Improve Your Text Life!

One challenge we all face as teachers, is finding an efficient and effective way of communicating with students. Email has served this purpose well for a number of years. One of the advantages of email over phone calls is the ability of the sender to reach multiple recipients with one message. Unfortunately, surveys today tell us that email is already viewed by many students as an outdated method of contact, something “for old people.” It is being replaced by text messaging or “SMS” (Short Message Service).
South Korea is regarded by many digital technology polls as the crystal ball to watch for the future of communication. In a recent poll of over 2000 young Seoul Korea students, FairFaxDigital blog reveals that over two thirds seldom or never use email. This appears to be the trend with many U.S. students as well. Students simply respond more rapidly to text messages, often viewing email as “homework.”
The challenge for teachers is to make texting as efficient and effective as emailing. Here are a few things that have simplified the process for me. My touch phone runs Windows mobile 6.0 and is used for music, calls, texting, email, calendar, weather, and a number of other functions. Although some software (True Connect) may only work with touch phones, many of these tips will work with less expensive phones.
1. Use your computer.
Most cell phones connect to computers via a USB cable. I run a small software program called True Connect that allows me to run all of my touch phone functions using my computer. The following start screen is available from a drop-down menu on my computer screen once I connect with a USB cable:

I am able to run all of the phone functions using my computer keyboard and mouse.
There are also many programs that will allow the user to organize phone functions using their computer desktop and a file tree layout, similar to Windows Explorer. BitPim is an open source program that works with many mobile phones. Several commercial programs are available including MOBILedit! and Jeyo Mobil Companion (see screenshot below).

2. Organize texts into groups.
Group SMS v1.4.4 is a free program available from Smartphone freeware.com. The user first categorizes SMS contacts (I do this using Microsoft Outlook). Once contacts are categorized, you can select the category or “group” for a group SMS:

Clicking “next” brings up all of the names in the group or category. You can leave “all” selected, or deselect individual names before composing and sending the text message:
3. Send text messages with your email account.
Most cell phone providers now include a service to send text messages using a standard email account. The following site provides email sending information for various cell phone service providers, as well as several additional texting tips: http://www.sms411.net. If you don’t want to memorize all of the provider’s email addresses, you can take a shortcut with the free service teleflip.com. Simply compose an email and address it to: “phonenumber”@teleflip.com (e.g. 6601234567@telefilp.com). Teleflip will route the message to the appropriate cell phone(s). If the message recipient replies, the reply will come back to your email address, which will be the most efficient if you are already working from your computer.