Remind 101 has become a supporter of Free Technology for Teachers. Remind 101 is a service that I thought was a winner the first time that I saw it.
Remind 101 is a free service that allows you to send text messages to groups of students and or parents from your computer, your iPhone, or your Android phone. The benefit of using Remind 101 over Google Voice, which I used to use for this purpose, to text students and parents is that your phone number is not revealed and your students' cell phone numbers are not revealed to you. Students and parents have to opt-in if they want to be added to your text messaging list. Students and parents have to enter a confirmation code to state that they do want to be contacted by you through the service.
Remind 101 lets you schedule messages to be sent. For example, if you are planning to take your students on a field trip on Friday you can schedule a reminder message to be sent to all parents on Thursday evening. You message could contain reminders about what to pack for the field trip and an emergency contact number to use during the field trip.
Learn more about Remind 101 in the video below.
Remind101 from remind101 on Vimeo.
Applications for Education
Most of us can't help but look right away when we receive text messages. Compare this to email messages that we can easily ignore and you'll know why sending text message reminders is more effective than sending email reminders.