Connect With Anyone Anywhere

Very efficient in communication, face and voice!

I think it is a great tool to use! You do need to play with Skype first and make sure you understand how it works. There are a lot of features that it has that could be beneficial if you know how to use them. The students really enjoy Skyping with other people, but depending on the age their attention span may not be long. I would think about how long you want your Skype to be. You may need to make it on the shorter side for the younger students. Skype in the Classroom has some great resources that you can use to integrate Skype into your classroom.

My students were absolutely THRILLED every time we did Mystery Skype. They loved asking and answering questions about their state, city, and school. Mystery Skype provided a real-life way for my kids to connect with other classrooms around the world. Through Mystery Skype, my students got to see inside other classrooms and hear about the cultures of other students. Even after hanging up from our session, we would have great conversations around things such as accents, weather, and other classroom management. :) The only challenging part to this was finding teachers who were willing to Mystery Skype. I took to Twitter and found teachers there. There are teachers listed on Skype who say they are willing to Mystery Skype, but did not return requests or messages. Another tricky thing is accounting for time zones. When trying to set up a Skype with a class in another state, I had to keep in my mind that while my students were back from lunch in the afternoon, another class might be getting out for the day. If you can keep your sanity over schedules and finding other classrooms to Skype with, it is WELL worth your time! I highly recommend Mystery Skypeing!