Mystery Skype

Mystery Skype

Success!

What is Mystery Skype and Why Do It?

Getting Started

ISTE Standards

Communication and collaboration

Students use digital media and environments to

communicate and work collaboratively, including

at a distance, to support individual learning and

contribute to the learning of others.

a. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers,

experts, or others employing a variety of digital

environments and media

b. Communicate information and ideas effectively

to multiple audiences using a variety of media

and formats

c. Develop cultural understanding and global

awareness by engaging with learners of

other cultures

d. Contribute to project teams to produce original

works or solve problems

Research and information fluency

Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate,

and use information.

a. Plan strategies to guide inquiry

b. Locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize,

and ethically use information from a variety of

sources and media

c. Evaluate and select information sources and

digital tools based on the appropriateness to

specific tasks

d. Process data and report results

To make sure that you have a successful session and the students have fun and learn, there are a few things you need to do before starting your Mystery Skype session.

Mystery Skype has been a wonderful success in the classroom. Students are engaged during sessions, they use technology to research, they effectively problem solve, and they have fun communicating with other children from many different places .

Preparing the students ahead of time was key to the success of our Mystery Skype sessions.

Mystery Skype is a 45-60 minute critical thinking challenge that students take part in while Skyping with another class somewhere else in the world. The goal of your students is to research, collaborate, and problem solve to determine the other school's location before they guess yours.

General questions should be answered using "Yes" or "No"

Good examples of General Questions:

Do you live in the Northern Hemisphere?

Do you live in the Western Hemisphere?

Do you live along a coast?

Do you live west of the Mississippi River?

Poor examples (These questions are too specific):

Do you live in Virginia?

Do you live near Alexandria?

Go over student roles and expectations.

Greeters: Two to three students greet the partner school and give them the chance to ask the 1st question.

Researchers: Everyone in the class plays the role of researcher. Make maps, books, atlases, globes, tablets, iPads, and/or laptops available for each student to use while researching.

Questioners: Two students at a time ask the other school general questions. Students have to pay attention to the questions already asked and the answers given by the other class.

Class Captain: One student checks in to make sure everyone is working together, questioners are ready with questions, students are researching, etc.

Reasons to do Mystery Skypes with any grade level:

Students love it

Engages critical thinking skills

Creates a global community of learners

Develops Geography skills

Focuses on Listening and Speaking skills

Is entirely Student-Led (after you preteach)

Authentic purpose and use of student research

Challenge-Based Learning

Creates partners for future projects

Gets teachers to collaborate globally

Creates opportunities beyond Mystery Skype sessions.

Whenever possible I strive to give students the opportunity to travel beyond the confines of the classroom. This project allowed me to take students around the country, meeting new friends along the way, through Skype.

Technology operations and concepts

Students demonstrate a sound understanding

of technology concepts, systems, and operations.

a. Understand and use technology systems

b. Select and use applications effectively

and productively

c. Troubleshoot systems and applications

d. Transfer current knowledge to learning

of new technologies

Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making

Students use critical thinking skills to plan

and conduct research, manage projects, solve

problems, and make informed decisions using

appropriate digital tools and resources.

a. Identify and define authentic problems and

significant questions for investigation

b. Plan and manage activities to develop a solution or complete a project

c. Collect and analyze data to identify solutions

and/or make informed decisions

d. Use multiple processes and diverse

perspectives to explore alternative solutions

Provide direct instruction and teach students how to use various resources to determine locations around the world.

During our Mystery Skype Sessions we used:

Student atlases

Classroom maps

Classroom globes

National Geographic Map Maker Interactive

http://mapmaker.nationalgeographic.org/

Schedule your Mystery Skype with another teacher. You can connect with other teachers through social media or find classrooms around the world through the Skype in the Classroom website.

https://education.microsoft.com/skypeintheclassroom

A couple days prior to the actual Mystery Skype, do a practice Skype together to work out any issues before Skyping with your class.

Start by teaching students how to ask general questions. To help my students learn how to ask general questions we played detective games during our morning meetings. Students would have to determine what was changed in the classroom and who changed it through a series of general questions. Students learned that general questions guided them in better directions and specific questions were often met with a dead end.