I just got this from my son's math teacher. This is 7th grade where most of the students are 12 and some are 13, mine's the outlier at 11. What do you think about this? My son does not have a cell phone and we have no plans to get him one.

"I wanted to give you a heads up about something we're doing in class. It is called Remind 101 and is an app I've uploaded on my phone which allows me to send text messages to any members in my "group" (those who have joined). The text is sent but the receiver cannot respond to it (I cannot receive a text back from your child). I discussed this option with my classes and they liked it. Most of the students joined yesterday in class and then we practiced with one text from me reminding them that they have a chapter test this Friday. I am aware that not all students have cell phones and would not send any information out via text that wasn't already communicated in class. Also, I will not send any great quantity of texts reminding our students of daily details. The purpose is to remind them of major assignments or dates, etc. Another benefit, as we discussed in class, is that the students, instead of the parents, are receiving the reminders so the students can take action without being prompted by the parents! Hooray for students taking responsibility without being reminded by a parent. Lastly, I am new to this app and would welcome your feedback if you have concerns. I've learned that many teachers at high school use Remind 101 and also many teachers at this school."

I wouldn't have a problem with it provided that it could be set up so that the reminders came to my phone if my child didn't have one. I would be looking out for any occasions when the teacher slipped and did send a "reminder" of something that hadn't been made clear in class. It's a fact that most children that age do have phones, and I'm sure such reminders would be useful for some.

Several of my colleagues (we're high school teachers with young children) have received info about this from their kids' teachers, for parents to enroll. I think one of them is going to be using it with his high school kids.

I often have issues with using technology because many of my students have access, but some don't. As a teacher, I have to be aware of this discrepancy and make allowances to compensate for it. I would hope, as ColinsMum noted, that the teacher would think of giving parents access. In all honesty, I would think that many parents of kids that age would like to get the texts as well, even IF their kids were also getting the text. I'd email the teacher and ask about getting parent access.

I don't have text messaging because I have no interest in paying for text messaging.

I don't pay for my cell phone. If I had to pay for my cell phone, I doubt that I would even have a cell phone.

I'd tell her to put it on e-mail.

I've wasted enough of my life and money on time-sucking and money wasting technology.

I think I'd want access too. I'm a gadget person myself. My kids (8 and 9) aren't there yet, but I'm open to technology as long as it's properly used. The vast majority of tweens and teens have internet/text access at their finger tips and I think that being involved and proactive is the way to go.

Petunia - it sounds like the teacher is willing to accommodate the kids without phones - so this is good. Has your son expressed interest in getting a phone? My DD has been asking since she was 7, and the answer has been a firm, unrelenting NOT YET. lol. She's now 9 and has stopped asking.

In this country, I think it's true to say that regardless of how you have your phone, if you have a number, you can receive text messages free of charge. Is it different there?

(Yes, it would be nice to have reminders also go to email, and it would be worth looking at this specific service to see if there's an option for that to happen automatically that can be turned on. But the teacher is doing something she isn't obliged to do, in the interests of the children; you obviously can't demand it.)

It's $1 a message for me, I think.

I think there are free programs to receive texts via Internet (on desktop computer, tablet, Nintendo DS, ipod touch).

I think the most common plans over here charge 10 cents a message (sometimes with the first 10 a month free). I've never heard of a charge as high as $1 a message. I think I'd ask if messaging could be turned off entirely so I didn't even receive texts if I was getting charged that much for them!

I don't pay for it, so I don't really know how much it costs. I could be wrong.

If you'd prefer to not give your child a phone, you can get a free Google Voice account, which will provide a phone number for voice & text.

With it, you can send & receive unlimited text messages for free and even have incoming text messages forwarded to an email account of your choosing.

This would enable your child to participate, yet not have the same exposure (financial & otherwise) of a regular cell phone.

Dandy

http://www.google.com/voice/
(No affiliation, just a long-time user.)

I really like this aspect of it! My ds is in 7th grade and doesn't have a cell phone, but he could send the text reminder to his email account as mentioned above. Although ds' teachers don't send out reminder texts at this point, they do communicate frequently to the students via student email accounts. It really has been a good thing for my ds in terms of taking parents out of the reminder equation, and also has helped the students with turning to each other for help on homework etc at night instead of parents - they email each other when they have a question.

My only concern would be that all the students have access via internet or phone.

polarbear

I wanted to get opinions because I have two problems with it. First, she is texting students without parental consent. I think the teacher should have involved the parents first and let them decide if it was appropriate for their children. Second, it seems that by doing this activity in class, she's separated those that "have" from those that "have not". Middle school has enough social divisions without this type of thing.

