The mystery of Skype helps some educators teach geography: NPR

The rules for playing Mystery Skype are simple: students can only ask "yes" or "no" questions, and the class that assumes that the location of the other wins first.

At Glasgow Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, an eighth-grade class is done by video chat with another class.

"Are you north of Virginia?"

"Are you lining an ocean?"

"Is your state one of 13 settlements?"

After about 45 minutes of back and forth, students think of it.

"Are you in Hilton, New York?" asks student Rawan Nasir.

A chorus of answers comes out of the speakers of the computer: "They found us! Yes, we are!"

Across the country – and even around the world – teachers are using this educational game to improve students' understanding of geography, a subject with which students in this country struggle.

According to a 2014 study (the most recent data available) of the National Assessment of Progress in Education, 73% of eighth grade students do not have a very good command of geography.

According to Audrey Mohan, former president of the National Council of Geographic Education, the problem lies partly in the fact that students do not spend enough time in class on the subject. She reviewed the 2014 evaluation data and estimated that educators only spent about 20 minutes a week teaching geography.

When teachers focus on geography, Mohan said that students often learn to memorize names on a map – but that did not work. She compares it to trying to learn chemistry by memorizing the periodic table.

"If you had just memorized the periodic table and then thought you knew chemistry … you do not know it, you do not know how it interacts with each other," she said. "The same goes for geography, if you just memorize all the capitals of the United States, you're just hovering over the surface of geography."

That's where Mystery Skype comes in. The origins of the game are unclear, but after the idea began to spread, Microsoft asked a group of six teachers to write an online guide to the game.

In addition to teaching geography in context, Mohan thinks that the game can help them develop skills such as critical thinking, leadership, and collaboration.

It also gives them the opportunity to meet people from all over the world, even if they are only those with access to the right technology.

Growing cultural exhibition

In the rural area of ​​Mondamin, Iowa, fifth grade teacher Gina Ruffcorn has been playing football with her class for years.

West Harrison Elementary School has only 27 children in grade five and Ruffcorn says many of these children are not very exposed to the outside world in Mondamin.

"Our region offers almost no ethnic diversity," said Ruffcorn. "All the people my children meet daily … look like them."

Mystery Skype has connected Ruffcorn students to classrooms around the world – India, Russia, Japan, Kenya, Croatia and Mexico, to name just a few.

Ruffcorn says getting to know other places gives his students a perspective on their own city.

For example, it sometimes takes about an hour for the parents of his students to go to the grocery store. But when they spoke to a class in New York, they learned that some parents did not even know how to drive.

The game has improved the performance of its geography test students, said Ruffcorn, but she also believes that Mystery Skype has better prepared its students for an increasingly global workforce.

Build global relationships

At Wallenpaupack South Elementary School in Newfoundland, Pennsylvania, Michael Soskil created variations of the game, including Mystery Animal: Instead of guessing the location, fifth-graders in his science class must guess the animal chosen by the other class.

In this way, the game enrolled in its science program and its students can videoconference other classes more than once.

"You have to build relationships and these relationships help you learn in another way," he said. "It's really there that empathy and compassion are built … when you have a long-term relationship with another class."

These are relationships that students in Soskil would not have built otherwise – about 60% of its students live below the poverty line, so travel opportunities are often limited.

But with Mystery Skype, her students have the opportunity to meet people from around the world.