Abstract
Everyone knows that text messaging is hugely popular, particularly among 18-24 year olds. But to what extent are we making use of this technology in our institutions, whether as a marketing tool, or in communicating with our students and staff and allowing them to interact with the institution using this medium? The purpose of this workshop session is to highlight some of the useful facilities that are now cheaply available to enable institutions to make use of text messaging, particularly where the start or end point is a web interface, hence its relevance to managers of institutional Web services. We’ll be looking at such things as:
- conducting text polls with the results being shown on a Web page in real-time;
- administering news alert services and “subscription groups” via a simple Web interface;
- enabling students to text in their questions during a lecture ready to be displayed and answered at the end;
- managing a text messaging marketing campaign via the Web;
- developing SMS/MMS to Web interfaces;
- and more.
Come with your mobile phone and some credit so that you can participate fully in this workshop.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the session participants will have gained an understanding of some of the services available to institutions that will enable them to exploit the immense popularity of text messaging as part of their corporate strategies (marketing, communication, web, teaching and learning, information etc). Having had an opportunity to take part in various demonstrations during the workshop, participants will be able to return to their institutions with first-hand experience of the potential for such systems.