I appreciate that she's trying to relate to them on their level and take the onus off the parents. I just don't like the way in which she did it.

Thanks for the suggestions of alternate ways to receive the information. I'll look into them. No way is son responsible enough for a cell phone yet.

The haves and have-nots are separated a million different ways by technology-first school programs. This is only one of many. (Teachers in our middle school's gifted math program, for example, strongly suggested buying laptops and graphing calculators-- in a school with >70% free/reduced lunch). I'm not sure what the best option is, but I'm fairly sure this isn't it.

I get the point about wanting to have parental consent first, and I agree that if it were my kid I would want to get copied on everything sent to her (at least for now--she's only 9!) but to be honest we have had some teachers who just didn't give a darn about the students (or at least about DD), so when I hear about a teacher who is trying to give them some responsibility and help them meet deadlines, etc., I think the teacher should get a gold star or something. Our school also sends texts and we don't have a text plan because of the $$, but you can have them sent to an email account so it works out. The kids who don't have computers, though, would really seem to be at an extra disadvantage. The computers at our public library seem to always be in use for people playing video games, plus our public libraries are scattered pretty widely, and most of them are nowhere near a school, so good luck getting there on your own after school, kid. It seems like there should be more attention to this issue by the schools than just saying you can go the library to do your homework.

I hadn't thought about it this way - that the teacher should be commended as caring enough to be involved.

It's interesting. Friends I've talked to about it have been divided into two camps. Those with younger children (under age 10) have not liked it at all, seeing all kinds of issues with the teacher being able to text and kids having cell phones, and the parents not being included. Those with older children seem to shrug and say, "it's what they do, might not like it but impossible to change".

Yes, but even older children generally lack the following two things:

(1) The ability to enter into contracts
and
(2) Money

I am working with a local philanthropic group who took on one of the poorest schools in our district to help create a better support system for the children and parents. One of the surprising things they found in their initial survey is that more families had smart phones than had permanent addresses. To that end, we are developing a free smart phone app for easier access to school content and breaking information. The school will be able to send out instant push notices through the app for things like closures, emergencies, school meetings, etc.

Will the app serve the entire community? No. But it will be a great tool for those who can use it - and that user base is growing exponentially even in a high poverty demographic. The school still supports a website, email notices, phone call notices, in-school paper bulletin board, etc., but that shouldn't prevent innovation until it is accessible to 100% of the population.

If you're uncomfortable with the SMS reminders to your child's phone, just say no. It is your choice - and it should be your choice. If you don't pay for texting and don't want to use a web-based texting service like Google Voice, then don't. That is also a very acceptable decision. It is your kid, your family, your comfort level.

But what I would suggest is not using a broad brush to paint it as a bad idea because it doesn't fit where you are right now. For another parent with a kid who forgets everything, this may be the Holy Grail of solutions.

Wow. Refresh my memory - what is middle school? Is it 6,7,8? We just have elementary (K-7) and high school (8-12). Anyway, our principal (we're still in K-7) will take cell phones away if he catches kids with them (he keeps them in the office where they can retrieve them at 3:00)

I see a time in the near future when I'll want my kids to have them (we're not there yet, but I can't imagine them going all the way to 7 without one). Not sure how we'll handle it. Maybe we'll have a new principal by then

Our kids (in grades 3 and 5) are also marked on this. The idea is that it counts towards their "personal responsibility" score, as in it's up to them to chase after us for signatures. DS8 is really awful at this (strangely, he'd be more responsible with a cell phone). DD9 is pretty good though - she always asks me if I've signed her stuff.

I do think there is a HUGE "adolescent " leap from about 11 to 13 (maybe the biggest of all). I know you said your dd is younger - maybe that's part of the rub. I'll better the cell-phone expectation:

My ds' KINDERGARTEN class won a "good behavior" class party. The teacher sent a note stating that kids would be given time to use an electronic device with these suggestions : nintendo ds, kindle, leap pad, leapster OR (get this) iPad! What parent in their right mind would send an iPad to school with their 5/6 year old????!

What a way to differentiate have and have nots!

[quote=Evemomma What parent in their right mind would send an iPad to school with their 5/6 year old????!

What a way to differentiate have and have nots! [/quote]

I'm still mad at Steve Jobs for killing the Apple II line of computers.

So, it's not so much that I'm not a "have" as much as I am a "will not" (buy an Apple product because you hurt my feelings).

