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.

Mobile Phone Video Challenge...Film on the Fly

Yesterday I ran across a twitter post by Hall Davidson about a very interesting mobile phone video challenge sponsored by a local PBS station in California called Film on the Fly. On February 7th, 2009 the contest will send out a text message challenge (story) to anyone who signs up and ask them to create a mobile video of the topic in 20 hours or less! I myself cannot wait to participate and SEE the results! Of course this contest has me thinking about how classroom teachers could do this with their own students.

Since many students do not have camcorders in their cell phones, they could give a video or still photo option for the challenge. For example I could see a social studies teacher texting out part of a famous speech (such as "I have a dream") and asking their students to take pictures/video of things in the community that represent the major arguments or points in the speech. Students could take pictures of children of all races/creeds playing together to represent the "dream fulfilled" and at the same time could take pictures of signs that say "restricted" to represent the "unfulfilled dream".

The free resources that teachers could use to make this happen would include...
Storage Sites for the Media
drop.io to store all the media students collect. Since drop.io is password protected and can take all types of media it is perfect for this type of assignment.

Text Message Blast to Students
Sites such as txtBlaster, Textmarks, or Sendible would be great for creating an easy text message "blast" out to cell phones of the assignment.

Audio Blast to Students
If the teacher was worried about using text messaging because of potential charges on student's phones (although many do have unlimited text messaging now), they could use an audio blast with resources such as Dial2do or AbbyMe.

Radio Show #5: Taking Advantage of Text Messaging on Student Cell Phones

Thank you to all who listened to the broadcast. The next broadcast will be Wed Dec. 3rd at 3:00. The topic (as per PeggyG's great suggestion) will be: What can we do with one cell phone per classroom?



Here is the transcript of the Chat:
Liz Kolb:Welcome! We will begin shortly.
Liz Kolb:Our topic today is taking advantage of text messaging on student cell phones for classroom learning.
Peggy_G:Hi Liz. Always excited to hear your show! So glad it's 30 mins now. :-)
Peggy_G:Kim-great to see you!
kcaise:hi Peggy!
Peggy_G:unlimited text messaging is a wonderful thing! essential for teens!
Liz Kolb:hi everyone
Liz Kolb:http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/34313179.html
Peggy_G:I learned that the hard way! You definitely need a partner to help monitor chat. :-)
kcaise:definitely - same here
Peggy_G:oops-clicked on the link and lost my chat window. :-(
Liz Kolb:http://www.ask500people.com/questions/should-high-schools-offer-courses-via-cell-phone
Peggy_G:what incredible examples of texting to meet real-life needs!
Peggy_G:such a good point about using textmessaging with hearing impaired students! Inclusion at it's best!
kcaise:just the ask500
Peggy_G:yes some links-not the last couple
Liz Kolb:Textmarks.com
Peggy_G:great! we can find them on your blog later :-)
Liz Kolb:ohdontforget.com
Liz Kolb:sendible.com
Liz Kolb:lastspotted.com
Liz Kolb:http://flagr.com
Liz Kolb:http://gpsed.com/
Liz Kolb:Textmarks.com
Peggy_G:mobile text messaging campaigns for businesses-great idea!
Peggy_G:students can become the experts-perfect angle for this site
Liz Kolb:http://www.zoozmobile.com/control/index.html
Liz Kolb:Phonezoo.com
Peggy_G:these suggestions are so valuable for districts facing the financial crunch of purchasing things like response systems (everyone is facing financial crunches)
kcaise:thanks everyone
kcaise:Thanks Liz
Peggy_G:Wonderful show (again!) Where should we share ideas for future shows?
Liz Kolb:Thanks everyone for joining...any suggestions for future topics?
Liz Kolb:@Peggy Here or on my blog
Peggy_G:ok-I'd love to hear more ideas about how to use cell phones in centers when you're just getting started with 1 cell phone-teacher's phone
Liz Kolb:Good suggestions...that will be my topic after Thanksgiving. I get that question a lot.
Peggy_G:anything that takes what teachers are already doing and shows how they could enhance it with cell phones outside of school :-)

Notifu, Interactive Mobile Messaging for Teachers

I have posted in the past about messaging services such as Remindr, Dial2do, Jott, Remember the Milk, and Sendible. All of which I think are useful. But I have to add another messaging service to this list. It is called Notifu. Notifu allows for group messaging, polling, and FEEDBACK! That is correct, I said, feedback. Notifu allows you to send a message to a person's perferred form of communication such as IM, Twitter, email, or Text Message. Once you create a contact with the contact's preferred communication, you can easily send group messages to multiple contacts and receive feedback from them (no matter which communication tool they are using). For example, I sent out a poll to all my contacts in a particular group asking them what time they preferred to meet. I gave them choices of 4:30, 5:00, & 6:00. When they got their message, they could reply with n4 (for 4:30), n5 (for 5:00) or (n6 for 6:00). Along with their reply they could also send back a message to me such as "n4 cannot attend any other time". All of this feedback is directed into my Notifu account, where the polling and feedback are quantified into legible data.

Classroom Applications
Scheduling and Group Management
I immediately thought this tool could be helpful with administrators and teachers who are trying to schedule and communicate with committees, student and parent groups. In addition, students who form their own study groups can take advantage of Notifu for messaging between the group members.

