Mystery Skype another aspect of my major project

   by  ebayink 

My major  project involves the integration and support of many different digital strategies and tools. As a technology coach I don't have a class this year, instead I have many classes!

One of the projects that I would love to support and help teachers bring to life I the classroom is the Mystery Skype. A couple years ago I had heard about this project, so of course I immediately got excited about its potential to engage kids in this collaborative opportunity to learn about other global communities. After talking about it (excessively :)) a couple friends of mine got sucked into the enthusiasm, and decided that they too wanted to try a Mystery Skype. 

Using the power if Twitter, I was able to find partners for my friends using the hashtag #mysteryskype. One classroom was from England, the other was from Ontario. When engaging in the mystery Skype, the students were divided into groups with specific roles to help narrow down the search. 

One aspect that makes the mystery Skype a bit challenging is finding partners of a comparable time zone, this can often put a bit of a hamper on coordinating mystery Skype partners. One way to get through this problem was solved in a post in the Mystery Skype Google Plus Community that I belong to. I think the author is definitely onto something with the "Asynchronous Mystery Hangout". Check it out!

In addition to finding Mystery Skypees on Twitter, you can find a fellow Skypee via Google Community! Check out the Mystery Hangout for Education Google Community and the Mystery Hangouts for Foreign Language Teachers

Teachers can also find out more about Mystery Skype via Skype in the Classroom and sign up to register.

 

   by  21innovate