There are a myriad of technology choices out there for communicating, creating, organizing and surviving in the classroom. I've dabbled with a few different choices in my classroom and a few months ago I shared my new love, Bloomz! So, I thought I would make Tuesday a day to share my latest tech find with all of you. For this week, I want to share a little bit more about Bloomz as there seems to be quite a buzz about it around the web.
Having used a variety of communication apps in my classroom, I thought I would compare Bloomz to Remind 101 as it seems to be used by many and a lot of people have questions about how the two compare.
Remind 101 is a solid app that I used for most of the past school year. My son's teacher used it as well so I experienced it form a parent and a teacher standpoint. It was instantaneous, short and sweet. I likened it to a tweet or a short text. It was okay. But okay just isn't good enough for me. I was limited on characters so had to make my messages as short as possible or send multiple messages. In my mind, multiple messages defeats the purpose of Remind. It's supposed to be short and sweet. I always felt like I needed just a little more information when I got messages from my son's teacher as well. Another huge deficit of Remind 101 is that the communication is one way. I could send out a short little message but if it wasn't understood or if there were any questions, I got calls, texts and emails seeking clarification. Frankly, that was a waste of everyone's time and many times I just skipped Remind and used Facebook instead. It is my understanding that parents can now respond but even with the change, it is still just a messaging app.
Bloomz solves these problems and does so much more! Like Remind, I can send a message or reminder and it immediately posts to a parents phone. This is big. In this day and age, parents are too busy to stop and check email as often as we would like and I am not interested in sending out 20 text messages to share quick reminders. Difference is, with Bloomz I can send a short or long message with as little or as much detail as I want. I can add a picture, a sign up, a reminder, etc or I can just send a sentence. As a bonus, I end up building our classroom community because my post can be commented on by others so then we have a conversation going on rather than just a message from me. This allows families to make connections, get to know one another and in some cases help one another out so I am not always the keeper of all classroom information. I'd say the biggest plus of Bloomz over Remind101 is that it has so many more capabilities beyond simple messaging and as a result, I only need to use one app - Bloomz - to take care of all communication needs.
Click here and check it out this summer and you won't be disappointed!
Thanks for your post about Bloomz. I'm going to use your post on my Google Spreadsheet that compares Bloomz, Class Messenger, SimplyCircles, and Remind (if that's OK with you)! =) I have a questions, do your parents only get an email push notification, or can they also get the app push notification? What about a cell text push notification? Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry I missed this comment! Great thing about Bloomz is that whether parents choose to sign up or not, every time you post to Bloomz they will continue to get emails letting them know you posted. They do get an app push notification. It comes through much like a text or Facebook notification. Phone beeps, and a notification appears.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stacie! You'll be pleased with the "coming soon" features that Bloomz has in the works! Check out my blog post that should post by tonight sometime! www.jessicameacham.com Thanks for all your help! I'm looking forward to community building and communication strengthening that Bloomz has to offer!
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in Bloomz after using Remind and experiencing many of the same frustrations, though it definitely helped. I am concerned about parents feeling overloaded. Once a chat stream starts, will they get notifications every time someone responds? Also, I have 8th graders and many of their parents don't want to get the reminders, but the students do. Would you recommend both students and parents being on it?
ReplyDeleteI'm really interested in Bloomz after using Remind and experiencing many of the same frustrations, though it definitely helped. I am concerned about parents feeling overloaded. Once a chat stream starts, will they get notifications every time someone responds? Also, I have 8th graders and many of their parents don't want to get the reminders, but the students do. Would you recommend both students and parents being on it?
ReplyDelete