Fort Worth – Many of Todd McCann’s students suffer from a chronic disease.
Call it CRS: Can’t Remember Squat.
Now they have no excuse.
Mr. McCann, an English instructor at Bay College, in Michigan, is deploying students’ own favorite technology to burn away the memory fog. He blasts his classes text-message reminders using Broadtexter, a free software program used by bands to create mobile fan clubs. Rather than texting tour dates, he keeps the phones in students’ pockets buzzing with regular reminders like “Paper 4 is due tomorrow.”
The instructor offered the optional service in three classroom-based courses last year, embedded as a widget in the course-management system. Out of about 66 students, 45 signed up, Mr. McCann said during a talk on free tech tools at an e-learning conference that wrapped up here Tuesday. An added bonus: They don’t see his phone number, and he doesn’t need to see theirs.
Mr. McCann knows what you might be thinking. Are we kidding? Shouldn’t students take responsibility for their own friggin’ assignments?
Yeah, he said, they should. But Mr. McCann loves new tech toys. And students appreciate it.
“I just decided that, rather than rail against cell phones as being so evil, like some colleagues do, I’m trying to think of a way of going where they live,” he said.
16 Responses to Professor Textblaster
not_socrates - February 24, 2010 at 6:03 pm
HI Cyril,What do you think?
11272784 - February 24, 2010 at 6:30 pm
Great idea! We can all use reminders of things that are coming due.
dpjenny - February 24, 2010 at 7:16 pm
Really? Should we stay up all night and ‘cram’ with them also? Come on, let the STUDENT be accountable, load the due dates in their own phones, etc. Good grief Higher Education is not Kindergarten.
njm2065 - February 24, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Students can ignore this text like they do all other written communications, like the syllabus and class schedules. The good students get a break and the weaker students will still live in denial. But if even one student benefits, why not?
andyranley - February 24, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Every day I find out about new applications for our service (I’m the founder of Broadtexter)…and every day I’m delighted to find out that, in fact, there ARE new applications created EVERY day! Thank you Professor Textblaster for using broadtexter…and thank you Marc for the playful article about the pros/cons and newness of the use of text in the education system. Good luck!
yeidel - February 24, 2010 at 8:57 pm
With opt-in, it’s a service. If it’s mandatory, it’s intrusive and creepy. Kudos to Mr. McCann for getting that part right — not everyone does (hello, Google Buzz?)One can imagine further extensions of this idea — the Registrar could offer a download of the sessions of your classes as calendar imports…
speakerstudent - February 24, 2010 at 11:54 pm
Yes I know Broadtexter….my band uses them – AWESOME service!
berkeleyprof - February 25, 2010 at 7:21 am
At the moment, texting works when e-mail does not. I’ve been texting with students for about a year on things like “flight delayed; use the beginning of class to…” or “aren’t we supposed to meet? where are you?” and the students and I both love it. Broadtexter is apparently going to be my next teaching tool!
panacea - February 25, 2010 at 8:01 am
Professional behaviors is a competency in our nursing program. Behaving professionally means being able to show up to work on time, and complete work assignments on time. Using this tool to remind students of due dates would be contrary to our objectives.OTOH, it has other applications, like communicating if the clinical instructor is delayed getting to the hospital, or replacing a call tree if class/clinic is canceled.
22228715 - February 25, 2010 at 8:13 am
So, I could use it to remind all my student staff of their work hours, paperwork due dates, event times and locations… at the speed of new technology (meaning, potentially within a few days) we will have made their phones as overloaded as their email accounts, rendering them less than useful.It’s creative, and nifty so long as only one quirky tech-savvy prof uses it.The other reason I’m ambivalent about the idea is that I’m an employer. I really do not want to hire or supervise anyone who needs a supervisor to remind him or her constantly about what needs to be done. (We regularly remove such employees.) Then again, on a cynical note, maybe tangible things like this will make it easier to see and weed out the initiative-challenged earlier in the hiring process.
waligowski - February 25, 2010 at 8:21 am
C’mon, we are making kids less and less accountable and then older generations grip about them as employees/ students. This isn’t about a non-tech savvy professor, this is about lazy, unorganized kids that are pushed to college when they should be doing something else.If I am wrong, why not go one step further and make this part of the overall registration experience and include parents. If I’m footing the bill for my child, you bet your butt I want to know when they are or are not doing coursework.
urspider - February 25, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Millennials should be able to remember. I’m with waligowski on this: dock the late projects a full letter per day late (including illnesses) and move on.They’ll start to remember. I will quibble with the remark that forgetting means laziness. It can signal that; it more often signals overscheduled kids who don’t put academic work into the propery priority: first place.I keep a schedule in a class wiki already, with links to assignments–if they cannot be bothered to look, they have earned their low marks.I’m not their parent, I’m their teacher. And it distresses me to hear about so many Millennials who lose their first jobs because they show up late, want to work only on their own terms, and need contstant supervision….poor lost lambs. It’s a cruel world beyond the college gates.
rmhouston78 - February 25, 2010 at 12:40 pm
I see this tool as useful for when we have sudden changes in circumstances. A couple of examples: (1) if the school decides to close early for the day; (2) the instructor is ill and will not hold class (esp. useful for commuting students). The student will hear about it from their instructor, and then the instructor can then also tell them what to expect the next day class is held.I agree that texting them to tell them about HW due dates and the like may be overkill; they are adults and need to behave as such.The problem with what waligowski suggests is that students at the college level are normally 18+ years old…meaning they have to give explicit permission to the school to let faculty and the like discuss any issue with the parents. If you’re in a situation where this permission doesn’t cause a logistical nightmare, then it would work.
facdevniu - February 25, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Regarding urspider’s comment . . .dock the late projects a full letter per day late (including illnesses) and move on. I have been teaching for over 20 years and have changed my tune regarding flexibility. Of course I want and expect my students to arrive to class on time and submit papers when due. However, “stuff” happens to all of us and to not accommodate illness as an “excuse” is, inexcusable! I treat every incidence independently and will offer students with extenuating circumstances ways to make up work or an exam. Rarely do my students take advantage of such situations because I make my policy clear at the beginning of the semester. I also drop the lowest scores of one or two in-class exercises at the end of the semester to help those who were ill not lose points because of being ill (or whatever reason they did not attend class on a particular evening). My students have no problems with any of my policies. Sheesh, what do you do when you are ill and cannot attend a planned conference, faculty meeting, or dissertation defense?
arrive2__net - March 1, 2010 at 2:46 am
If you look at it as a possible convenience to professors to help struggling students get themselves organized … this Broadtexter application seems to provide a sort of robotic service that parallels help a manager might get from a secretary (who reminds the manager of meetings, schedules and requirements). Given that a lot of students in some colleges are also working and/or caring for a family, having that kind of help might just be … help, not necessarily teaching them to be irresponsible. If that kind of services helps students succeed it may also help with student retention, which would be good. I’m hoping such a service would not be “required” of the prof though, if it would stretch the prof’s time to set it up and manage it. Also, it should definitely be opt-in because some students pride themselves on doing that kind of thing for themselves. Bernard SchusterArrive2.net
timewaster123 - March 17, 2010 at 9:52 pm
I have to agree that we’re not their parents and they need to learn. Really, this is the big change from high school. (Though I’d be more likely to take these kinds of reminder steps for freshman classes where they’re just learning.)At other times I have to marvel at the laziness – some of my best students have suggested that I email out the readings.