Reading A Story Is Fun, Making One Is Fun Too.

Choose Your Own Adventure. These were books that some of us may remember growing up with and reading numerous times. Selling over 250 millions copies between 1979 and 1998, they were not your typical books that started with a brief introduction, story starting on page one, and then eventually reaching the last page. These books were all about letting the reader have some say in how they wanted the story to go. And the categories to choose to read from were substantial, 184 different books to choose from to be exact. With the advances in technology, how fun and educational would it be for teachers to be able to allow their students to create their own stories?

Inklewriter is a web-based site that allows its users to create interactive stories, completely free of any overhead costs. The aim of the website is to allow the students to be the main creators of the stories, so Inklewriter was created with a user friendly interface. One of the really satisfying features about it is that stories can be created and the work fully completed on them, all without the need of signing up. It should be noted though that if a story is began and the creator wants to come back at another time, an account will need to be completed. Considering the age group of the students who may be using this website, the account creation process was taken well into consideration. A standard email address and password can be used to create an account, but if there are students who do not have an active email address, a unique name entered "@inklewriter" will suffice. Some of the other features that are worth mentioning are the fact that Inklewriter will relay information in regards to what sections of the story have been finished and what sections still need to be completed. When a student is finished completing their interactive story, they can then choose to decide if they want to publish it to the internet or to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr, just to name a few.

In my personal opinion, I believe that there's a multitude of possibilities that Inklewriter could be used for. Not only does it allow students to use their imagination to create any story they wish to come to life, but it may also influence them to take a deeper interest in reading and literature. It also gives the students a chance to practice becoming more fluent in educational technology use such as learning to post and share their works online with others. For teachers, it seems that it could be a great tool to include in their lesson plans since the cost is completely free, as well as its use is very straight forwards and simple.

To get a better visual understanding of Inklewriter, here is a video that shows it being demonstrated. An ongoing and regularly updated official blog can also be followed as well.