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My wife is an Elementary-grade teacher. While it wouldn't really work for her (her students don't have phones - yet), I can easily see the use case for others.

My wife is an Elementary-grade teacher. While it wouldn't really work for her (her students don't have phones - yet), I can easily see the use case for others. However - you really need to think about this issue: the reason teachers aren't texting students (or shouldn't be texting students) isn't simply because they don't want to share their personal numbers. They're not texting students because they're not supposed to have that kind of direct access/contact with students outside of school. You might be offering it already- but you might want to think about some auditing tool. Or - make sure you keep all the records of all texts sent. As long as you make it clear to the teachers, I think you'll be fine.

JimmyL 15y ago
Definitely agree on the auditing tool - but I'd take it further, and make it a a full-blown feature. Provide the teacher's higher-ups with it (so they can inspect, if needed) and provide it to parents as well, so they can see what the messages are. Maybe event take it one step further and encourage parents to sign up with it as well, so they know what type of messages their kids are getting that their child's teacher considers important enough to send using this medium (perhaps include an email-delivery option for these ones). The basic product is one-to-many double-blind logged communication; don't make it about the exact mechanics of how the conversation is delivered, make it about the logged/safety aspect of it. SMS, email, voice-drop, robo-call, AIM-bot, etc. are all communication media that could benefit from this approach.
- kabuks 15y ago
  Great feedback. Thanks. We do have an auditing tool, and keep records of all texts back and forth. We should definitely highlight this more. Also working on a way for parents to register their kids' phone numbers and get cced on all communication.

JimmyL 15y ago

Definitely agree on the auditing tool - but I'd take it further, and make it a a full-blown feature. Provide the teacher's higher-ups with it (so they can inspect, if needed) and provide it to parents as well, so they can see what the messages are. Maybe event take it one step further and encourage parents to sign up with it as well, so they know what type of messages their kids are getting that their child's teacher considers important enough to send using this medium (perhaps include an email-delivery option for these ones). The basic product is one-to-many double-blind logged communication; don't make it about the exact mechanics of how the conversation is delivered, make it about the logged/safety aspect of it. SMS, email, voice-drop, robo-call, AIM-bot, etc. are all communication media that could benefit from this approach.

kabuks 15y ago
Great feedback. Thanks. We do have an auditing tool, and keep records of all texts back and forth. We should definitely highlight this more. Also working on a way for parents to register their kids' phone numbers and get cced on all communication.