Week 2: New Tool: Flocknote
What is Flocknote?
Flocknote is a new tool I have been using recently to communicate quickly and easily with parents and other school faculty and staff. You can send notifications, alerts, reminders, and so much more by text message, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. from any device. Flocknote is free for up to 40 members, and if you would like to add more, it is reasonably priced at $8/ month.
How does Flocknote work?
This app is very easy to use, is accessible to all, and fosters all communication in one place. You can select who to send the information to whether it be an entire class, the entire school, your parish, or select individuals. There is also a feature that allows you to see what communication has been sent, as well as who has responded to the communication, on the Dashboard.
When sending a Flocknote, it is limited to 160 characters. It is meant to be quick and simple. You can also customize your message by adding colors, Emoji's, or other fonts, and there is a feature that allows you to preview what you communication will look like before it is sent. After you preview you message and send it, you can decide how you would like to get alerted of responses from others; either as a text message or email.
How I currently use Flocknote:
1. I use Flocknote on almost a daily basis to easily connect and communicate with parents and families via text message or email.
2. Send updates, notifications, and reminders quickly to one or more classes.
3. Receive alerts, communication, and/ or reminders from other school administration, faculty, and staff.
Changes I would make in future implementations:
Since I have become more familiar with this communication, and it has been a great way to quickly get in touch with families, I plan to use this more frequently to send updates about students' learning so that parents are more involved in their child's learning experiences. This can be done by sending a recap of skills that we have grown in/ need continued growth in, important skills or resources that students can continue utilizing at home, or just simply sending positive feedback regarding students' learning to their parents.
Thanks for sharing all about Flocknote, this is a program I have never heard of! In my district we use an APP called remind, which you can call from as well which makes it nice because you don't have to give out your personal information. Flocknote seems like a nice free alternative for people who don't have a district or school funded communication app similar. Thanks for sharing what you know about it!
ReplyDelete- Jessie
Thanks for sharing! I have never heard of Flocknote before. I like how the program is designed to keep messages short and sweet. Sometimes I want to communicate with families, but email feels very formal. This seems like a great solution for quick little reminders and notes to families. I am curious would you use this program with students as well? Or is it best for communicating with adults?
ReplyDelete- Karissa Bachman
Hi there!
DeleteCurrently we use it for communication between adults only. Thanks!
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing, and I would like to try this out in my classroom in the future. One of my biggest difficulties as a high school teacher (especially this year) is that we do not have a good communication method with parents apart from email (I know a lot of elementary schools around my area use other methods to text parents). From what you have described, I like how I can communicate quickly and easily with parents through this app, and that it is inexpensive to use. I have thought a lot this semester how parents are inundated with emails from teachers and from the school, and would love to use this texting service to allow parents to communicate in a different way. I also like how you can use Flocknote to communicate more frequently with guardians, and that was one of my goals for the upcoming year. Thank you for sharing this!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing! I have never heard of Flocknote but I am excited to try it out! It is definitely reasonably priced (huge plus) and it helps eliminate some of my phone calls (which I dread). I love the idea of a texting service and being able to send a blast out quickly with reminders, etc. It would also be a nice way to send quick little notes of positivity home. Thanks again!
ReplyDeleteKayla- I have never heard of FlockNote. I use Google Voice the most, because it seems to be the quickest way to get a response but have used ClassTag in the past and it seems similar. I really like ClassTag and will use it when we are back in person, and maybe take a look at FlockNote!
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