Rather than banning group SMS text messaging, some schools are putting the new technology to use. All over the world, school SMS texts are keeping schools, parents, and students in touch and involved with each other. This article explains how.
SMS: What It Is
SMS, the acronym for Short Message Service, is a type of brief message that can be received by cell phones, but can be sent from cell phones, handhelds, or computers. SMS messages can be sent singly for a private conversation or in bulk for communicating with an entire community at once. Limited to 160 characters—including the alphabet, numbers, and other Latin alphabet symbols—the messages can be less disruptive than a phone call and more private than a phone call or instant message. School SMS text systems may provide capability of a larger number of characters than the standard 160.
SMS for a School Community
It is the nature of the school community that there’s always a lot going on. There are classes, homework, rehearsals, events, practices, games, meetings, testing, and conferences. On the other hand, there are also warnings and cancellations. Having an efficient system of communication that minimizes cost and staff time and maximizes effectiveness and participation are key. For some schools, SMS texts form an integral component of their communication system. The ideal is to find the niche marketing that works well by combining SMS texts with other means of communication, including snail mail, telephone, Facebook, Twitter, public address systems, etc. Given the likelihood of secondary and college students to have cell phones, to keep them close at hand, and to be very experienced in their use, they’re an ideal population for SMS texts to be part of the school’s communication system. In fact, a multi-faceted system is the best, capable of meeting the needs of different “customers” and carrying the different types of messages that might need to be sent in the most appropriate ways.
School SMS Texts and Their Uses
Schools use SMS texts for a variety of purposes.
• Safety Issues In case of emergency, it can be critical to share information as soon as possible and as widely as possible. SMS texts play a part in emergency notification systems, a number of which were put in place after the massacre on the campus of Virginia Tech raised awareness of how important communication was to campus safety. Students are required to opt-in to the system, and while some other schools have relatively low adoption, Virginia Tech itself has nearly 100 percent participation in the emergency text message system. Some students allow students to make anonymous reports of school bullying via SMS messages.
• School Closures In communities that regularly experience inclement weather, school cancellations are a yearly event. But other, unexpected, circumstances can lead to a school cancellation, and a phone tree isn’t a good choice in a school with 600 students. Bulk SMS, however, can quickly alert students and parents to a cancellation, weather related or otherwise.
• Attendance Checker In elementary and secondary schools, truancy as well as forgotten calls to let the school know a child is ill can be handled speedily with text messages. Parents can be encouraged to use SMS texts to report children’s absences in the first place.
• General Communication with Parents Rather than trusting students, particularly young ones, to deliver messages to their homes, SMS texts sent from the school can ensure that the information reaches the intended target. Parents can also be informed when report cards are sent home, when parent-teacher conferences are upcoming, when the PTA is meeting, the planned afterschool events for the day, and what the hot lunch menu is for the week. Progress reports from individual teachers could be sent via SMS message as well.
• Homework If appropriate for your educational setting, students could use the school SMS service to contact teachers with homework questions.
Sources
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36566978/ns/technology_and_science-security/
http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2009/11/025017.htm
http://www.fabit.com/products/mobile/sms/schools/Default.aspx