A Day On The Water

Click on the link below to read the story.

A Day On The Water

Reflection

For Task 5 I had to create a game using the application called Twine. Twine is an opened source tool that allows users to create games and “Choose your own adventure” stories. Having learned all about hypertext and its history in this past week’s module, this was a great activity to experiment with and reflect on hyperlinks and how they have transformed writing/literature to what it is today. Bolter (2001) says, hypertext is “a path through virtual space” (Bolter, 2001, p. 29). Bolter (2001) also makes a good analogy when he says “a hypertext is like a printed book that the author has attacked with a pair of scissors and cut into convenient verbal sizes” (Bolter, 2001, p. 35). Twine is basically a virtual platform that uses hyperlinks to link text and passages together allowing readers move though text and space on their own choosing. It is a simple to use program and I like think that Twine is a modern version of how Ted Nelson and Vannevar Bush would have envisioned hypertext to be.

Unlike a printed book where the reader is kind of directed to read from start to finish, the text in Twine can be put on many different and linked pages. Depending on the reader, they can choose what links to click on and what text to read depending on their own interest. If used to develop a “choose your own adventure” story, which I have developed here, it allows reader to actively make decisions based on what they read and how they feel. The text is not fixed and the reader is not forced to read all the text or from start to finish. The developer can also add different text formats, colors, images, sounds, and video, etc., which all bring a very different dynamic to the reader’s experience. When developing my story, I initially didn’t include sound effects but I think it really makes a huge difference for the reader. The sounds effect how the reader feels and perhaps the sound even effects how the reader chooses their path.

Although this task took me a long time to complete, being my my first Twine experience, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually wanted to spend more time trying to perfect my story and learn how to add new features like video, etc. Before this module, I never really took notice but hypertext was a huge revolution in how literature and text is experienced by the reader. It gives readers the freedom to choose what they want to read and connects everything they read together. On the other hand, this freedom can lead consequences as well, depending on what path the reader chooses. This makes me think about all of the information that is on web and how you can really go down ‘a rabbit hole’ when clicking on links. Hyperlink technology has provided a great way to read and interpret an abundance of information but their are risks when clicking on links too. Readers must be cautious too as the paths and networks that hyperlinking provides might lead the reader to unwanted places where there is false information or malware/viruses. It seems like with all technology (hyperlinks included), when it is initially developed there are always good intentions in mind but there also are always people who will try to use it to take advantage of others. As educators, it is therefore important to make sure our students are aware the risks involved with using technology and how to avoid the risks so that they can use it in a good and safe manner.

References

Bolter, J. (2001). Writing space: computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. New York, NY: Routledge.