MON: Together Alone - Trello in the art classroom (Kelly Williams)
Abstract.
Together Alone: Trello in the art classroom.
Monday 18th Feb 2019 at 19:30
This conference presentation will look at the introduction of ‘productivity platform’ Trello (2019) as a technology enhanced learning tool (TEL) to promote inclusion for complex Special Educational Needs (SEN) students. As well as a project management and productivity tool, Trello is currently being ‘repurposed’ (Conole, 2018) to ‘suit’ a different ‘context’ (Agostinho, 2011) by Further Education (FE) Creative Arts students. The talk will explore how positive personal or ‘expansive’ attributes (Lucas et. al, 2013) contribute to and develop learner experience with Trello as collaborative TEL.
The inclusive ‘expansive’ area central for this SEN College is ‘enabling independence’ (Treloar’s, 2018) for learners with disabilities. The talk will look at this stimulus for the project: recognising that barriers to inclusion can exist not only within physical but also mental bubbles of isolation within the classroom for these students. It was observed that college cohorts often have more interaction with teaching and support staff than in class peers.
Trello was proposed as a flexible platform to allow this cohort of FE students the scope to work in a visual virtual classroom. The presentation will showcase how Trello gives an opportunity for improved digital literacies. There are opportunities to create digital mood boards, multiple forms of posting functionalities from animated GIFs to YouTube clips to standard blogging textual features along with response functionalities from text comments to virtual stickers. As independence in this context is measured on the scale of support required for students to complete tasks in familiar to unfamiliar situations, the introduction of Trello places these students into an unfamiliar learning environment with mainly peer support. This approach, therefore, rates highly on Independence Learning Plans (ILPs) which are used to support students for life beyond the college.
The presentation will also demonstrate a ‘social emancipatory’ (Nouri & Sajjadi, 2018) model in action. Students have a voice within the investigation and take an active part not only in the pre-project testing of potential tools for use in the project but also key decision making and tracking progress. The project has allowed for input into a ‘situated’ (Brown, 1989) learning design and software implementation with learners ‘modelling behaviour’ (Kallick & Costa, 2014) from each other and staff during the process.
The talk will conclude by looking at the early results from this six-month project. This will include an extract from an interview with the lead researcher and lead student researcher on status of the project and possible outcomes. The interview will explore researcher views and evidence to date by asking:
· Will independence increase via ‘acquisition’ of new skills and ‘participation’ with Trello (Sfard, 1998)?
· Could finding ‘a suitable voice’ (Kerawalla et al, 2008) for learning within digital environments develop digital literacy overall?
· Is independence via inclusive collaborative TEL for students with disabilities who have historically experienced ‘systemic barriers in education’ (Malhotra, 2015) an achievable outcome?
The full interview will be available after the presentation as an Open Educational Resource (OER) in a multimedia format.
References
Agostinho, S. (2011) The use of a visual learning design representation to support the design process of teaching in higher education, Australasian Journal Of Educational Technology, vol. 27, no. 6, .
Brown, J., Collins, A. and Duguid, P. (1989) Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning, Educational Researcher, vol. 18, no. 1, p. 32.
Conole, G. (2018) Learning Design and Open Education, International Journal Of Open Educational Resources, vol. 1, no. 1, .
Kallick, B. and Costa, P. (2014) Habits Of Mind Across The Curriculum: Practical And Creative Strategies For Teachers, United States, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
Kerawalla, L., Minocha, S., Kirkup, G. and Conole, G. (2008) Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course, Learning, Media And Technology, vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 21-33.
Lucas, B., Claxton, G. and Spencer, E. (2013) Expansive Education,.
Malhotra, R. (2015) Exploring Disability Identity And Disability Rights Through Narratives, Routledge.
Nouri, A. and Sajjadi, S. (2018) Emancipatory Pedagogy in Practice: Aims, Principles and Curriculum Orientation., Libjournal.Uncg.Edu, [Online]. Available at http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/228/671 (Accessed 25 March 2018).
Sfard, A. (1998) On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One, Educational Researcher, vol. 27, no. 2, p. 4.
Trello (2019) Trello.Com, [Online]. Available at https://trello.com (Accessed 15 January 2019).
Treloar's (2018) About Us | Treloar’s Disabled School & College - Treloar's, Treloar.Org.Uk, [Online]. Available at https://www.treloar.org.uk/about-us/ (Accessed 24 March 2018).
