Remind: A communication tool

For this post, I decided to check out a communication tool called Remind. Remind is a private messaging platform that aims to help students, parents, teachers, and administrators communicate with everyone simultaneously. Remind can be accessed on the web using the site or by downloading the app, which is available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. The app and site are both free. There are many apps that can be integrated into Remind such as Google Classroom, Google Drive, One Drive, Survey Monkey, and more! 

A blue box with white 'R.' The Remind app logo.

Joining Remind was very easy! You can sign up with an email address or use your Google account. Once my account was created, I added a class titled "Practice with Remind." I added a few of my college classmates into the group so we could have some practice using the tool and communicating through it. It was very easy to add people into your class; once inside your class, you can click the "add people" button and select what role you want them to have: student, teacher, or parent. Then you type their name and email into the box and click "add people" at the bottom. When you create a class, you are also given a unique class code that you can give out to those you want to join, and they can do it themselves! One thing I really liked about Remind is that you can post class announcements as well as privately communicate with each individual person. A downfall to Remind that I noticed was that you only get so many characters for announcements and messages, which was a bummer because they were not a lot of characters. When sending messages, the screen reminds me of a text message chat on my iPhone, which was a feature I liked. It can make students more engaged in sending messages. There are chat reactions as well, which are a fun feature to the sending and receiving messages. There is also a section titled "files" in which you can add files for everyone to look at. 

One of my classmates sent me a message from the Remind app, and I was able to view it immediately on the website. Her feedback stat
ed "I really like this tool! I like that you can send messages to both the whole class or to individuals depending on your needs. It also helps students stay on top of their work, especially since not all students carry a planner around or check Canvas everyday. Thank you for showing me this tool!" If the student, teacher, parent, or administrator has notifications turned on, a notification will be received every time an announcement is posted and/or if you receive a message. In the "account settings" section, there are preferences for notifications as well as options to add widgets, see message history, and check out archived classes. In my honest opinion, I think I will continue my research and practice using other communication apps before I decide on which one I will use in my future classroom. I would let other teachers know that this tool is great overall, other than the maximum number of characters not being more than approximately a paragraph. I would also let teachers know that, in my opinion, I think this tool would work best with a smaller group of students.