WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Over at dougbelshaw.com I’ve been using Twitter to keep visitors up-to-date with what I’m currently doing. The idea of the (free) web service is to answer the question “What are you doing?” - in less than 180 characters. You can update your profile via twitter.com, mobile phone or by instant message (MSN Messenger, AIM, GTalk, etc.).
I think Twitter could be ideal for reminding students about homework, trips and such things, especially as they can enter their mobile phone number to be alerted when one of their ‘friends’ updates their account. The advantage is that you don’t need to know the phone numbers of students to get messages onto their device: they are the ones who authorize their mobile phone from the website and they subscribe to your Twitter feed.
I’m going to ask my Year 10 class - you know the ones who are blogging and using a wiki already - if they see the benefit in using such a service. Most of them are great at remembering their homework, but a couple could benefit from a nudge… 
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What a fantastic idea!! The issue of parent's knowing when homework is set for their kids could also be served by this. If they subscribe then the annual parent's evening conversation of "My little Johnny always says he hasn't got any homework" could be solved.
This is a great idea, Doug! I'm excited to see how it goes…
J
Hi Doug,
I'm interested to know how this has been going? It's on my list of things to try in the coming months at my new school.
Cheers,
Dan
Great tip! Yet another tool to support a paperless classroom. I will add this tip to all of my upcoming seminars.
Thanks Rodney - a paperless classroom? That’s a long way off where I work…