Upon sending the email, each student receives the email as a text message. I opted to not include a subject in my email as many phones don’t display the subject. It’s important to remember that text messages are limited to 160 characters, so emails sent via sms with more than 160 characters will be truncated beyond 160 characters. Then, to send a text message to my students, I simply launch my email client and copy/paste their sms email addresses in the BCC field and then enter my message to be sent in the body of the email. As each student sends me their phone phone number and carrier, I lookup the SMS gateway for their carrier and add the sms email address to my list of email addresses for the class. The carrier part is important, as each carrier has a different SMS gateway. I invited my students to opt-in to receiving text messages from me by simply emailing me their mobile phone number and carrier. For instance, to send to a number typically expressed in the USA as 98, you would email SMS-gateway. The list of SMS gateways at tells which email address to use if you want to send an email and have it arrive as a text message on someone’s phone. Nearly every mobile phone carrier provides free delivery of text messages using a sms gateway. However, I was also looking for the ability to more quickly broadcast a text message to all my students who opt-in to receiving such messages. This is a great free solution and allows me to give my students and single phone number to reach me at, either voice or text message. With my Google Voice app, if I have my students’ mobile phone numbers, I can send them text messages for free from my Google Voice app. My Google Voice Inbox also contains any other voicemails that I may have received at my Google Voice phone number. Launching the app, I see a preview of the message that I can click on it to read the complete message. Here’s the home screen of my iPhone with the push notification that I’ve received a new text message in Google Voice. I can then choose to send a reply back if I wish, again for free directly from the Google Voice app. I also installed the free Google Voice app on my iPhone so that now when I receive a text message at my Google Voice phone number, it shows up in my Google Voice app. What I also realized is that in addition to voice calls, I can also receive send and receive text messages from my Google Voice phone number for free! So, if my students send a text message to me at my Google Voice number, it goes to my Google Voice account. My Google Voice phone number is in fact is the phone number that I give out to all of my students to contact me if needed. I setup my Google Voice number to simultaneously ring my work phone and mobile phone. When setting up a Google Voice account, I received a phone number that I can give out that when called, simultaneously rings any of my phone numbers that I wish. Google Voiceįirst off, I setup a free Google Voice account at using my Google Account. I’ve explored several different work flows and options for accomplishing this and am sharing here the text messaging approaches I’ve tried thus far. I’ve recently been experimenting with providing my students the ability to contact me via text message (sms) as well as to allow them to opt-in to receiving course-related news and reminders as text messages from me. I’m intrigued by the increasing growth in the use of SMS (ie: text messaging) in mobile communications and it’s implications for online learning.
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