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Virtual spot the difference

Zoom in on the surroundings and remember what you can see, to practice spotting changes in your surroundings.

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You’ll need

  • Device with access to the internet

Before you begin

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers

Setting up this activity

  • Let everyone know that you’ll focus on what you can see in the background of their video call, so they may want to find a comfortable spot with an interesting background they’re happy to show off (and move anything they want to keep private).

Staying safe online

This activity’s designed for you to run during an online session. Take a look at our advice on using Zoom and other popular digital platforms, as well as guidance to help everyone to stay safe online.

Make sure that the person leading the game is the meeting host and that they know how to use the waiting room function on Zoom – there’s more information on the Zoom blog.

Planning the meeting

  1. Arrange to make contact with Scouts from another country. There are lots of ways to get in touch with Scouts in other countries. There’s guidance on the international links here.
  2. Explain that Jamboree on the Air and Jamboree on the Internet (JOTA JOTI) is an event specially designed to connect Scouts all over the world – it usually happens in October each year.
  3. Everyone should chat about how they’ll introduce themselves and get to know a bit about the other group too.
  4. This is a great time to remind people about staying safe online and not sharing personal information. If they’re uncomfortable or unsure about anything, they should chat to a trusted adult.

Play spot the difference

  1. Everyone should join the video call with their cameras on.
  2. Everyone should split into two teams. Get creative with how you show who’s on which side – one team could wear hats, sunglasses, or scarves for example. If you've lots of people on the call you could have three or even four teams.
  3. Tell everyone that taking pictures or screenshots isn’t allowed.
  4. One team should spend 30 seconds looking at the backgrounds of the other team’s videos. They should try to remember as much as they can. 
  5. After 30 seconds, the second team should turn off their videos and quickly change one thing in their background.
  6. They could move a picture on the wall, turn on a TV or close some curtains.
  7. Once everyone’s ready, the second team should turn their cameras back on and give the first team 30 seconds to spot as many changes as they can. They should type the changes into the chat as they spot them.
  8. After 30 seconds, the second team should reveal any changes the first team didn’t spot.
  9. The teams should swap over so everyone has a turn to spot the difference.

Reflection

This activity needed everyone to problem-solve while being independent by making their own decisions and building their own tower.

Did people find it challenging to choose a word and find the right items around their home? Did anyone have to change their word? Why was it difficult to complete that word?

People may have had tricky letters (such as Z or V) or maybe the same letter repeated too many times.

Can anyone remember an especially creative item they noticed someone else using?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

Online safety

Supervise young people when they’re online and give them advice about staying safe. Take a look at our online safety or bullying guidance. The NSPCC offers more advice and guidance, too. If you want to know more about specific social networks and games, Childnet has information and safety tips for apps. You can also report anything that’s worried you online to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command. As always, if you’ve got concerns about a young person’s welfare, including their online experiences, follow the Yellow Card to make a report.

You don’t have to stick to 30 seconds – give people more or less time to change the difficulty. You could challenge people to make really tiny changes that are tricky to spot (as long as they’re still visible on screen) or make more than one change.

You could use still images instead of videos if people’s internet isn’t up to showing lots of videos (or if anyone’s not comfortable on camera).

You could also add a sound element if anyone will find it tricky to spot differences – could people say a sentence or tell a short story and change just one word or detail? 

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.