Class Messenger Provides Next-Gen Classroom Communication
Class Messenger is a new powerful digital tool that allows teachers to communicate with parents via the app, text, email or website- all from one teacher dashboard. The mission of Class Messenger is to create a tool that provides the effective communication without sucking up any of the teacher’s extra time. The teacher only has to compose the message once, the parents chose their preferred method of how to receive it. Regardless, the communication is always private and administered solely by the teacher.
This past August, Class Messenger received a large investment from Scholastic because Richard Robinson, CEO of Scholastic recognized the the fit between this new tool and the philosophy Scholastic has of making messaging technology more accessible to teachers, parents and students and thus that improved communication between them would make for an all around improved educational environment.
Class Messenger is committed to developing the best messaging product for all three parties which also meshes with Scholastic’s Read Everyday program seamlessly- providing automatic reminders for Parents and Students to keep up with their reading along with wonderful posters by some famous Scholastic illustrators.
Keith McSpurren, Class Messenger CEO, says, “beyond the Read Every Day and Resources features in our new Scholastic tab, our big push will be to continue to develop the idea that a great messaging product needs to keep these three groups in sync…which means two way messaging not just text blasts.” Class Messenger will also allow teachers to collect data on their communication- stats on what and how often the messages are being read. McSpurren adds, “teachers can start to get visibility into the age old question: ‘Is anyone even reading what I’m sending??’ Teachers put a lot of effort into tweeting, blogging, email etc. but like TV advertising…have no idea if it’s working. We’re making our big push in 2014 to start changing that by giving them the data on their communication.”
Currently, Class Messenger is being used globally- with text messaging available in the US but coming to all users soon. Not only can teachers use it to send updates, reminders, newsletters, etc but they can share photos, and soon videos, of what is happening in their classrooms on a daily basis. Class Messenger also works for seeking donations for class, setting time slots for parent volunteer sign ups and has a “meet with me” feature so that parents and teachers can request or schedule conferences. Resources are provided for teachers to help enroll parents and students into their class groups and step by step tutorials are posted to help teachers master all the features. The app is available for both iOS and Android. All looks very promising for delivering next-gen classroom communication to the present education landscape.
Jim Clark
How this an advantage over Edmodo?
Alison Anderson
Good question Jim- I feel like it's all the communication tools without having to manage the rest of the learning platform. So if you are interested in just stepping up your communication with parents/students through emails and texts - this would be the easier of the two platforms to use- and a huge timesaver.
Horacio O.
A great app for parent-teacher communication is Bloomz (www.bloomz.net), which not only provides communication via app, SMS and email, but also helps teachers save a lot of time coordinating events, singing up volunteers and even scheduling parent-teacher conferences. Give it a try!
jasper.geronimo
A great app for parent-teacher communication is Bloomz (www.bloomz.net), which not only provides communication via app, SMS and email, but also helps teachers save a lot of time coordinating events, singing up volunteers and even scheduling parent-teacher conferences. Give it a try!