Myst - General Tips
* Take it slowly. Wander around the areas, discussing / describing as you go. You might not use the game every lesson... you might base a whole week (or more) of work on one particular environment / scene.
* You don't have to tell the children that it's a game... just dip in and out of the environments that you want to take advantage of.
* Play the game before if you can, to get an idea of where might be interesting to explore. Save the game at places that you might want to explore in the classroom.
* Build up the atmosphere in your classroom... make the room nice and dark by turning off lights / pulling down blinds.
* Sit with your class, using a wireless mouse to control the game if you can. Ask pupils to use the wireless mouse to move around at times.
Lesson / Activity Ideas:
* Running Commentaries - Ask the children to provide running commentaries, where they describe what they can see / hear / smell / touch / taste as you are moving around. You might need to model doing this at first.
* Note Taking - You could give the children a notebook to use during their Myst work. They can make notes as you explore, including vocabulary, their thoughts / ideas, clues to solving the puzzles, sketches and more...
* Instruction Writing - Ask the children to make notes while you navigate from one location to another, or while you solve a puzzle. They could then write a set of instructions to help somebody else repeat that task.
* Travel Agent Persuasive Writing - Write a travel agent brochure page / booklet to promote one of the places in the Myst games.
* Use the doors - There are lots of doors in the Myst games... what does each door look like? Does the door hold any clues as to what might be behind it? What do you think is hidden behind? How do we open it?
* Fantasy / Adventure Writing - Use the games as a starting point for your own adventure stories... using the same characters or landscapes or plot ideas. This could also be written in the style of a play which is then performed to others.
* Music - Listen to the music and background sounds with your classroom projector switched off. What kind of atmosphere do they evoke? How? Why? Could be used as a starting point for music work. Listen to the music of other video games:
Useful Links:
Tim Rylands started using Myst in the classroom. Find out more at these links:
Video of Tim teaching using Myst:
Examples of work based on Myst:
Alex Finlayson's blog posts about Myst:
