Mystory is a pedagogical practice and writing activity invented by Greg Ulmer and described in his book,
Internet Invention.
Essentially, mystory is a writing activity that seeks to understand ways of knowing and thinking. Mystory is separated into several basic tasks, which asks students to:
- Create a website (hosting sites like Blogger are fine)
- Respond to the four discourses of electracy and pauses
- Create a final emblem
The four discourses (family, entertainment, career, and community) are separated into individual prompts. Each prompt includes 2-3 topics about that discourse that students should think and then write about. There are two pauses in the mystory, which function as reflective moments during the process of constructing a mystory. The emblem is a final creation that represents the student's individual Self, produced after a final reflection on the completed discourse responses.
Students write their responses to the prompts, pauses, and showcase their emblem on their website. In doing so, a completed mystory will reveal patterns of thought and thinking. Ultimately, students will (re)evaluate their own methods of knowing, learning, and thinking.