Through one of the world’s largest live connections of students at one time, Skype-a-Thon participants from 102 countries traveled a total of 23 million virtual miles in the span of two days. Thank you to all the classrooms and participants who invested so much of their time and creativity! It was truly amazing to see the energy and feel the power of classrooms connecting across the world.
What an incredible 48 hours! Hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and guest speakers came together over Skype to learn with each other. The stories and experiences they shared opened hearts and minds!
Thank you @arperrier and your students for our very first international Mystery Skype of the #skypeathon! From USA to France, we traveled 3,637 virtual miles. What a terrific way to start the day! @MicrosoftEDU @SkypeClassroom #MIEExpert pic.twitter.com/3m9i8SixqP
Amy Rosenstein (@SkypeAmy) November 13, 2018
What made the experience even more special is that the 23 million virtual miles traveled also raised funds to support the education resources for up to 35,000 children in need in WE Villages – supporting UN Sustainability Development Goal #4, Quality Education.
From overnight sleep-overs in schools, where students traveled up to 3 time zones away, to schools that visited all 7 continents and all 50 states in the US, participants shared thousands of songs, stories and traditions to build empathy and compassion for one another.
Thank you everyone! We had a wonderful and meaningful #SkypeaThon journey this year! See you again in skype-a-thon 2019. #MicrosoftEdu #MysterySkype #teammalaysia pic.twitter.com/cJV0AA5zvP
Aliff Othman (@aliffothman04) November 14, 2018
For those who participated, celebrate your experiences and share them with others:
- Download the Skype-a-Thon certificates
- Get the Skype-a-Thon badge
- Share your students’ learnings and favorite moments in our Skype-a-Thon Flipgrid.
- Create your own Grid for your classroom via Flipgrid! Your students can share their favorite Skype-a-Thon moments and you can share the Grid with other classrooms and parents.
- If you connected with an expert during Skype-a-Thon, you can send thank you videos or follow-up questions by creating and sharing the Guest Mode invitation to a Topic within your classroom Grid.
Great news from Vishwa Vidyapeeth School, India, we just crossed one million miles & the count is on..Thanks to Microsoft & all Educators worldwide.@SkypeClassroom @skype @AnthonySalcito @iro_st #MIEExpert @MicrosoftEDU @vishwavidyapeet @anandeswaran @satyanadella #Skypeathon pic.twitter.com/tFj2Zytpjq
— Skype2india (@skype2india) November 14, 2018
You can continue the fun and learning inspired by Skype-a-Thon throughout the year by visiting Skype in the Classroom and learning how to take Virtual Field Trips, schedule guest speakers, and connect with thousands of other classrooms. There are also a lot of Activity Plans aligned to ISTE standards and written by teachers to support you, as you organize your live learning activities.
Every year, Skype-a-Thon opens the hearts and minds of the students and teachers who have the chance to visit people and places they would never be able to physically visit. And those experiences over Skype foster human connections that truly shape the perspectives and attitudes of the next generation of global citizens. These citizens can make the world a better place and that is just what they did this year.
A whole group selfie while standing a chair w/ @Intl_Chadwick G4s & @AdamShortShorts & @GridPalGeorge from @Flipgrid is like herding cats! #Dab #FlipgridFever pic.twitter.com/gWM31Eqjij
Sean Forde (@Sean4d) November 15, 2018
