MCPS plans to utilize the mobile Remind app as a primary form of communication in schools by winter break.
The $350,000 investment by MCPS, Remind, is a mobile messaging platform that aims to help students, teachers, and staff communicate more effectively. After its development in 2011, individual teachers and organizations in MCPS utilized Remind and its text announcement feature that allows students to receive information directly to their mobile phones when connected with a phone number and email address.
Now, as MCPS rolls out use of the app county-wide, school leadership and staff members hope the program will provide another positive step towards positive community relationships.
“As we roll out the Remind app, we’re hoping that this will be a communicative tool that will enable us to blast important information, specific to whether it’s around testing, whether it’s around graduation,” assistant principal Monica Abuliak said.
In theory, Remind makes communication much easier, but some students question if the app will make a substantial difference.
“Remind may or may not benefit students depending on the teacher,” senior Ben Levy said. “Some teachers have things to do outside of school, and if they aren’t responding to your emails, they probably won’t be responding to your Reminds.”
As Remind is implemented in schools, administrators are hopeful that it will enhance communication effectively when used in addition to prior communication methods like Canvas, Synergy, and Gmail.
“We’re slowly rolling this out, and we’re looking at ways to use this as a tool that will be additive and not repetitive in the current tools that we use within Synergy, within Canvas,” Abuliak said.
The addition of Remind is intended to make communication more efficient by meeting students where they spend time, their cell phones, as opposed to through their email or Canvas page which may be checked less frequently.
“Finding that right balance of using Remind Hub, along with some of the other communicative tools, that’s what we’re trying to flesh out at this time,” Abuliak said.