Exactly, Jon.

My daughter is remarkable among her peers (as noted-- most of whom are 3+ years her senior) for having both a feature phone and a texting plan.

Many of her friends either do not have cell phones of their own (they are permitted to use a "house" cell on an as-needed basis) or they have not got a texting plan for one. The few who do have texting plans do so because of apparent need (to communicate via text with parents)-- and most of them don't "abuse" the privilege; but all of the kids in that group have more lenient parents when considered in the context of that peer group. The more 'strict' parents much more tightly control their kids' electronic access.

She doesn't have any friends who have smartphones of their own.

These are mostly HIGH-SCHOOL KIDS-- and all of them are 8th grade and up.

Mostly this is because her peer group has parents who don't see a "need" for such things. It's not about ability to pay (though in at least a few instances, it could be that too) since these are also families who are paying out of pocket for college, enrolling their kids in pricey extracurriculars, etc. We live in a reasonably affluent place.

While I like the idea of 'reminders' like this in some ways-- I also do NOT like the idea of communication methods which don't directly involve the parents in some way,if only tangential.

Besides, with the sheer volume of incoming electronic messaging that my DD, my DH, and I get each day? Phhhhhhhhth. Anyone who is this wired in probably gets so much of this stuff that sorting through it all becomes yet another thing to do. Not exactly helpful.

For me, it's mostly that after throwing thousands upon thousands of dollars down the technology rathole early in my life, I'm pretty much finished funding Apple and friends.

OTOH, wouldn't you expect a student in middle school to be transitioning to a place where they are responsible for keeping track of homework assignments and studying for tests? I understand that parents need feedback on grades etc, but as a parent I do want my children to move toward independence in managing their work. Middle school ages in general (kids who aren't radically accelerated) are the ages that children typically are becoming more independent in general, starting to pull away from wanting their parents involved in every minute detail of their lives, start having some reality of a life independent of parents. It seems like developmentally that it makes sense that this is also the time students begin to be given more independence in study reminders, responsibility for keeping track of homework etc. Not every child is ready at the same time, but over the broad sweep of the middle school years most children are growing and naturally want more responsibility in this area.

Our teachers use email to remind students and to send papers to them, and they don't cc parents on the email. I don't feel like it's something I need to be involved in - I see that as part of classwork with a 21st century twist. The reminders via text (from my perspective) seem to be nothing more than a reminder written on a bulletin board, and I don't go into my kids' classrooms each day to check what's written on the bulletin board.

polarbear

If you think about it, there are potential issues with any interaction between a teacher and their students. 99.99999% of all teachers are not going to abuse their ability to interact with students and are not going to want to cause harm in any way. The very few teachers who would take advantage of texting can and will most likely find a way to take advantage in a different way if texting isn't allowed.

Receiving a text from a teacher is probably one of the *last* things that would worry me that could potentially go wrong for my middle school kid

polarbear

Yeah, my child does not own any Apple products, and neither do we. My last one was one I had at work.

My 5yo Sansa MP3 player still works just fine. Why would I replace it?? I finally got a new cell phone when mine wouldn't hold a charge anymore and battery replacement was just as expensive as upgrading. (It was a five year old flip phone.) The shortest time I've ever kept a car was 10 years.

We routinely keep computers and cellular phones about twice (and in many cases, three to five times) as long as the "expected lifetime." Until a year ago, I was still using Windows 98.

This is much funnier when you realize that my DH works for a high tech company-- and that he's not alone among his colleagues.

Anyway. Just pointing out that not everyone "participates" even if they could (in theory, anyway) afford to do so. Some of us just think it's rather pointless if we don't see an actual need being filled by the trappings of modern living. I don't see much point in FB, so I'm not on FB. KWIM?

High speed internet, we pay for-- because that matters. I run a website and am involved in several other NPO activities, and my DH works from home, and my DD needs the broadband for school (which she does from home).

Yes-- but remember, my perspective here is different because I am involved in DD's day to day schooling via her virtual school. Probably not as much as some people envision... (I mean, I basically just sort of check in to make sure that work is BEING done, and that there aren't any problems anywhere) but still. Communication *mostly* needs to be cc:ed to mom and dad. That is simply how school-student communication happens around here. In *all* schools and youth activities. It's not that parents need to be INVOLVED, so much as they need to be looped into communication from the school (or youth activities). It's the parents' decision how much independence their kids are ready for and can manage on their own, that way. KWIM?

