App+11+Twine

What is Twine and what can it do for me?
If you have a story to tell which branches off in different directions rather than being linear, then Twine could be the tool for you. Scenarios such as ethical decision making and clinical procedures would be suited to this tool, where students can explore the different options and see how the decisions they make affect the outcome.

Alternatively use Twine to help lead students through complex decision making processes, such as copyright and referencing.

Take a look at these resources: Educade has some lesson plan examples for using Twine with real life scenarios. Depression Quest was created using Twine and gives you the chance to step into the shoes of someone suffering from clinical depression. Through your decisions try to keep them from spiraling down. Howling Dogs is another Twine story, this time fiction. It's from Porpentine and was named by the Boston Phoenix as one of the five most important independent games of the year (2014).

To see how to insert a Twine project into the iQualify learning platform, watch this 1 min 14 sec video.

**Can a branching story amplify or transform the learner experience?**


 * Amplification **

Perhaps you want to show pharmacy technicians the procedure for withdrawing a solution from a vial. Having given them a 25 point list detailing all of the steps, you could create a scenario around this in Twine which gets the student to make choices. Will the choices they make result in a contaminated vial?

Cathy Moore created a scenario based language learning activity, where the reader is a journalist following a big story who has recently arrived from overseas and has to learn enough of the local language in order to communicate with their local guide. As the reader moves through the story, they have to learn the phrases in order to complete the assignment.

Use Twine as a scaffolding teaching tool, so that only when students choose the right answer do they get to see the next level of information. Or use it as a summary tool at the end of a module. Can the student make the correct decision based on what they've learnt in the course so far?


 * Transformation **

Instead of being limited to a group discussion activity exploring a scenario, students create interactive stories using conditional logic to alter the story depending on the choice the reader makes. Working through conditional logic and exploring each option leads to deeper understanding.

Take a look at the Twine wiki where they explore using <> to control what the reader sees when they follow a passage of text.

Students share these interactive stories with their peers through a group discussion activity and provide peer feedback.

To help students gain a deeper understanding of an issue, use Twine to model the correct answers to a presentation pitch. In this example from NZCER and Gamefroot, you choose an idea for a new curriculum of the future and then have to convince a panel that your idea is best.

Challenge yourself

 * 1) You can use a browser based version or download a version. Make sure you read up about archiving your work because your stories are saved to your browser.
 * 2) Start a new story and give it a name
 * 3) Edit your new page. Give it a title and add a line or two of text for your first passage.
 * 4)  Add a link to a new page using square brackets. To turn the text **Turn left at the junction**  into a link to a new page, simple enclose the text in **[ ]**.
 * 5) Edit your new page
 * 6) Select Publish to file, choose where you want to save the html file and select Save.
 * 7) You can read an example that I created in 10 minutes.