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Student centered and inquiry based, Mystery Skype energizes students to learn about other places.
This tool has been useful in teaching world geography to 7th graders as it helps bring the world closer to the classroom, enlivens the content, encourages analyzing information, and develops questioning and critical thinking skills.
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Mystery Skype in action. The bottom shows students from Belgium on the
computer monitor while in the background (the top) my students collaborate
and view the Belgian student on the SMART Board.
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A Mystery Skype is basically like 20 questions during which the two classes are trying to figure out the other’s location. The teacher sets up the game with another teacher either through the Skype in Education website or social media such as Twitter. Once a date and time is set - very difficult since no schools have the same schedules and class periods rotate through our school’s - you’re ready to go.
Well...almost.
Having never done one before, I was tentative to just let the students fumble their way through the challenge with me. I looked online for help and found teachers that structured their classrooms during Mystery Skype. Paul Solarz and Pernille Ripp gave great suggestions regarding roles and etiquette.
My colleague Sam Mandeville and I collaborated on roles our students would take on, and since we were both tentative of letting our respective students loose on the world, we set up a Mystery Skype between our classes. Even though we were right down the hall (classes took on the role of city, country so they could actually play) and the students knew one another, it provided a terrific opportunity to put us at ease and work out kinks. The students were also exposed to the flow of the game.
My students connected with places all over the world including Malaysia, Belgium, Canada, and Singapore.
As we gained more experience, we used less structure by having a few students record questions and answers and all students generating and asking questions. Even a number of the quieter students stepped right up to the microphone.
The students were engaged, learned more about where they live relative to other places, were exposed to other cultures, and made connections to people otherwise impossible.
Next year, in addition to Mystery Skype, I hope to use the power of Skype to connect my classes with others around the world to collaborate on different topics or projects. This will further enrich their lives and develop them as global citizens.
If you have had success with Mystery Skype, if you have had other positive Skype experiences in your classroom, or if this post has generated some thoughts of your own, please share in the comments. I would appreciate hearing from you.
