Engage Students with Text Messaging

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Video Transcript

Hey everyone, it's Jeremy with AwanaYM, and today we're talking about text messaging. Now, text messaging is extremely popular, if you have a mobile device, a mobile phone, you probably have a text messaging plan on it. At this point, it's becoming that everybody has unlimited texting and that's actually very helpful because in the last 10 years, quite a few people have had really high bills because they were paying per text.

Text messaging is an awesome way to communicate with one another. I love texting friends of mine. I love texting my family. It's an easy way to exchange information especially when I'm just talking about information. I want you to focus on that concept when you're talking to your students. If you're going to text with your students, focus on information. Realize that a text message for them is very personal. Now it may not seem like that because you're just typing text in just like you'd be on an email or maybe even social media, but the truth is that text message goes directly to their device, to them. It's not like making a phone call to their home where anybody could pick up. No, no, no, it's going to be directly to them. It's very personal for them.

If you're going to use text messaging with your students, just make sure that you've opted in. Let them text you first. Don't text them. Don't send them a bunch of texts and say, "Hey, how are you doing?" They might not want to communicate with you that way, because it is so personal they might want to do communication with you on social media or maybe even just when they're live and in person with you, maybe even email if they're doing some business, but what I want you to get here is be cautious about how you use text, because here's the other thing: Text goes on forever. They can save the entire text message conversation.

You need to be very careful, especially when you move from sharing information, "Hey, our group's meeting tonight," or "Heard you were sick," or something like that, to more meaningful conversations. Why? Because they don't think technology does meaningful conversations very well. Now, students have been playing with them and trying to figure out how to make that work, but the problem inherent in text messages, you lose tone. I can't hear you and see that you're joking. I can't tell when you're angry. I lose all of that when I use a text message. Don't move meaningful conversations onto text messaging. Take the time to actually have a phone call, meet with them before or after your group, but don't move that to text.

Allow your students to kind of lead the relationship when it comes to text messaging. You may want to text your entire group, to mass text everybody a piece of information. If they've all opted in and said that's what they're willing to receive, then great, but don't assume that's what they want. Take the time to actually find out how they want to be communicated with, because text messaging is a very personal thing. For some of them, it's as personal as, oh I don't know, passing notes back-and-forth in class or whispering to your friend during a movie. For them, it feels very close and very intimate. When you're going to use this type of communication, make sure that you're not doing anything that could be deemed inappropriate, not just by you but by them.

I just want to make sure that we're being clear and I want you to understand how to use text messaging appropriately, so let me give you three guidelines that I think you need to follow:

1. Opt in. Let them choose how they engage.
2. Make sure that what you're doing is appropriate.
3. If in doubt, ask them. I know that may seem overly simplistic but I think as human beings, we like to know how one another communicate. Just take the time to ask them.

Regardless of how you plan on using text messaging in the future, you need to take into account the ways that not only your students think but the things that they're feeling as they're getting texts from you, because if they start feeling overwhelmed, they start feeling like, "You know what? This person's coming at me. They give me way too much information. They send me way too many texts." They will check out. Even if they're still getting your texts, they may just stop participating. Make sure that you're doing things effectively if you want your students to get the information and continue to communicate well with you.

To learn more about this, download the free eBook, "11 Ways to Engage Your Students Using Technology."

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