Task 5: Twine Task
When I first read “Twine task”, my initial thought was: are we going to make something out of or with twine? I didn’t feel quite as silly when I learned another friend and classmate also thought a similar thing. We had both connected “twine” to our original understanding of the word: a string. I immediately connected to this as another example of Jonathan Berkowitz’s insights on linguistic change. I now know that for this task “twine” was not referring to a jute string, but rather the linking or twining of non-linear stories, and (after using it) I understand how this term is an appropriate name for this idea-linking digital tool.
I felt the experience of creating with Twine to be very enjoyable. The tool was very user friendly with simple brackets to create a link and/or passage, and there were clear and easy editing options. As I was creating it, I also liked discovering that the passages would link to the same one if I wanted to, and how it was visually displayed like a mind or concept map as my story progressed. Rather than getting fixated on writing a great story or trying to perfect all the options that Twine has to offer, I was content on mindfully placing myself within the process of learning (rather than focusing on the product) and having a simple story where I could familiarize myself with the basics of the tool.
I remember reading interactive stories in books, where they said to “turn to page __ if you want … or page ___ if you want…”. I loved reading books like this, and having choice in what might happen next. But I also always wanted to go back and read all the options and see where they all would go, so I like that the final product of this tool also allows participants to explore all the possible outcomes over and over. I felt that both the creation process and the reading of a Twine story supports language and idea development, and I am excited to explore it more with the learners in my care.
I appreciate the way that your Twine story invites the reader to become an active co-author in constructing the world of the story by having choice in the types events that unfold outside of the protagonist (whether there is a broken kite or a baby owl to find, whether or not there is a gust of wind or a little girl), rather than just choosing how the protagonist reacts to events that are presented. I find it to be a fresh departure from the gamelike nature of many choose-your-own-adventure type stories, and a little closer to the spirit of creative collaborative storytelling found in dramatic improv games.
Hi James, thank you for sharing your ideas and expanding on something I hadn’t considered – “having choice in the events that unfold… rather than just in how the protagonist reacts”. I appreciate knowing that in most of these stories the reader chooses “how the protagonist reacts to the events” and I would love to say that this contrast was an intention derivative from the norm, but truthfully I was just thinking of how to make my kids have choice in what happens next and this is how it unfolded.
Also, I was thinking how this might be used as an action/consequence opportunity when the children are looking at the curricular big idea of “Local actions have global consequences, and global actions have local consequences” and how they might use this website to create stories to reflect their understanding of this.