Introduction to Twine
Sponsored by the Virtual Environments PLN (VE PLN)
Monday, October 10, 2016, 8 PM EST
VSTE Island in Second Life
Learn more about the work of our VE PLN
Join us October 10, at 8 EST, on VSTE Island in Second Life*, as VSTE Vice-Chair/Facilitator Bluebarker Lowtide presents his summer long exploration and usage of Interactive Fiction (IF) with easy-to-use "soft-coding" programs: Twine, SugarCube, and free publishing through philome.la.
We will be taking a quick look at the most current research and stats of this nation's K-12 report regarding reading and writing. Then, we'll move to technology tools that can support the research findings.
Tools like Twine can help teachers offer grade level customization, reading level differentiation, and unique critical thinking challenges to engage students' creatively with hopes of improving retention and increasing an individual's skill of reading and reading comprehension. Twine uses an easy set of coding commands to create a working IF (also known as choose-your-own-adventure stories) that open paths based upon the decisions of the reader and several useful text tools such as a help box or hover box to aid readers who are struggling or learning new vocabulary. It can be as indepth as you make it.
SugarCube is a export module that allows customization of the interface with the addition of picture files, expressive google fonts, page layouts and border options.
The website http://www.philome.la/ is free-to-use to upload and host your IF creations in a public space. These can be accessed anywhere from the internet so no additional programs or plugins will be necessary allowing it to be completely done within the browser. At the end, members will be exposed to the first prototype of a "Harry-Potter"-esque IF that will be featured at the Virginia Children's Book Festival the following weekend. Enjoy the IF and provide comments or critiques to help improve the final version
*Need help getting started in Second Life? Contact the team through the Google Plus Community to get support. We LOVE newbies!
