms of educational material. Companies promoting their educational tools have also begun using the site as a marketing tool to reach educators.

Registration for Learnist is free, though it requires a Facebook account to connect. The site is in a closed beta phase as of this writing, which means that you'll need to register for a spot on the waiting list; you'll be invited to join when Grockit is ready to add more users. In the meantime, you can read existing posts and explore the site.