I was chiming in mostly because I see such a thing being potentially problematic even for the majority of my DD's friends who are not virtual school students, unless it were presented in a variety of formats. I mean, what's wrong with Blackboard, for heaven's sakes??

Honestly, this strikes me as technology for its own sake more than anything else. Why is this substantially better/different from e-mail or a posting on a class bulletin board?

Um, yeah, there's no way my almost TEN year old would be allowed to take mine.

I think you can get refurbished ones though, very minimal memory, etc., for lower cost. (My husband told me this in an effort to calm me down after he suggested getting each child their own!!) Fyi this hasn't happened. I don't care how cheap you can find them - overindulgence does kids a huge disservice.

That's my question to - why is it substantially different? Really it's not - which is why I don't see it as something that needs an extra level of concern.

I *do* think there needs to be access for all students - but that applies to email too if used as a communication tool.

polarbear

Got curious about this Remind101 about and went to the site. Seems that parents can subscribe to the same messages as their kids and no phone numbers are actually exchanged in process. I think teachers can also schedule a reminder for a future date; so, they can integrate reminders with their curriculum and parents/students can subscribe as they see fit.

re: JonLaw and Apple... me too, Mac was such a crushing disillusionment from the AppleII (the hacker device where you could open it and swap chips and rewrite the ROM, etc.) The first Mac was a bundled, packaged, protected mini-empire that was the antithesis of the spirit that made Apple a success in the first place.

And I thought not having apple products made me "out of the loop" -sounds more modern to be called a "conscientious objector". BTW, my BIL who runs the IT division of a big pharma company also has "Mac baggage " and will not partake.

CCN...

I'm also not anti giving kids an iPad (we don't have one...but I would love to get some sort of larger tablet eventually for the kids to share - would rather that than a ninetendo ds). But sending it to school seems crazy. We sent my ds' 3 year-old Leapster with the conditions that we were not replacing or repairing any damage due to irresponsibility. It came home unharmed - he proudly announced he'd gotten to share it with a few kids who didn't bring anything.

As a college prof, the issue with tech is meeting them where the students are - we are online and have apps because that's where the world is, in someways it's better, allows us to do stuff we couldn't, like real time participation during the presidential debate as opposed to the next time I saw them.

Interestingly about ABQmom's note about cell phones, studies of poor communities around the world have found that more and more are bridging the digital divide by smart phones as they are much much cheaper than computers. It would not be surprising for poorer families to have Internet access via cell rather than computer. However, I agree there has to be a means for non tech users to have access.

But it also seems like this really gets to what a lot of MS parents here seem to complain about - their dc's having the assignment and taking responsibility. This did seem like a way to do what we are doing, reach the kids where they are.

Disillusioned Mac users - jobs biography has a fascinating discussion of the fallout between Wozniak and jobs over closed versus open tech. Wozniak has a wonderfully
Zen disucssion of jobs and concedes that tech people hate jobs closed approach but that jobs was really about the non tech masses, people who just want it to work, new maps app notwithstanding

DeHe

DH is a tech guy. Which may be why we have two japanese abacusses and a slide rule in regular use, not counting the western style abacuses we tend to draw on bits of paper whenever needed!

Wait, two abacusses and a check-cloth.

My boss once raced me to do some video-timing, his calculator against my pocketful of change and hand-drawn abacus; archaeophylia is catching, I think he's a mac-and -abacus guy now

The computers are *all* broken. This one still works (ipad) but the screen is cracked.

I occaisionally wonder what the grade three teacher is going to think of DS's rough work, when he up and starts drawing wierd lines all over and moving pennies around....

But: on topic... I an totally enamoured of text messaging. It and email saved my social life. I can even sometimes send a text when I'm in a bad mood. AND I can double check what some one said to see if I understood it right. I'm MUCH less offensive in text. Really. I luv txt.

Yes-- my DH and I understood this transformation completely after my mother, ca. 1995, (in)famously deleted the contents of her 'system' folder on her Apple IIe because she (and I'm quoting here)....

looked at all of that stuff and decided that it didn't make any sense to her anyway, and it was just taking up space in that folder on the desktop. So she deleted it to tidy things up a bit.



Yes. Building a PUI/GUI for someone like THAT? Very, very different matter than for someone like me or my DH. Bulletproof takes on a whole new meaning with a person who is perfectly willing to delete anything that doesn't seem useful on the human side, KWIM? DH and I? We would be Woz's people... but my mom sure wasn't. I've since learned that she's probably a lot more typical of where most people fall on this spectrum, realistically.