texting |

Should you worry that texting students is “hand holding”?

It is our job as a company to know the obstacles teachers face when communicating with their students and parents.

When I started to hear educators discussing whether using a texting service, like ours, was considered “hand holding” with students or not, I knew I had to take a step back, learn where the concerns were coming from, and how we could overcome them.

Educators are concerned that by texting information to students, we’re not teaching them how to organize.

I think it’s a very valid question to raise! One of the many tasks put on the shoulders of teachers is helping students develop into self-capable adults. As any teacher considers the adoption of our product, or any edtech product for that matter, they should always be asking, “what’s best for the kids.”

My first thoughts were obvious - don’t you hand out syllabuses? Write assignments on the board? Post information to class websites? How is that different?

But after talking to many administrators and teachers about this, what quickly became clear to me is that this conversation should never be about how you let your students KNOW what your expectations are. It should be about how the methods you use MOTIVATE students to want to succeed.

I could probably spend a 1/2 hr on Google and find over 50 resources confirming that engagement in school is directly related to a student’s motivation and sense of self-efficacy.

You can send students one text about their exam tomorrow, or you can send them 20. In the end, it is always the responsibility of the student to study.

The true value of our product has never been the content of the messages teachers are sending. It is the impact the direct communication has on the relationships teachers develop with their students, and their students families. Using texting as a communication tool increases a students feeling that their teacher is dedicated to their success. It literally has changed classrooms.

I asked for some help, and confirmation, from our fans on this topic. I needed more proof that I wasn’t just being overly optimistic. Here are some of the responses I received:

Kate Porter McCauley:

“I started using Remind101 this school year for each of my health classes, fitness PE courses, general PE courses, an entire high school group and my 9th grade class sponsor group. I have seen a huge change in my students participation in school wide activities/events and better return on assignments and event tickets being purchased.

At back to school night and conference meetings I’ve been thanked by parents for keeping them informed and questioned by others as to how to join. I truly believe this app is one of the reasons for the positive change in my classroom and school.

Students have thanked me for the reminders and informed me that they have reposted my text messages on social media sites to spread the word on upcoming events.

I myself receive text reminders regarding bill due dates, upcoming events, and news related information. Most people, including my students have a phone and often use texting as a quick form of communication. Remind101 is an additional tool to communicate with students and the school community. I do not view it as a form of hand holding my students. It is a quick and effective use of technology that increases student success in the classroom & involvement school and community events. I love anything that promotes student success and for me that’s what Remind101 is about! Thank you for helping me relate to my students and keep them informed.”

Michael Everett

“Remind101 gives instructors and teachers access to a new communication method. If you consider it hand holding then we should also consider all communication methods between students and teachers “hand holding” The simple fact is effective communication between students and their teachers is key to the learning process.”

Dustin DuFort Petty

“I’m not an educator but I helped coordinate a tutoring program in Chicago’s homeless shelters for two years and I WISHED the teachers had used Remind101. You wouldn’t believe how many times students would come for help only to say “I can’t remember what the homework was.” It seems silly to me that anyone would say that texting students is “hand holding”. Shouldn’t we ensure that our students have every instrument for success?”

Angela Brooder

“Even as an adult, I get e-mail/text reminders about my bank account balance, when bills are due, how much of my data plan I’ve used, when people’s birthdays are, etc. How is that any different than having a way to communicate with my students? I chose to set up those reminders, just like students choose to sign up for Remind101 knowing it would be a tool they could use.”

Nicholas James Frank

“Give students every chance to succeed.”

Melody Niesen

“Remind 101 embraces changing technology and converses with students using one of today’s primary communication tools. It’s irresponsible to disregard the technology as hand holding when it can further student engagement, understanding, and encourage more personal responsibility.”

Craig Nobiling

“Texting is no different than calendar reminders/emails sent by administrators reminding educators to attend meetings/events. It helps in increasing productivity and ultimately responsibility - isn’t that what we’re striving for in school?…life?”

We’d love to hear what you think - how is texting changing the motivation of your students? How do you overcome the concerns from yourself or colleagues about students being overly reliant on your messages?

