Twine is an open-source tool for telling, interactive, nonlinear stories. Twine allows users to create interactive fiction that can become a game and it is free. Twine 2 is the most recent release series of Twine. If you have never used Twine before this version is recommended.
Type of Material:
Development Tool
Recommended Uses:
Users can create interactive stories and games. Language arts classes can use this as homework or for individual and group activities.
Technical Requirements:
Twine 2 is the most recent release series of Twine. If you have never used Twine before this version is recommended.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Twine provides a way for users to create non-linear stories or games, much like those "choose your own adventure books" from the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Target Student Population:
upper elementary students through adults
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Users do not need to write any code to create a simple story with Twine, but can extend stories with variables, conditional logic, images, CSS, and JavaScript when ready.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Twine is for story telling and making it interactive or turning that interactivity into a game. This sounds complex, but Twine helps you organize your content. It has a simple interface, shows the layout of the story graphically (little boxes get linked) and it is free. The program allows for concepts, models, and skills to be applied to the creation of a story. Creating an interactive story gives the creator the opportunity to demonstrate learning of vocabulary, syntax, etc. No advanced knowledge is necessary as Twine will publish directly to HTML.
Concerns:
If you want to extend the possibilities with Twine to customize your work some programming skill is needed. It appears that there is a known issue for some Windows users who download it. It does not include MSVCP71.DLL which must be downloaded and put in Twine's directory. It is not a difficult fix, but certainly annoying to those who need to do it.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Users will be able to create interactive stories for others to view and experience. Twine has users connect compose and then connect small bits of text in interesting ways. Users can visually see how the story is coming together. And they are able to drag and drop sections of their story while keeping the arrows that connect them in place. Learning how to use Twine may 10-15 minutes, but then users can become very creative with their stories and the interactivity. Understanding story telling and initial concepts of coding can easily be addressed with Twine.
Concerns:
None.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Twine, an open-source tool, can be used directly online and saved to the users browser. (If users clear their browser cache, they will lose everything.) Or it can be downloaded for free for Windows (32 bit), Mac OS and Linux (32 bit). Twine provides a Question and Answer section, a live chat area with others using Twine called Discord, a Cookbook of examples of common authoring tasks, and a Twine Wiki that has reference information and documentation to support users. Twin publishes directly to HTML so users can post work nearly anywhere. Anything created by users is free to use, including commercial purposes. There could be a learning curve, but only a slight one.
Concerns:
None.
Creative Commons:
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