How many times do you hear that in a classroom, lecture hall, workshop, conference …? Increasingly so perhaps as more people start to take advantage of the fact that so many learners, colleagues, delegates, trainees, have a handy piece of communications technology in their pocket.

JISC RSC Wales have had a text wall (a text messaging service where we can receive texts from mobile phones or internet enabled devices and display them on a web page) for over a year now and we have used it as a way of collecting comments or questions during the events, workshops and forums that we run. For us it means we can offer the delegates or participants a way of feeding back to us or asking questions about things as they happen at an event … and they only need to be able to send a text from a mobile phone to do this. It is also great because we can share the feedback or the questions very easily as they come in by displaying the web page they are listed on for everyone to see. At one event we were even able to send the link to the web page (and login details) to Martin Dougiamas, who was presenting to us in Wrexham from his office in Australia, so that he could answer attendees questions as they sent them via text message to the text wall.

This year we also embarked on a series of roadshows, one of which included a session on tools and technologies that can be used to record the learners’ voice. The text wall was one of those tools and as part of the road show we offered any interested delegates the opportunity to borrow a sub account of our text wall in return for some feedback about what they used it for, how the learners (or staff) responded, what they did with the responses and whether they would consider investing in their own text messaging service like this.  A number of people took up our offer (at these and other events) and although a few were unable to actually use the text wall and some are still waiting for the right opportunity to use it, we have had some really interesting feedback as to how organisations have and will be using text walls in the future. The feedback we have had so far shows that this tool has been used in a number of different ways, some of which have worked very well and others that haven’t. Here are some of the uses:

• to gather opinion on how students rated the new library space
• as a method of renewing books in the Learning Zone
• to try and glean some feedback on learning technologies
• as a way of getting feedback about events
• to gain feedback on what residents of the community would like to see offered in the Curriculum
• for feedback on aspects of teaching
• for feedback on a new website
• as an out of school hours revision facility
• to explore possible uses with colleagues

The full feedback can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/textwalluses

Like every technology, tool or resource, text messaging services like this will have disadvantages, as well as advantages. The need to have a mobile phone or access to an internet connected device to participate, the cost of a text message or even the distraction of allowing a mobile phone in a setting where they are usually discouraged may be disadvantage enough for some people BUT we have so many tools available today to be able to communicate with each other, is seems a shame not to take advantage (as these people, who we are very grateful to, have done) of this one to engage with and find out what our learners (and teachers) are thinking.

(If you would like this blog post as an audio file please click this link or right click the link and choose to save the mp3 file. Please note: the audio file was created quite simply by pasting the text into Balabolka (one of the tools available as part of My Study Bar/EduApps) and saving as an mp3 audio file).

First, apologies to those of you reading this who don’t like to see ‘text speak’ used in this context. I admit that I am actually one of  those who generally prefer to write and punctuate text messages as I would any piece of writing but in the interests of the content of this blog post I wanted the title to be relevant and mildly engaging at the very least!

Today I wanted to share my thoughts about text messaging in an educational context … but what has prompted me to do this? Mobile phones are everywhere and although some of us use them (not just for making calls) much more than others, the fact that it is a technology that the majority of learners have and are familiar and comfortable with makes it seem like a ‘tool’ to be seriously considered to support learning, teaching and the general learner experience. My colleague Christine’s post in February about mobile phones being a blessing or a curse and my musings on the Horizon Report 2009 have already considered this topic but in response to several requests for more information about using SMS text messaging in an educational context and Christine’s most recent post where she mentioned our ‘text wall’ I wanted to say a bit more.

We (at RSC Wales) have been taking advantage of the fact that most people have mobile phones with them wherever they go by using a ‘text wall’ as a communication tool at events, workshops and staff development sessions to collect feedback and comments and to gather and then respond to questions. The main function (imo) of the xLearn text wall we are using (originally heard about through JISC TechDis) is as a tool to gather, in one easily accessible online place, text message communications. These ‘communications’ could be comments, thoughts, questions, responses to specific queries or even tasks … all things that we want to happen in a teaching and learning environment. This particular text wall can also be used to send texts to individuals or groups but this is not something we have felt the need to do to any great extent as of yet. Here is an example of the kinds of text wall communications we had with the delegates at our July 2009 event ‘Integration Learning Together’, where we used it as one way of collecting general responses to the day as well as gathering questions for Martin Dougiamas who was presenting to us (and receiving the questions directly through the text wall) live from Australia.

However, this is only one way that text messaging is being used/can be used in an educational context. A number of organisations are now using text messaging services like Edu txt or Janet txt to stay in touch with their learners … texting notices, timetables changes, etc … and interest seems to be increasing in this kind of service. In response to this interest I have gathered together some basic notes on the range of SMS/text message services that are now available for those in an education context. Here are my notes on the types of text messaging services that are currently being used within education.

I know that we all choose to use our mobile phones in different ways today and that many see mobile phones as a distraction to learning rather than as a handy tool … but I think that much as any tool generally has a primary purpose, we also eventually find other good uses for it (a ruler is to measure accurately but also to draw straight lines, track text as you read, mark the place in a book …) as we become more familiar with it. But then thinking about what I have just said, isn’t the primary purpose of a mobile phone to be able to communicate and stay in touch … and isn’t that what we want to do with our learners anyway?

I’ve long been a fan of voting systems (eg. Turning Point, Quizdom) because of their capacity to add interactivity into formative assessment. The trouble is, though, that such systems cost – generally, around £2000 for 16 handsets. Many of us have hoped that voting in this way might become possible using mobile phones (not actually free, but a lot cheaper!), and now it seems that this is a reality.
For a start, there is the option of using a text wall (eg. xlearn: http://www.xlearn.co.uk/sms.htm) in which sms text responses are displayed on a web-site, and visible to all participants with screen & projector. There is a cost to this, but quite low for a standard service. At this level of service, text entry is possible, so words, numbers, ‘yes/no’ etc can be viewed, though there is no analysis of responses and hence no graphs etc (this can be done, but at greater cost).

Another option that I have just discovered (via the e-Assessment Association newsletter) is to use Twitter. Power-Point Twitter tools, developed by Timo Elliott, allow Tweets to be input into power-point slides. If Tweets with a unique ‘voting string’ are made in response to a question, eg. multiple choice, the tool can feed data into charts/graphs (Tweets can be made from a mobile device as well as a PC). The tool can be downloaded from the SAP Web 2.0 web-site at http://tinyurl.com/yecmh86 : it’s basically a power-point presentation from which you can copy and paste slides (they have to be in ‘presentation’ or ‘slide-show’ mode to be fully functional). In addition to the ‘Twitter voting’ slide, there is a ‘Twitter feedback’ slide that displays Tweets in speech balloons, and a ‘Twitter Ticker bar’ that can be embedded into a Power-Point master slide to give real-time ticker-tape updates. I have tested all of these, and they work (hurray!), though there is sometimes a bit of delay as Twitter updates. These options are not quite as slick as using an up-to-date voting system, but they’re not bad, and definitely worth trying.