Celly

I'm always trying to keep up on the latest technology to use in my classroom, so when I heard about Celly last month I was immediately eager to check it out.  Celly is a mobile social network of sorts that allows teachers to send reminders to students, conduct polls, and even exchange group messages.  I'm intrigued by Celly for a few reasons:

1 - The creators of Celly have worked very hard to make it a safe social network.  No phone numbers are ever exchanged (everyone has the opportunity to create a username).  This means that my students can actually send me a message regarding their homework - and I can respond - without them ever knowing my phone number.  Also, if a student wants to message the whole group, as the teacher I can preview the message before it gets sent out to the whole group (which means no cyberbullying!).

2 - I have used a website in previous years that would allow me to send out newsflash reminders to students and parents, but the advantage of Celly is that I can schedule reminders and updates in advance.  In other words, I can schedule Thursday's homework reminder on Monday, and it will go out on Thursday without me having to give it another thought!  I tend to be really forgetful when it comes to sending out reminders, so being able to schedule them in advance is a perfect feature for me! :)

3 - I've wanted to get a "clicker system" for my classroom for a couple of years now, but thanks to Celly I may not need to!  Celly has a polling feature that can be used in real time in the classroom.  Now, not all of my students have devices that they can bring to class, and we have a "no cell phone" policy in our building, but if enough students have an iPod or something similar then they could participate in the poll in small groups within the class.  It's worth considering, anyway!

Today I officially signed up for a Celly account, and I'm looking forward to trying it out in the coming school year!

Rachel