Elaine’s Task 5

I really enjoyed experiencing Elaine’s Twine task and seeing what a day in kindergarten looked like. To be honest, it’s not that much different in grade 6/7, especially with the group I have this year. I found her day very relatable, rushing to prepare materials, managing behaviours, communicating with parents, and the unexpected things that come up during the day that take up our break and prep times. It was great to see another Twine task, as I saw how Elaine used the application. I thought it was quite lovely to include pictures and use dialogue in the story. 

Overall, Twine is an inventive way to utilize the computer as a tool for writing. The ability to gamify the story experience can be very appealing to many learners. The customization and coding aspects involved in the process makes links to other parts in our BC curriculum, not just literacy. As Bolter mentions, writers can feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of text that is seen in print (2001). Twine provides an opportunity for hypertext that has “both an intrinsic and extrinsic significance” (Bolter, 2001, p. 27). This essentially means that the word or phrase has a larger meaning, or a meaning that cannot be succinctly conveyed in words. This feature has the ability to condense information, which makes it easier for the audience to read. For example, we are currently in the process of transitioning our grade 7 students to grade 8 through the catchment high school. There are lots of components to the transition process (presentation slides, documents, procedures, schedules, etc.). I found it helpful when there were hypertexts in the form of links that could take me to the various pages or sites. When organized properly, this can make a lengthy and confusing process into a straightforward procedure.

Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of print. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.