Skyping in BCISD

Exciting things have happened at BCISD schools in the past week! Two schools have hosted learning activities that used Skype as a way to connect our students to other groups for a one of a kind educational experience.

Skyping with New Jersey

We started at Tenie Holmes Elementary last week with the classes of Marissa Wendel and Ashley Haag for a game called Mystery Skype. This activity connects two classrooms, but the facilitators do not tell the students where the other class is located. Each group of students creates questions that can only be answered with yes or no to narrow down and eventually guess where the other students are located. One by one, in turn, students walk to the laptop, state their name, and ask their question. The other group answers and then asks their question.

The school on the other end of our Mystery Skype was a 4th grade class at the Academy of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Tenafly, New Jersey just across the George Washington bridge from New York City. The only clue that had been given was that the other class was somewhere in the world so they used higher order thinking skills to create questions to help them solve the mystery. Our students wrote some really thought provoking questions, like "Do you live where it is freezing?" and "Do you play football with your feet?" The students used Google Maps to help narrow down the search and decide what to ask next. They really enjoyed the activity and wanted to do it again!

CSI Shannon Shafer

We then moved Skype to Bay City High School and connected Sarah Herring's Forensic Science classes with Shannon Shafer, a Crime Scene Specialist with Travis County Sheriff's Department. The original plan was for all three sections of Forensics to Skype with her on Monday, but in the first session, she got called out to multiple dead body scenes. Two classes were able to Skype with her on Monday while the other class got their Skype session on Wednesday. The students had written questions that they took turns asking. Ms. Shafer shared information on how to become a CSI, unique scenes she has worked, and how the real job is different what you see on the television shows which have become so popular. Students gained valuable insight into the field of forensics and hopefully got a better understanding of the job as they decide about their future career plans.

These two activities tore down the walls of these classrooms and made the student learning a much larger event. We won't stop here! I hope to see many more connected learning events in our future.