Extra content
Comment 1 by Annette Hendley
Comment 2 by Kelly Williams
Kelly Williams
6:08pm 19 January 2019 Permalink
Thanks Annette, for digital literacies I take my lead from JISC https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy
Yes let's contact Trello after (my college permitting) - it seems their last UK based education content was some time ago: https://blog.trello.com/curriculums-collaboration-and-reinventing-the-classroom
Comment 3 by Kelly Williams
Kelly Williams
6:08pm 19 January 2019 Permalink
Thanks Annette, for digital literacies I take my lead from JISC https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-students-digital-literacy
Yes let's contact Trello after (my college permitting) - it seems their last UK based education content was some time ago: https://blog.trello.com/curriculums-collaboration-and-reinventing-the-classroom
Comment 4 by patrick shearer
patrick shearer
8:28pm 20 January 2019 Permalink
Hi Kelly Great work. Love the posters and the abstract. I have been showing your work to our Learner Development team at the College. Sparked a lot of interest and discussions - innovation and inclusion ones. Really engaging design - good to see how it has evolved since your i movie in is Congratulations
Comment 5 by Kelly Williams
Kelly Williams
3:30pm 21 January 2019 Permalink
Thank you so much for this feedback Patrick. I would be super to keen to know more about the discussions and interest my work has sparked with you and your collegues (and answer any questions!) I'm not having much luck (yet) networking with in the specialist SEN FE college sphere but feedback from another FE college would be invaluable for the outreach of the project. The research itself finishes later int he year so would be more than happy to share final findings.
Comment 6 by Ognjen Vukas
Ognjen Vukas
8:19pm 9 February 2019 Permalink
Hi Kelly,
I've seen Padlet used a lot in education, and I used it for parts of the MAODE h817 group project. I thought about using Trello but went with Padlet as the more familiar option. I love Trello though and have used it for planning personal projects, most recently my house move/refurbishment - easy to use and with lots of options for inttegration with other apps. I thought it was great for project management and collaboration.
Your project sounds exciting. I'll be watching with interest to see if it could be a suitable tool in education and ideas for use with ESOL students as well.
Comment 7 by Catherine Penny James
Catherine Penny James
7:16pm 10 February 2019 Permalink
Hi Kelly
This is a really interesting project (although I have my own difficulties with Trello, I can see that it is potentially a very powerful tool). You mention that the students are using Trello in Creative Arts context; what kind of tasks are they using it for?
Comment 8 by Kelly Williams
Kelly Williams
7:54pm 10 February 2019 Permalink
Hi Penny,
They are using it for The Elements of Design - as a collaborative moodboard. I'll be talking about this aspect more in my presentation but we needed to find an common area as they are all taking different creative arts qualifications. They all need to be able to use EOD effecitvley when assessing their own and others artwork. It also aims to build a professional EOD vocabulary and understanding.
Comment 9 by Phill Grimes
Phill Grimes
12:14am 13 February 2019 Permalink
I will be interested to see these results as I can see the expansion possibilities into my classroom
Comment 10 by Phill Grimes
Phill Grimes
12:14am 13 February 2019 Permalink
I will be interested to see these results as I can see the expansion possibilities into my classroom
Comment 11 by Phill Grimes
Phill Grimes
12:14am 13 February 2019 Permalink
I will be interested to see these results as I can see the expansion possibilities into my classroom
Comment 12 by Potenza Atiogbe
Potenza Atiogbe
11:12am 13 February 2019 Permalink
Dear Kelly Great project and all the best with the presentation. As per my comments to Annette great you two are using the same tool so that you can network and share resources about Trello and more. Your project really highlights the multiple ways that Trello can be used in an educational setting. Great that both Annette and you will be contacting Trello to showcase your projects. All the best with Monday’s presentation.
Comment 13 by Dr Simon Ball
Dr Simon Ball
10:46am 19 February 2019 Permalink
Hi Kelly
Well done on a great presentation! Here is a summary of the comments and questions you received following your presentation (including those you may have addressed verbally). Please respond in whatever way you choose - I suspect you may wish to deal with the first few in one response!
Best wishes
Simon
- Excellent idea to use Trello for collaboration for 'silent' students.
- Currently our Art and Design learners are using Padlett, how does Trello differ? I'm really interested in Trello.
- All the online softwares do not guarantee sustainability forever like cloudworks so what are the barriers to Trello with regard to its future
- This is an interesting project - how easy did your students find it to use Trello?
- Isnt there any security concerns e.g. using real names?
- Trello allows for many integration with other apps, e.g. Google Drive. Have you noticed any patterns among your students, apps that students tended to use in integration with Trello?
- what are the costs of add ons
- Great talk - interested in Trello - is it a 'freemium' type product?
- How did you conduct the process of the students choosing thisin the first place / what information were they given /
- This is an amzing use of Trello Kelly and I can see how it would be useful for visual design students. Are you inspired to do further research?
- did online interaction between students increase offline interaction?
Comment 14 by Kelly Williams
Kelly Williams
2:33pm 21 February 2019 Permalink
- Excellent idea to use Trello for collaboration for 'silent' students.