Polling and Feedback
While I love Polleverywere and Textthemob for in-class polling via cell phones, I think Notifu is a great way to conduct polls and get feedback outside of the classroom.

Brainstroming
The teacher can send out an inquiry question or getting-started question that will be used in class the following day. Students can text back their answer, which automatically appears in the teacher's account. The teacher can then project the answers on the LCD screen the next class session and discuss the answers.

Quizzes
The teacher can send some quiz or review questions to the students by using the polling feature and get the answers back in their private Notifu account (in a timely manner).

Homework
The teacher can send out homework questions or ask for questions on their homework assignments. Students can text back their answers. For example an English teacher can ask his/her students to "summarize" in 160 characters or less, the plot for their Shakespeare reading that night. By asking for short summaries, it forces students to be mindful of their descriptions in their answers (not easy to do with Shakespeare!).

BASIC Cell Phones Can Be Assistive Technologies

While we are starting to see cell phones and software being developed specially for the blind and deaf, I wanted to take a few minutes and explore how BASIC cell phones (without the costly software) can be assistive devices for hearing impaired and visually impaired students. I am NOT an expert on assistive technologies, but I have been hearing from more teachers on how their special needs students are benefiting from cell phone technology, so I wanted to share what I have learned.

For the Visually Impaired
A VI teacher in one of my courses (Julie Burger) shared with me that her VI students often are the last to get to experience new technologies because the technologies need to be modified for the visually impaired. For example digital resources often need to be modified for screen readers. However, Julie became very excited about the possibilities of cell phones in learning because she realized that this would be one time that her VI students could be on the forefront of technologies (possibly even being able to introduce their new mobile tool discoveries with their classmates without disabilities). A basic cell phone offers the ability for visually impaired to do the following;

1. Listen to any webpage
2. Listen to newscasts and podcasts
3. Send Speech to Text emails
4. Send Speech to Text Blog posts
5. Send Speech to Text Group posts (to places like Yahoo Groups)
6. Send Speech to Text Calendar appointments and meetings
7. Receive Voicemail reminders
8. Listen to text messages

Hearing Impaired Students
While VI students can take advantage of speech to text, and text to speech options in cell phones, HI students can take advantage of these same options on a basic cell phone but in the opposite directions. For examples, HI students can type in text and it can be sent to other students/teachers cell phones as a audio message. A basic cell phone offers the following options for hearing impaired students to better participate in their everyday class activities:

1. Send text messages that can become audio web-based posts (such as podcasts)
2. Send text messages that can become audio Voicemail
3. Receive an audio Voicemail message that can be transcribed into a text message
4. Read podcasts/audio broadcasts on their cell phone
   

The following are some free applications that couple with basic cell phones for students with assistive needs. The best part of these resources is that they can be used by any student (Univerisal Design), and they are a great way for teachers to be inclusive when developing assignments, group projects, or even basic class activities.

Free Mobile Resources for VI and HI Learners
Jott (Speech to Text Translation, emails, appointments)
Jott Feeds (Listen to text-based webpages)
Rocketron (Listen to news feeds)
Rminder (Text to Speech reminders)
PingMe (Text Message Reminders for groups and individuals)
Text4deaf (2-way text messaging, keeps tracks of texts, sends to individuals/groups) (Thanks to
Karen Montgomery for showing me this resource!)
ChaCha or Mymiamia for Google Searches (Text Message for HI students)
Dial2do (Speech to Text)
YouMail & GrandCentral (Transcriptions of VoiceMail)
Sendible (Text-Based Evites)
Voki (Text to Speech Avatars)
Hey Cosmos (Text Message to Speech Surveys and Quizzes)
Google Voice (Voicemail with Speech to Text Transcription)
Phonevite (Voice Message surveys, quizzes, and feedback)

I know a few others also are researching and using cell phones as assitive tools, please share your ideas and resources.

Sendible...Another Mobile Text Messaging Service

I have often posted about Jott, a service that creates voice to text messages for specific groups of people or individuals. A few days ago I posted about AbbyMe. A service that will send voice messages to mobile phones in mass at a specific date and time. While I love Jott and am starting to explore AbbyMe, it is important to be aware of all the mobile messaging services and compare them. Another service Sendible is similar expect instead of voice messages it sends text messages to phones at a specific date and time. Additionally the message can even be repeated (weekly, daily, annual..etc). For example I put all of my family and friend's birthdays (you can even import them from Facebook) into sendible so that every year I get a text message on their birthday. Or I could even set up Sendible so that every year a text message is sent directly to my friends on their birthdays. While it is fun to send birthdays, there are some nice classroom connections.

Staying in Touch
The ability to stay in touch with students AFTER they are finished for the school year. By sending an annual or monthly message, you can better stay connected with them as they progress through their education. Sometimes this could be very encouraging to students.

Reminders
As with AbbyMe and Jott, you can send reminders to students via text. In sendible you have the option of setting up specific dates and times to send and receive messages so you can set all your reminders up at one time. For example you could set up a homework for the week reminder service in one sitting (rather than recalling Jott multiple times). You also get a nice "log" of past messages so rather than recreating a new one (for the next school year or next week), you can simple use the old message and resend it to the new students.

Hearing Impaired Students
While AbbyMe is nice for Visually Impaired students, Sendible works well for students who are hearing impaired because it only uses text messages (rather than voice).