Posts Tagged Myst

Our latest Myst adventures

Over the last 3 weeks my class and I have been using Myst V – End of Ages in Literacy units. I say units because I have planned for it as a resource in the units ‘Imaginary Worlds’ and ‘Newspapers and accounts’. The pupils had previously written story openers based on their first foray into the game and these were then recorded using Easi-Speak Mics. The written descriptions, the use of language and the ideas that sprung up due to the effect of the game, once again leave me in no doubt that games based learning is a resource that teachers should not feel threatened by or afraid to use.

The class thoroughly enjoy using the game as a resource and understand we use it for certain purposes to help achieve targets and objectives.

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Myst V – first week finished

Myst by Maria H.

I thought it would be of interest to post my thoughts, conclusions and also comments from my class after our first week of exploring and using Myst in our classroom. 

I had my initial doubts whether the use of the game as a teaching and learning tool would be suitable for a class of children who have Spanish as a first language but after playing with the game I decided it would be a wonderful opportunity for developing speaking and listening skills. My thoughts were proved correct as the game has brought so much conversation into the class and with it more descriptive and interesting language. Read the rest of this entry »

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Myst V – Day 5 The first Trailer

Today’s lesson was fantastic. The children knew, just as I did, that it was going to be a good one. They had finished writing their voice over scripts yesterday so they only had to edit them, tweak them into 30 seconds and rehearse performing them. It was an intensive lesson with lots of speaking and listening, probably more speaking come to think of it! But the end product was worth the extra work that they put in. They also had time to write their first rough draft for a descriptive poem based on Tim Ryland’s brilliant work.

This is the first trailer so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

[blip.tv ?posts_id=2123665&dest=-1]

The other trailers can be viewed on my blip.tv page

Tools used to create the trailer

  • Audacity for the voice over
  • Animoto for the initial video
  • GarageBand (Mac only) for editing video and audio into a trailer

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Using Prezi as a lesson starter

Prezi is an amazing online presentation tool that makes creating dynamic presentations very easy. I’ve only found out about this tool and I’m posting a rather quickly created Myst presentation for a lesson introduction tomorrow but I’m very impressed with it’s capabilities.

Some other uses for Prezi in the classroom

  • Story boards – include children’s own drawings, video work, written ideas
  • Lesson introductions on any topic if you have the time to create it
  • Mind mapping ideas with small groups or as a whole class activity
  • Instructions
  • Directions
  • Explanations
  • Recounts that come alive

There are no doubt many more so feel free to leave your ideas in the comments. Have you used Prezi? What do you think about it?

Myst V – What we have found out so far (Prezi presentation)

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