Finding a suitable online voice important for all students but for it can have so much more impact for non--verbal and marginalised students. - Currently our Art and Design learners are using Padlett, how does Trello differ? I'm really interested in Trello.
Think of Padlet like virtual post-it notes, it's certainly easier for a beginner. Trello has the advantage of a mutitude of 'power-ups' to add comlexity to it's Kanban style card system - so more scope for students. - All the online softwares do not guarantee sustainability forever like cloudworks so what are the barriers to Trello with regard to its future
This is a huge issue and one I'm unsure of the answer to. My response would be to try and engage and influence developes of edtech software (I have done this in the past with oher fields) and always have other options (Phill let me know Padlet has resolved it's GDPR issues so will be looking into that. Trello was recently purchased by Atlassian so whether they will continue to support and develop it reamina to be seen. - This is an interesting project - how easy did your students find it to use Trello?
It was card system at the begining that led to threads being accidentally archived etc. Once used to that they had all supported each other with the functionalities. Next steps is self-assessment of skills needed - it's not a quick process. - Isnt there any security concerns e.g. using real names?
Boards can be public or private. In private mode only invited users can view and Trello don't data mine (as advised by my iT dept) therefore considered suitable. Student logins are all registered in the internal college e-mail system but of course there may be a time when they finihs the college that they will have theor own accounts. Part of the digital literacy element will be ensuring as the project goes on that students have an understanding and practical experience of navigating the public/private domains online. - Trello allows for many integration with other apps, e.g. Google Drive. Have you noticed any patterns among your students, apps that students tended to use in integration with Trello?
Still early days for this - so far boardlinked to survey monkey, some Google docs, voting, calendar and gif 'power ups' are popular. - what are the costs of add ons
As an inital member you get one but as you add to your team you change up to Trello Gold for free and get three. I'd say this feature is good for facilitators/teachers as provides more power-up options to board admins. - Great talk - interested in Trello - is it a 'freemium' type product?
Yes and no the paid option I would say only apply to business users who want to entire Atlassian offering (Bitbucket, Jira, Mailchimp etc.) https://trello.com/en-GB/pricing - How did you conduct the process of the students choosing thisin the first place / what information were they given
The intial brief was collaborative software that would relevant/appropriate for this cohort. - This is an amzing use of Trello Kelly and I can see how it would be useful for visual design students. Are you inspired to do further research?
I hope to apply for futher funding next year - probably keeping with the independence element - possibly looking at other edtech tools. I'll ask the students too! The in-class researcher/practitioner role really appeals to me! - did online interaction between students increase offline interaction?
Yes, it's been interesting to see what students have brought to the project and shared with their peers verbally. It been a catalyst for improved on topic talk and interaction in the class
Comment 15 by Kenneth Simpson
Kenneth Simpson
4:46am 23 February 2019 Permalink
I really liked the presentation Kelly.
Did you create your own Trello board with the class to show the students what elements they could research and to stimulate ideas throughout the course?
I have taught Vocational Education in Screen and Media and Digital Technologies and I could see Trello being very useful for those subjects. A research documnet was an output of these classes, are there any export features from Trello that could be submitted as a record?
Do the students post on each others boards or is it a general collaborative board that everyone posts to?
Comment 16 by Dr Simon Ball
Dr Simon Ball
8:15am 28 February 2019 Permalink
Many Congratulations Kelly! Your presentation has been voted by delegates to be one of the most effective of the H818 Online Conference 2019 and you are officially one of our H818 Presentation Star Open Badge Winners! Please see how to Apply for your Badge here: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/badge/view/33
Well done!
Simon
H818 Conference Organiser
Comment 17 by Annette Hendley
Comment 18 by Samantha Bennett
Samantha Bennett
10:25am 3 March 2019 Permalink
Well done on your badge Kelly - very well-deserved.
Your project has been a huge inspiration to me in so many ways.
It has inspired me to successfully use Trello as a collaborative work planning tool as I had not used it before.
More significantly though, I've been impressed with your approach - clearly grounded in an evidence base, your inclusion of student voice throughout, and the engaging way you have shared your journey with all of us in H818. The podcast is fantastic your interviewing style really encouraged the student researcher to open up about the project and share some really insightful gems.
I'm looking forward to keeping in touch on Twitter to see how your work progresses beyond H818. Best wishes.
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Annette Hendley
7:23pm 17 January 2019 Permalink
Hi Kelly
I am really excited to see the results from this study. As I am not going to be able to test the collaborative aspect of Trello, I am very intersted to see how effective it is for later use with my own project.
Do you have a specific checklist or standard that you will use to check for digital literacy? It would be wonderful if a platform such as Trello can actually enhance digital literacy. Robin suggested we contact Trello afterwards with our results as they will be interested in knowing how the platform can be used for other purposes.
I would love to see the boards but understand the dangers of opening them up.