In the weeks since Learnist launched, educators have been finding ways to put it to use.

Learnist, as many have already pointed out, works much like Pinterest — a way to catalog online resources on a topic and share them with the user’s social network. And like Pinterest, it looks like a digital bulletin board with pictures and messages, and connects with Facebook accounts. In fact, the site’s “learning boards” look quite a bit like Facebook’s timeline feature, and Facebook membership is required to use Learnist at this point.

In its current closed beta form, Learnist, launched by Grockit, is still very much in its infancy, but some curious teachers have already jumped on the wagon. Time will tell whether educators will stick with Pinterest, or migrate to Learnist because of its association with Grockit, which already has a large and loyal following as a social learning tool.

College physics instructor Leilah McCarthy created collections on subjects like electromagnetism, mechanics, and waves. High school English teacher Amy Gallagher Critchett posted lessons on grammar and writing. Also under the “Education” category are topics like Mythology, Analyzing Literature, Applying the Pythagorean Theorem, The Great Gatsby, and Common Core Math Standards.

Educators can also find some professional development, including information about flipped classrooms, technology integration, all about the collision between DIY and education, and a professional development summer camp.

Students can also use Learnist to share resources for group projects, to prepare notes to study for tests and write papers. The Facebook integration ensures that they can keep each other up-to-date when they make changes to shared study boards.

But education is just one of about 20 topics on Learnist. You’ll also find topics such as Do-it-yourself instructions, like Aaron Burcell’s Kitchen Hacks and How to Make Milk Foam; technology how-tos like Software Tutorials and Social Media Risk Management; and lifestyle topics like Benefits of Cycling are all intermingled with topics related to formal education, such as Bill Gordon’s Classroom of the Future.

Companies have also found Learnist as a way to market their products, as with the Favorite Apps for Education tag, which is populated with boards from private companies that want to market their wares.

The creators of Learnist put together some resources to help users make useful boards.

Grockit

On the heels of Monday’s story about a new Facebook app called Hoot.me that focuses students on lessons at hand, and away from distractions, here’s some news from Grockit in the same realm:

Facebook’s developer conference, Grockit, a social learning company, announced a new integration with Facebook that will make it even easier for students around the world to create Grockit study groups with their friends. Now people using Grockit can quickly create “Study Rooms,” invite their Facebook friends and prepare together for college entrance examinations, such as the SAT, ACT, LSATs, GMATs, GREs, and more. Students can also track and share academic progress and milestone achievements towards their academic goals on their Facebook profiles.

“Millions of students are on Facebook, but they aren’t just socializing. They are helping each other with homework, sharing school resources, and in general hacking together a social learning experience online,” said Farbood Nivi, founder and Chief Product Officer, Grockit. “The cool thing about our new Facebook integration is that students can create, control, and access Grockit Study Rooms right from their Facebook profiles. Study Rooms include tons of content to help with studying, from practice questions, to video lessons, and even personal tutoring.”

Earlier this year, Grockit released research showing that students who study together on Grockit do twice as much work — and get answers correct more often — as students who study alone.

In addition to creating new study groups, people using Grockit can share the total number of hours spent studying, the total number of questions attempted, and their progress studying within Grockit via their Facebook profiles. People can control how their activity is shared with friends on Facebook from their Facebook privacy settings.

To learn more about Grockit’s Facebook integration, please visit: Grockit.com/social