Exciting news broke today from the folks at the popular education text-messaging service Remind. They've added two new features - Stamps and Voice Attachments - that I believe will become incredibly popular with teachers this school year.Up until now, Remind has given educators the ability to distribute information to students and parents through a one-way avenue. Stamps allows teachers to collect instant feedback from students and parents. The way teachers send messages hasn't changed, but when the messages are viewed by students and parents who are using the Remind iOS and Android app they will have the option of responding with one of four Stamps - a yellow star, a green check, a red X, or a purple question mark. Only the teacher will see the responses and who sent them. Remind provides teachers with an aggregated list of responses. I can't wait to see the great ideas that teachers come up with for using this new feature.
The other new feature is the addition of voice attachments to messages. Teachers can now add voice message of up to 15 seconds in length to any outgoing message. As Remind CEO Brett Kopf says, the "tone" of messages will come through on the student/parent side. This will give messages some life and make them more meaningful. Voice is also really easy to use. Simply select the attachment feature when sending a message and record your message.
Both of these options work best when used through the mobile app. Stamps can only be used by students and parent that are also using the mobile app. Those receiving messages through text will not see the Stamp feature. Voice attachments can be received through both text and the mobile app.
If you haven't yet done so today, go update your iOS or Android Remind app and give these new features a try. Then come back here and share your ideas through the comments.
Not using Remind yet? Go there right now and sign-up! You won't be sorry.
Check out this recording of Brett Kopf and Erin Klein discussing today's news in a Google Hangout.
No comments:
Post a Comment