Colleagues keep writing in Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed that they are switching to text messaging as the main way of communicating with students.
It’s true that students resist email with everything they have. Many come to college with zero experience in this area and no understanding of how email-writing works. However, I believe we are doing students a disservice when we refuse to teach them this important skill. Does anybody really believe that students’ chances of success in life are maximized by not knowing how to write an email?
Yes, forcing students into new experiences is hard. But hey, when was teaching ever supposed to be easy? Besides, letting students into the more private world of one’s cell phone with the extremely casual tone of text-messaging blurs the lines between formal and informal communication for young people who already have trouble knowing what’s appropriate and what isn’t in a professional setting.
Clarissa's Blog 
I won’t text students because I don’t want students to have my personal phone number– and I don’t really want their personal numbers either. So that’s out of the question for me personally. It seems a bit invasive to me. If I was a student I don’t think I would want my professor texting me.
But I e-mail my students regularly and I have never experienced a problem with it. And I include important information in the e-mails (attach readings, announce schedule changes etc.) and students always seem to get the information. They all check and send e-mails with their phones. From my experience, students seem to see e-mail as an expected form of professional communication. I’m surprised to hear that some students resist e-mail.
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I’m very ashamed to confess it but I’ve been forced to emailing parents with, “Please ask Katie to check her email” because that’s my last resort in the efforts to reach a student.
Those who do check email often only do it once a week, which doesn’t work in a college setting.
This semester I’m not teaching but the I’m hearing that half of the student body is about to fail the state-mandated sex assault prevention training. The training is sent to them by email. But they don’t check email. And if they don’t pass the training, we are not allowed to register them for the next semester. It’s a nightmare.
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This is so strange to me. I literally e-mail about 90% of my readings to my students and students always know what I’ve assigned and demonstrate familiarity with the readings (whether they actually read them is a different story.) I wonder what it is. Maybe because I work at a small school and there is just a culture of checking e-mail here?
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And students e-mail me too. Very frequently. To some extent it’s frustrating because they want an instant reply and I can’t always reply instantly to them. But they are very connected to their e-mail. Maybe it’s because I list it as a class requirement to check their e-mail regularly?
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Are your students mostly white and middle-class?
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Yes. They are. That must be the difference. Then I suppose it’s all the more reason to make sure that all students can access the “tools of power” that they need.
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“make sure that all students can access the “tools of power” that they need”
That might be the way to phrase it to them to convince them. If it’s just some weird thing some weird teacher wants they’re liable to tune it out. If it’s something that the system is trying to keep from them they might decide they need it.
(yeah I know it’s never that simple, but it might be a way to start)
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This is a great idea. “Tools of power” might make for a great argument.
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And my students are mostly immigrant and not middle-class. Still no problem with e-mails. Perhaps because I make it clear that not checking one’s e-mail is not an excuse for anything. And complaints to this effect are ignored. And I have no problem responding to a student saying “it got into spam folder” with “and you hope this argument can possibly make it better in the eyes of your professor?” So they learn very quickly.
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Texting instead of email is like not teaching cursive – another nail in the coffin of their job prospects.
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Imagine applying for a job via text message.
Professional recruiters, by the way, instantly delete job applications that come without a good cover letter.
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I’ve got three of my professor’s cell numbers. However, two of them were research advisors, and we need to be able to text or call if something happens when they’re not around. The other one gave it to the class, but everybody preferred to use email instead.
What really annoys me is when I’m doing a group project and the other people in the group don’t want to share numbers. They seem to think it’s too intimate–though all it really means is that we can actually communicate without worrying about someone not checking their email.
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