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agent_hyatt
2010-01-17 10:29 pm UTC (link)

He does have a glimmer of a point; not so much sending as receiving texts, if the school has a system that sends emergency announcements through text messages. If there's an emergency, such as a murder has just occurred in the building where you're currently in class, it would be nice to be able to receive that news. Of course, it would also be nice to have an alert system that isn't entirely text-message based, for the people who don't use their texting service and never signed up for the campus's text alerts...

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	grrliz 2010-01-17 11:12 pm UTC (link)
	There are schools that send emergency announcements via text message? Wow. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sequinedlizard 2010-01-17 11:21 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, some schools will do it for class cancellations and weather emergency stuff. I know Pittsburgh did it for when the snow was really bad, can't think if other situations came up where it was needed. (Reply to this)(Parent)

keri
2010-01-17 11:27 pm UTC (link)

My undergrad uni did it, but it was opt-in and they always ALSO sent an email out and you could register a phone number for the automated system to leave a message at. Plus if there was an emergency (like the time when a tropical storm flooded one of the buildings and shorted the electricity to the entire block, so everyone was told not to go near), they had an alert on the front page of the school website, and some sort of system that sent a pop-up to the in-classroom computers.

Dunno how it'd work for instructors that didn't turn the computers on, but for the most part, the school tried to use as many different ways to get the information out as possible.

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	adevyish 2010-01-18 12:21 am UTC (link)
	Mine does! What is even neater is that my school will use the name of their wireless networks to announce things. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	agent_hyatt 2010-01-18 12:25 am UTC (link)
	Yes. My school. That's really how they let students know that there was a murder in a building and that people should keep away. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	insanitys_place 2010-01-18 12:27 am UTC (link)
	Mine does. I get text messages for every type of emergency, even campus closing! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	evilsqueakers 2010-01-18 02:10 am UTC (link)
	Mine does and they call, too. It's how we knew a Very Bad Man was at the Clarkston campus of my school and wasn't allowed to be there. By way of the police's insistence since he threatened a professor. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lyssa 2010-01-19 03:54 am UTC (link)
	Yup. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	snarkhunter 2010-01-20 01:25 am UTC (link)
	A whole bunch have moved to it that system, especially in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	daughterofhelen 2010-01-23 12:09 pm UTC (link)
	I had a professor who INSISTED we not turn our phones off during an exam in case an alert came over the emergency text system. And this is the guy who was still using transparencies and photo slides. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	rachel_pi 2010-01-24 12:58 am UTC (link)
	Message or phone call. The high school I teach at has an automated system in case school is canceled and they're working on a text message alert system for the campus, since we don't have a PA system (too many different buildings). (Reply to this)(Parent)

sequinedlizard
2010-01-17 11:20 pm UTC (link)

I know very few professors that'll complain about a student receiving a text once in a while during class, especially if the phone is on vibrate. It's kind of annoying, but shit happens. Hell, it happened to me when my former roomie had to go to the hospital, and I had to leave the class I was in (thankfully I wasn't lecturing) to go help him.

I highly doubt that's what this student was doing :)

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shadowmonkey
2010-01-18 02:15 am UTC (link)

I thought he lost his glimmer of a point when he said he texted during class for his social life.

Also, if you are in class it's not necessary for everyone to get the same emergency text message to get the information across - it only needs the professor to have their phone on. Although, I'd have thought in a class situation it would be easier to use the tannoy system.

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	agent_hyatt 2010-01-18 03:04 am UTC (link)
	Assuming that the professor has their phone on, with them, and has signed up for the emergency text notifications. A bunch of professors aren't entirely with the times, or like my family, doesn't have a texting plan. What's the tannoy system? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jupiterpluvius 2010-01-18 04:00 am UTC (link)
	The US term for this is "loudspeakers" or "public address system." "Tannoy" is a UK brandname for these thingies. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	jupiterpluvius 2010-01-18 04:00 am UTC (link)
	A brandname that has become a general term as well, like "Xerox" or "Kleenex". (Reply to this)(Parent)

	shadowmonkey 2010-01-18 09:31 am UTC (link)
	Thanks, I had a complete brain freeze and couldn't remember the US equivalent. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	shadowmonkey 2010-01-18 09:30 am UTC (link)
	I'd have thought a university would make it a requirement for the professor to sign up and be available. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

maev_connacht
2010-01-18 04:50 pm UTC (link)

If you've dealt with faculty at a college, you'd know that entitlement issues aren't just for students! (I am not saying this is true of all professors, some are great. Some are entitled douchebags.) At least at my workplace, the administration is pretty much afraid to require our faculty to do much of anything they don't want to do, and we have some very strange characters. I could imagine a technophobe faculty member refusing to do so even if it were a requirement.

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	shadowmonkey 2010-01-18 11:57 pm UTC (link)
	If the administration is too afraid of the faculty to enforce a security and safety issue, then I hope they don't solely rely on an emergency messaging system that can be overridden by a professor refusing to have phones (their own, and students') in class. ... There will be a university somewhere doing that, won't there? o.O (Reply to this)(Parent)

snarkhunter
2010-01-20 01:28 am UTC (link)

AAAHHHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAHAAAAAAAA.....

That would go over SO well. Getting faculty to do anything = herding cats.

Also, as

agent_hyatt said, above, not everybody has text messaging on their phones.

Furthermore, those warnings are also sent via e-mail, so unless you're in class with your phone RIGHT THAT SECOND, odds are you'll get it one way or another.

I never bring my phone to class. I leave it locked in my office--that way, if I forget to turn it off, my students don't get to mock me. ;D

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shadowmonkey
2010-01-20 02:07 am UTC (link)

Now I'm confused, are you arguing for, or against, the necessity of phones in class? Because I said I didn't think more than one person needs to have the phone on. If you are the professor demanding that students turn their phones off, and your uni solely relies on a text message/email emergency system, then it's absolutely beholden to you to have a phone available.

Of course, most (and frankly I hope all) universities do not use text message as a means of communicating warnings to people in class. It's a uncontrollable, unaccountable, third-party system without guarantee of delivering time-sensitive information. Much more efficient to hit the fire alarm, or shout at you. So I guess who has the phone on in class for warnings is kind of a moot point.

Anyway, the guy in the original post? Still a douchebag.

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	shadowmonkey 2010-01-20 02:11 am UTC (link)
	Possibly also "an" uncontrollable system. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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snarkhunter, 2010-01-20 04:03 am UTC

	rimrunner 2010-01-18 03:43 am UTC (link)
	The university where I work does both. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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