Task 5: Twine Task
I began this task by experimenting with Twine to see how easy it was to use. I started with a silly little “choose your own adventure” story about meeting a grizzly bear on a hike and found Twine to be straightforward and user-friendly. As the day progressed, I started to consider whether I could use Twine for more than just storytelling; maybe I could use it for instructional purposes too.
I teach oral pathology to dental hygiene students and frequently use flowcharts to assist them in organizing material and reaching a working diagnosis. To me, this method mirrors Bolter’s (2001) concept of hypertext, where “web pages serve both as regular text and as points along a path” (p. 29). Students often struggle to distinguish between similar lesions they learn separately, which I liken to branches stemming from the same tree, similar to Ong’s concept of trees in the hierarchy of information (Bolter, 2001) and that Engelbert noted that hypertext can afford (Wright, 2007). For these reasons, it seemed like this exercise might be a good fit and I thought I’d try to apply hypertext to an exercise that students often find difficult – differentiating between white oral lesions.
Once I decided on the oral pathology idea, my creative process began by sketching out a flowchart. I started by identifying the possible end results (all the lesions something white could be) and then pinpointed what would differentiate one from the other (my branches). From there, I built the case. With a basic framework in place, I started using Twine and I added the “associative links” (Bolter, 2001) to guide the students to the various options.
Given more time, I would have enjoyed experimenting with the esthetics a bit more; colors, fonts, and even the possibility of changing the orientation of words (which seems like a fun idea). However, I’m satisfied with the result. It’s simple yet effective, and most importantly, usable. I believe this could serve as an easy-to-use study guide, offering something a bit different from the usual midterm exam review.
I found this exercise much more straightforward and engaging than I anticipated. In general, I find hyperlinks incredibly useful, particularly for large documents. We use them a lot in our program, especially for our policies and procedures handbook. They help to alleviate the word burden of large texts and provide readers with the choice to further pursue more information if interested. I share Nelson’s view that there’s an overwhelming amount of information in electronic media (Bolter, 2001). In my opinion, hyperlinks serve as an excellent remediation of written text considering this information overload.
References:
Bolter, J. D. (2001). Writing space: Computers, hypertext, and the remediation of printLinks to an external site. (2nd ed). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Wright, Alex (2007, October 26). Google TechTalks. The web that wasn’tLinks to an external site. [Video]. YouTube.
Hi Steph,
Thank you for creating such an informative Twine! Starting it without reading your reflection initially left me surprised and confused, but I appreciate how you’ve used it for instructional purposes. The use of hyperlinks makes for a more interactive learning experience, which could be further developed for your students.
Your Twine incorporates many critical thinking elements. It allows those familiar with the material to think critically about cause-and-effect relationships, unlike myself, who initially had to guess where to click.
You mentioned how Twine can reduce the burden of lengthy texts and provide readers with options to delve deeper into topics that interest them. Do you plan to use this resource regularly to manage information overload, or do you think visually appealing flow chart infographics could serve as an alternative? Personally, I found it challenging to manage the information I wanted to convey because I’m less familiar with Twine.