The Teaching App at the Head of the Class

[MachineGhost]

An unexpected disruption!  Pretty cool.

[quote=http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/20 ... -app-store]As kids head back to school, a relatively unknown mobile app is rocketing toward the top of the most-downloaded lists for both Apple’s (AAPL) and Google’s (GOOG) app stores. Remind isn’t a game or social network—it’s a texting tool used in many parts of the U.S. to establish stronger lines of communication among teachers, students, and their parents.

About 1 million teachers and 17 million parents and students have downloaded Remind, a free app developed by a San Francisco startup of the same name. In such states as Texas, Alabama, and Georgia, 40 percent to 50 percent of teachers use the software, the company says. Educators can update homework assignments, solicit volunteers for field trips, and send photos from the classroom without having to count on paper handouts making their way into and out of backpacks or on parents regularly checking their e-mail.

Remind says it will roll out app features on Aug. 28 that let teachers transmit short surveys (“Was today’s homework too tough?”?) and record voice messages. “If we can find a way to engage parents in the classroom two to three times a week, vs. one to two times a year, and if we can make teachers better by making them more efficient, we can have an enormous impact,”? says Brett Kopf, Remind’s 27-year-old chief executive officer.[/quote]