As we are entering the second year of the Tapestry Project we interviewed the project’s Principal Investigator, Dr. Steven J Barnes, to discuss the creation and transition process of Tapestry as well as future goals for the tool.
What drove you to create Tapestry and what was your thought process for creating a tool for instructors and students?
SJB: I had realized during my years of teaching that the information I was giving to students is was usually presented in a linear fashion (i.e., we would move from topic A to topic B to topic C, etc.). I felt this was a problem, since topics are not organized like that in the ‘real’ world. We should be encouraging the creation of connections between topics that might not be related upon first glance—that is, encouraging creative thinking. I also felt that students should have more agency in both the content they study and also the types of assessments they are given. Finally, I wanted to give students and instructors the ability to easily modify and remix course content. Given those ideas, I was determined to come up with a way to present multiple forms of media (typical in most courses today) in a non-linear interactive and re-mixable format.
What was your reasoning behind the transition from the Tapestry 1.0 interface to the Tapestry 2.0 interface?
SJB: Once the Tapestry 1.0 interface had been developed (it was completed at the end of the summer of 2018), I realized that it only supported a small part of what I had envisioned for the tool. That is, it only supported branching interactivity of video content. Moreover, Tapestry 1.0 only supported linear branching. This was not a sufficient solution to the educational issues/problems I hoped to solve with the tool. Accordingly, I chose to pursue a node-based representation of information in Tapestry 2.0. Tapestry 2.0 began development in the fall of 2018 and is ongoing. Node-based representations of information enable the specification of non-linear relationships between ideas/concepts/information. Moreover, it allows for the drawing of connections between seemingly disparate ideas. Unfortunately, the ability to modify and remix existing content is proving to be a very difficult problem due to copyright issues, but it is a major focus of our current research for the tool.
How will you be implementing the tool into your classroom?
SJB: I have always used WordPress for my course websites, so integrating Tapestry will be fairly straightforward as it is built as a WordPress plugin. To that end, for my fall offering of PSYC304-901 (Brain & Behaviour), I hope to build a multimedia Tapestry as the course progresses and allow students to identify themes and relationships between the various elements of the course—creating a web of related multimedia content. My dream is that this will enable students to really think outside my course ‘box,’ and also so that the course can evolve with student input over time and over yearly offerings of the course.
Which function of the tool are you most excited to implement in your classroom?
SJB: The ability for students to contribute content to the course that is both relevant to the course and to their everyday life.
What was the inspiration behind creating the initial three Tapestry modules?
SJB: The co-applicants and I felt that there was a gap in the ability to convey current thinking around issues of diversity to both incoming and current students at UBC. We felt that the Tapestry project could help bridge that gap by creating Tapestries that were updateable and remixable to accommodate for future changes in our knowledge in these areas.
What are some future modules that you would like to create within the Tapestry tool?
SJB: First, I would like to expand the Disabilities module to include an expanse of information and case studies related to invisible disabilities. As someone who has lived most my life with an invisible disability, I am particularly excited at the prospect of creating and contributing such content to the Disabilities module.
SJB: Second, I would like to encourage the creation of an ever-expanding module that includes personal stories and current information related to bipolar disorders. Under the auspices of CREST.BD, Bipolar disorders have been a major focus of my current research for many years.
What is your end goal for the Tapestry project?
SJB: That is a tricky one. I guess that I would like to see the tool become sustainable beyond the period of our current Large TLEF funding period. In particular, ongoing development of the tool and the development of new features for the tool. I would also like to encourage an increase in adoption of the tool both inside and outside the classroom. With respect to the latter, our group is currently working on projects that use Tapestry. For example, the TYDE project led by Dr. Rachelle Hole is currently using Tapestry as its primary platform. I would like to see more such fruitful collaborations develop over the next years.