Mystery Skype

Mystery Skype that I never hear of and the first idea came to my mind is that there would be strangers on the other end of video. Mystery Skype is an educational game played among two group of class using Skype video call. The rules of the game is that the two classroom are from different parts of the world so classroom 1 would not know where classroom 2 lives. Classroom 1 and 2 must guess where they live by asking yes or no questions. Before jumping to conclusions on how the classrooms are set up to play the game, the teachers from classroom 1 and 2 would schedule a time depending on their class availability.

Click below to learn the details of mystery Skype. 

Mystery Skype

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I plan to use mystery skype when I need to teach my students about geography or expanding their knowledge on other cultures. Students would be engaged in learning about different regions, continent, and countries. In order for the students to know what to ask they need to be familiarized with basic part of world as well as the cardinal directions. When allowing students to play the mystery skype game, teachers have to set the expectations because we know that we do not want a chaotic classroom environment. Teachers must emphasize that every student should take a turn and would be able to participate. I would let my students brainstorm some questions and write down so that they would be prepared once the game would begin.

Watch the video below to get an idea how mystery Skype would like in the classroom.

Mystery Skype Connecting Classrooms Around The World

Uploaded by Térence Mosca on 2015-01-15.

Mystery Skype is not only meant for geography. I plan to use it for reading instruction. If we were learning about the holocaust with a group of 3^rd grade students and reading the book Number the Stars. I would schedule a mystery Skype with author or holocaust survivor. The speaker would be able to tell the explicit details during the era. Of course, before the skype video, I would have my students to prepare questions that they would like to ask the speaker. In general, teachers can use Skype to give the students the valuable learning that they would remember.

Here are some ways that teachers could use skype in a classroom:

Top 10 Ways to Use Skype in Your Classroom (Grades K-12)

There are plenty of organizations online that broadcast their educational adventures. One such organization is FindingLife (Findinglife.ca). This past fall, the group led an expedition to climb Mount Cho Oyu. They relayed with classes back home via webisodes, blogs, Skype, and photos.

4C's

Teachers are to give the opportunity to students to learn 21^st century skills.  Students are able to collaborate students that are not just limited to their classroom or school but are able to collaborate with students from all over the world. Students are able to communicate with other students in different continents and the students are going to learn the language of other countries in order to understand that is okay to learn other language. Students are able to think critically because within the classroom they are going to collaborate to come questions they could ask to find the other classroom's exact location. If time is reserved for students to ask open-ended questions about their location, then students are going to come with meaningful questions in order to satisfy their curiosity. Students are able to be creative because students are allowed to imagine how the other classroom's location would like when students' questions are answered in order to pinpoint the location.