Wrote this post a while back, but never actually published it. It still is relevant (nothing changed, no surprise), and just rereading it made me frustrated again, so here it is.
This morning, one of my classes was canceled. Nobody knew that until we got here though, because the lady who teaches the class decided hanging a sign on the door was notification enough. If she'd have used the college provided tools, I would've gotten an email at 10 am, well before I even thought about leaving my apartment. Let's assume the college provided notification is complicated (its just emailing the students belonging to a certain tagged group per class, can't be too hard) and take a look at better ways to get a message out.
This morning, one of my classes was canceled. Nobody knew that until we got here though, because the lady who teaches the class decided hanging a sign on the door was notification enough. If she'd have used the college provided tools, I would've gotten an email at 10 am, well before I even thought about leaving my apartment. Let's assume the college provided notification is complicated (its just emailing the students belonging to a certain tagged group per class, can't be too hard) and take a look at better ways to get a message out.
1) Text Messages
Pretty obvious I'd think, but almost everybody has a phone capable of receiving texts (yep, even the nokias circa 1992). Why not use this as an effective means of sending mass messages very quickly? As for those without texting plans, I think Verizon is the only carrier who charges for incoming messages, and even then it's very little. I'd rather pay a nickel to find out class was canceled than drive all the way here for nothing.
Pretty obvious I'd think, but almost everybody has a phone capable of receiving texts (yep, even the nokias circa 1992). Why not use this as an effective means of sending mass messages very quickly? As for those without texting plans, I think Verizon is the only carrier who charges for incoming messages, and even then it's very little. I'd rather pay a nickel to find out class was canceled than drive all the way here for nothing.
1.2) The school library already has a texting service set up, and even signed up for a short code. Most people have given their cell numbers to the school already (iPad sweepstakes), so this absolutely makes the most sense.
2) Regular Email
The problem with this one is that nobody checks their education email, because it's filled with garbage nobody cares about. I actually got a chain email sent to all students by somebody in administration. Are you kidding me? That's the reason I don't give my family my email, and now I have to deal with it from the school? Perhaps if there were less announcements about events you're not going to, and more useful information, we could be bothered to check. I use Gmail, so it was easy to set up forwarding and make sure I know when I get an email directly from one of my professors, but not every student is as apt as I am.
The problem with this one is that nobody checks their education email, because it's filled with garbage nobody cares about. I actually got a chain email sent to all students by somebody in administration. Are you kidding me? That's the reason I don't give my family my email, and now I have to deal with it from the school? Perhaps if there were less announcements about events you're not going to, and more useful information, we could be bothered to check. I use Gmail, so it was easy to set up forwarding and make sure I know when I get an email directly from one of my professors, but not every student is as apt as I am.
Sorry for the ranty-ness of this post, but I was mad, it's my blog, and I'll say whatever I like.