To Tweet or to Text?

We recently got an email from a teacher using Twitter to communicate with her class and parents. She had heard about us and was considering switching or adding Remind101 to her communication tactics. She’s had success with Twitter and likes using it (can’t blame her, I’m a twitter addict,#guilty), so she asked in our words what the difference would be in using Remind101.

Which raised the important conversation to us, what are the differences between Twitter and Remind101?

To be very clear. This is NOT a Twitter vs. Remind101 conversation. We adore Twitter. Remind101 is not a replacement for their service. There are extremely distinct differences between our platforms. It’s up to each teacher to decide what they feel is the most valuable communication use for their classroom.

To sum it up, Remind101 is a system built for simple safe messaging in education. Students/Parents cannot reply to messages, and it does not allow for individual conversations. Messages are sent straight to a subscriber’s phone for immediate on the go alerts. Twitter is a social, microblogging platform for conversations. A lot of teacher’s are using both in their classroom in order to capitalize on their separate, and equally awesome, values.

What are you using to communicate?

Lions, & Tigers, & Texting! Oh my!

Christine Garland is the Marketing Engineer at remind101, you can tweet her @cagarlandEarlier this week a friend shared an infographic on the positives of texting.

The data included, and case studies shown, are super neat! For example, who would have thought melanoma could be avoided with a little SMS action. That’s powerful stuff. But the brief blurb at the top of the infographic had this remind101-er pondering more than the data. The paragraph starts with, “Over time, text messaging has earned a bad rap with experts saying it ruins social interaction, writing skills, and expression.”
The for and against texting argument is not new. However, it is new to this blog. So I’ll start with a caveat - Our team makes a valiant effort to be the very best listeners a customer can ask for. We are always interested in hearing multiple perspectives. So please feel free to share your opinions after reading mine. But as you do so, please remain polite to all commenters.
I’ll start with a story…

A few years ago I was out to dinner with remind101 co-founder Brett. At the same moment that he got out his phone to respond to a text, our waitress walked up and made a comment about texting making people poor socializers. Now, anyone who has talked to Brett before knows that his ability to connect with his conversational parter is positively supurb. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure to talk to him, I hope you do. In the meantime just trust me. So, Brett set down his phone, looked our waitress directly in the eye, gave her his signature smile, and had a conversation with her. He let her know that he loves talking to people face to face, but he likes to text too. I laughed, shook my head, and ate my food. But I’ve never fogotten that.

I recognize that the LOL, JK, and TTYL messages of Generation Y do indeed excuse a person from focusing on their grammar and spelling. I also fully acknowledge that in regards to “expression,” texting is certainly not the best place to let’s say, have an argument, or describe feelings. As SMS messages can easily be misconstrued without the benefits of body language and voice inclinations. However, there is a time and place for texting. Just as there is one for phone calls, one for emails, and one for in-person meetings.

I do not agree that texting is a bad influence on our future leaders ability to socialize. For one, this isn’t the first time short hand has been used as a form of communication. A conversation with my Grandpa last week filled me in on the commonality for him to use morse code back in his army days. Not only did he learn to chat in dashes and lines, but he wrote in them too. His typing class, additionally, was taught with morse code. But as far as I can tell, nobody berated him and his buddies with suggestions of not knowing how to interact or communicate properly. (I can also say first hand that Grandpa Donnelly is a social butterfly.)

Here is what I think: We’re naturally social beings, and texting is simply an additional aid in our ever increasingly efficient socialization. But it will never overtake our ability to communicate in person. In fact - I believe it can even be a helpful tool in the socialization of shy and timid children as it is a far less intimidating form of outreach.

I imagine it’s similar to when phones first came out. There was something very odd about not talking face-to-face for awhile, but eventually it became standard. So I’ll tell you what…
The day that I hear a teacher telling me they never have to deal with chatty students having side conversations, or never have students arriving late to class because they ran into a friend in the hallway with something REALLY important to tell them (What? I never did that. Ummm…), is the day I’ll give a little merit to the fear that texting is ruining our ability to socialize in person. Rebuttal?