Cymraeg

The Social Media Imagineers

Illustration of a person standing in front of a giant smartphone screen, holding balloon strings with social media icons like a heart, speech bubble, bookmark and play symbol. The person is wearing a star-patterned shirt and looks confident. Darlun o berson yn sefyll o flaen sgrin fawr ffôn clyfar, yn dal llinynnau balŵn gyda symbolau cyfryngau cymdeithasol fel calon, swigen sgwrs, nod tudalen ac eicon chwarae. Mae’r person yn gwisgo crys gyda phatrwm sêr ac yn edrych yn hyderus.

The Social Media Imagineers use platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook to craft new and engaging lesson ideas or resources for their students.

They are characterised as generally:

  • Explorative.
  • Crafting experiences as a form of resource.
  • Digitally savvy.
  • Open to guidance, inspiration and ideas from other practitioners to improve their teaching.

Resource preferences

Social Media Imagineers are highly connected practitioners who rely heavily on social networks and online communities to spark inspiration, stay informed, and share good practice. They view platforms like Instagram, Facebook Groups, Pinterest, TikTok, and X (Twitter) as key parts of their resource discovery journey – often valuing these spaces as much as, if not more than, formal platforms like Hwb or Twinkl.

Rather than searching for static resources, these practitioners are often looking for ideas, lesson hooks, and examples of what has worked well in other classrooms. They are motivated by content that feels fresh, visual, and engaging; favouring video walkthroughs, bite-sized idea sharing, and aesthetic displays of practice over formal resource libraries.

While Hwb, TES, Twinkl, and BBC Teach may still form part of their toolkit, these platforms are typically used to supplement or build upon the ideas they have sourced from social media.

Platforms commonly referenced include:

  • Instagram (educators sharing classroom displays, activities, ideas).
  • Pinterest (visual lesson inspiration).
  • Facebook Groups (community resource sharing and troubleshooting).
  • TikTok (creative ideas and trends for learning engagement).
  • X/Twitter (professional learning networks and links to blogs/resources).

Common challenges

The biggest challenge for Social Media Imagineers lies in translating inspiration into practical, classroom-ready resources. Much of the content shared on social media is ideas-driven rather than ready-to-use, requiring significant time and skill to adapt for their own learners, context, or curriculum needs.

Practitioners described the frustration of “rabbit holes” – losing time endlessly scrolling or switching between apps and platforms in search of something that fits. There is also a challenge in navigating the sheer volume of content online, as well as varying quality, lack of curriculum alignment, and limited availability of bilingual or Welsh-medium resources.

Additional challenges include:

  • Lack of editable versions of resources found online.
  • Uncertainty around copyright or permissions to adapt resources.
  • Difficulty translating English-medium ideas into the Welsh language or curriculum context.
  • Finding high-quality ideas that support the Curriculum for Wales ethos.
  • Pressure to keep up with fast-moving trends on social media.

Opportunities and recommendations

To better support Social Media Imagineers, resource platforms should take inspiration from the content formats, discovery mechanisms, and community sharing approaches that are typical of social media environments. These users value platforms that feel dynamic, creative, and human – not static libraries.

Recommendations include:

  • Curated “inspiration boards” or idea feeds (mirroring Pinterest or Instagram-style layouts).
  • Highlighting trending or seasonal classroom ideas.
  • Creating flexible templates that are visual and highly adaptable.
  • Offering resource toolkits that allow for instant personalisation (fonts, language, visuals).
  • Video walkthroughs or story-style content that shows a resource in action.
  • Features that allow practitioners to save, pin, or follow particular creators within a platform.
  • Showcasing Welsh-medium examples or bilingual adaptations.
  • Developing search functions that prioritise themes like engagement, creativity, and interactivity.
  • Providing guidance or good practice on adapting resources ethically from social media that can be applied in the context of the CfW.

This group would benefit from platforms positioned as collaborative, creative communities. Places not only to download resources, but to connect with other educators, learn from real classrooms, and share their own ideas in an informal way.

Case study – The Social Media Imagineers

A primary school teacher working in a large cluster exemplifies the Social Media Imagineers archetype, a practitioner who looks outward for inspiration and thrives on sharing practice, new ideas, and digital creativity.

For this teacher, social media platforms like Facebook groups, Instagram, Pinterest and podcasts have become essential tools in staying up to date and generating new ideas. They are a regular part of the teacher’s resource journey, not just for finding ready-made content, but for discovering creative approaches, classroom activities, and ways of engaging learners that one might not otherwise have come across.

Social media offers a window into what is happening in other classrooms, helping the teacher to trial new ideas, borrow approaches, and stay connected to a wider community of practitioners. Importantly, this teacher does not just use social media for resources, but uses it for professional development, to learn about trends like AI, and to hear from others about what works in practice.

This outward-facing approach is also balanced with in-school collaboration. Working within a large primary cluster, this practitioner shares ideas internally at staff meetings and cluster events, bringing back useful approaches from wider networks to trial and adapt with colleagues.

In future, the teacher would like to see the following features in a resource platform:

  • The convenience and creativity of social media, but in a more structured, reliable, and education-focused space.
  • Resources that are not only high-quality but also come with ideas, examples, or case studies for how they have been used successfully in other schools.
  • Strong visual search functionality: the ability to see at a glance what a resource looks like, much like scrolling social media.
  • Curated collections of “trending” or popular resources, similar to social media feeds.
  • Spaces for collaboration and sharing between teachers that feel informal, supportive, and low-pressure: avoiding the “perfect classroom” culture sometimes seen on social media.
  • A central platform that brings together ideas, networks, and resources, saving time spent searching across multiple sites.

For this teacher, inspiration often starts online but the goal is always the same: making learning more exciting, engaging, and accessible for learners.