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.

Task.fm: Text and voice reminders for students and teachers---EASY! EASY! EASY!

There are many different cell phone reminder services available online. Many of which I have written about. A few examples include Sendible, Abbyme, Remember the Milk, Google Cal, ReQall, and Alerts. Recently I have been using Task.fm. Task.fm is a reminder service that uses uses semantic technology to translate human speak into an email, text and/or voice reminder. This means that you only have to type in your reminder on Task.fm, such as "assignment due at 4:00pm on May 26th". Task.fm will automatically understand the date and time of the reminder (no need to select dates and times from a menu or schedule). The only negative that I found with this site is that you get 10 SMS or voice reminders for free and then you need to pay for them. If you like this site, I recommend you emailing Task.fm and asking for a free educator version!! It does not hurt to ask.

Current Events: Anytime, Anywhere Via Cell (No Mobile Internet Required)

There are some great FREE resources online that couple with cell phones to allow people to keep up with current events and happenings. While the lucky ones who have purchased mobile Internet can use their mobile browsers to connect with web-based resources, many cannot afford that luxury. As a result there are some great alternatives. Below I highlight a few of them:

Rocketron
Phone Call
Just call 1-408-907-2323 (no online sign up necessary) and you can hear news feeds from many different sources.



Udefn
SMS Text Message
Udefn is a text messaging service where you can sign up for different bots. One of which is an RSS feed for the webpage(s) of your choice. You can text a keyword (that you create) to get information from the RSS feed(s).



Dial2do
Phone Call
Dial2do has many great features. One of them (Make Your Own Command) allows anyone to call in to their number (you need to sign up for an account first) and you can listen to any RSS news feed.



Lexy
Phone Call
Lexy is on-demand radio. You can call in to Lexy (no sign up required) 415-692-4933 and select which radio show you would like to listen to. You can also sign up and create a play list that you can hear when you call in to Lexy. Some of the news resources include NPR, NOVA (PBS), Local News, Foreign Language Programs, Front Page from the New York Times, and 60 Second Science.


Alerts.com
SMS Text Message
Anyone can create an account at Alerts.com and set up news alerts to be sent to their mobile phone. You will automatically receive alerts as news occurs.



These are all a few of the wonderful resources for students to use anytime, anywhere, anyplace to keep up with current events in all the content areas. Depending on their mobile plans they can select to use text messaging or calling minutes to stay up to date on the latest content-specific current events. Students no longer need to read a newspaper, or watch the evening news to know what is happening in the world.

4INFO...Text Info Web Search and Alerts

While I have posted multiple times about my love for ChaCha, a free guided Internet search tool that answers any question from anywhere! I am now adding 4INFO to my phone contact list. 4INFO is an SMS text messaging service that allows anyone to text a search term to 44636. Then within seconds, they will receive a text back with the search. 4INFO has some built-in categories such as stocks, sports, weather, news, airline info...etc.

Besides texting a search to 4INFO, you can also create an account on the website and set up alerts/reminders to send to your phone as designated times (similiar to PingMe, AbbyMe, Sendible, Alerts.com, BitBomb, & rminder). 4INFO also allows you to create custom searches, reminders, and alerts.

Classroom Connections:
While I do think that ChaCha is still the best for guided Internet searches, I do like the built-in reminder alerts in 4INFO (which ChaCha does not currently have).

Business Classes
I love the stock market search options on 4INFO! They are great for tracking the market in business or social studies courses. In addition, they could do price comparisions (a search option in 4INFO) on products (great for math courses too!).

Current Events (Social Studies/Science)
In social studies and science courses where current events are important to understanding the course content, students could get weekly news alerts on topics of choice OR they could text a curricular topic (such as stem cell research) to 4INFO to find out the latest information.