Sexting Statistics with College Students

Via: BestCollegesOnline.com

gText for Student and Teacher Communication...Text Alert Meets Edmodo

gText is a free resource developed specifically for teachers to communicate better with students and parents. While gText is just starting up, it has a lot of potential for being a helpful mass text alert system for teachers. gText allows you to create as many texting groups as you wish. In addition as a member of a group you can decide how many messages you are willing to receive per day or per month (this is helpful for students or parents who do not have unlimited plans, so they can control the number of text messages being sent to their phones).

All text messages are archived on the class page (and students or teachers can even comment on the text message communication!). The class pages acts and looks like Facebook. It also reminds me of Edmodo, the news feed of the text alerts and the ability to integrate classroom management options. You can also add pictures and files so that it allows for more than simple text communication. This is a feature I have not seen on any other text alert site. In addition the text alerts can be public or private (password protected).

KiKutext for Teachers to Communicate with Students and Parents

A new and free resource called KiKutext is a mass text messaging service for teachers to communicate better with students and their parents. A few excellent features of this resource include the phone number given to the teacher so that they do not have to give out their own number, in addition to texting the entire class there is the ability to individually text students and/or their parents, the ability to add multiple classes and have everything archived online, and the ability to text via the Internet so that the teacher's phone is not charged for too many text messages! Furthermore, the service does not use shortcodes so it works with any phone service! Finally it has a wonderful feature called "status reports" where parents can get quick text message updates about their child (the teacher can choose from a pre-selected list or create their own). All correspondence is archived in the teacher's private account.

What Do High Schooler Students Want From Mobile Technology?

Graphic created by ASCD (based on PEW research, National School Board...) via http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/what-do-high-school-students-want-from-mobile-tech-infographic/15843

Saline Michigan Schools Enacting BYOD!

Saline Area Schools (outside of Ann Arbor Michigan) has enacted a Bring Your Own Device policy in their school system. The policy is well thought-out (very proactive) and I wanted to share their work.

Create an Email address for your phone!

There is an interesting web2.0 site called Mailbliss, which allows anyone to create an email address for their phone. Why is this beneficial? Well, once you create an email address for your phone, anyone can use that email address to send you a text message! The email turns into an sms message that you receive on your phone. This allows people who do not have text messaging (or limited text messaging) to send text messages back and forth without having to pay extra. It is very easy to use and incredibly convenient. All the communication is also stored online in your Mailbliss account. For teachers, this gives an archival record of communication to and from students! It is 100% free and very easy to use. I can envision many teachers using this (especially those who do not want to give away their cell phone number) to text message with parents and students.

QRcode polls!

One of my favorite new resources for creating QRcodes is Polltogo. Polltogo allows anyone to create QRcode polls and survey questions. It is a fantastic and easy site to use. It has a nice free account (up to 20 answers per poll, but you can create as many polls as you like!). The whole site is template-based, making it very easy to set up your polling question and then print off the QRcode. What I LOVE is that you can watch the poll results in real-time! Therefore students can answer the questions at home, in class, around the community, around the world and the answers will update live on the polltogo website! It reminds me a bit of Polleverywhere, but for QRcodes. In addition, people can send in comments on the polls (or you can select a poll type that allows for feedback or open-ended responses). All the poll results are archived nicely on the website. Polltogo is a great starter activity as students are getting settled in class or a wonderful tool for field trips/scavenger hunts!

And if students do not have a smartphone with a barcode (or QRcode) reader, students can take a picture of the QRcode and send it in to x@snpmy.com and they will text the student back the information on the code.