Recently, I've been updating my lessons with Twine, software that allows a person to create interactive narratives in storybook form. Basically, think of it as software that allows you to create your own 'choose your own adventure' stories.
To get used to the software, I used a familiar lesson plan about simple English sentences and incorporated it into Twine. I wanted to learn about the software and understand its limitations and possibilities for teaching and learning.
If you would like to try it the end result and provide feedback, the Twine story can be found here:
I have also updated my original post with the new Twine lesson as well, here.
I think these lessons in short story form can improve engagement for students, but I am uncertain if there are other tangible benefits over in-person teaching and learning. Like many other software uses in education, Twine is a closed system. Yeah, you can add lots of variety to the stories, but ultimately it's a closed system and works well for some topics and is too restrictive for others.
For instance, for providing basic grammar lessons or math problems, a closed system is fine. But for challenging work that requires critical thinking skills and their application, I have yet to find software that performs adequately, let alone on par with classroom learning and teaching. In some ways, the creation of a digital story (such as from Twine) seems to be the best test for critical thinking skills and their application. So, if I were to incorporate digital storytelling into the classroom, it would be about making digital stories. If your experience contradicts mine, I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.
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