Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

Jott updates
April 30, 2008

JOTT - yes, that same program that Christopher Harris blogged about in May and in November is back on my mind again. My tech buddy Tisch sent me several notes of bloggers discussing JOTT like William “Bud” Deihl, and the Edublogger (Sue Waters) who included this info in her post Blogging Tools to Help You Blog:

Ken Pendergrass included Jott in his top 3 Web 2.o tools because he uses it everyday to give himself reminders via SMS and/or email. Michele Martin has written an excellent post on how she uses Jott to increase her productivity.

And yet Jott has even more potential. Karen Janowski highlights how Jott is a 21st century tool for learning by providing excellent examples of how we could use it with students in our classrooms.

Before JOTT sounded fun, but I didn't really have an immediate need for it. Today I figured out how I can make it useful for school. I'm going to have students call JOTT to tell me what books to buy for next year and at the bookstore. It's like voice messaging that doesn't make me stop to make notes.

The students know when I'm going to the Bookstores like Barnes & Noble in Opry Mills (that is having  a teacher appreciation evening May 1st). The students then tuck notes in my bags, but sometimes they slip through the cracks (or caverns in my GINORMOUS purse as the Kdg's say). With JOTT the messages can be sent to my email, my cell phone, and even blog or web pages simultaneously. No more notetaking.

To use JOTT you simply go online to their site, type in the phone number you will be JOTT'ing from, your email address and set a password. Then you dial their tollfree number, say "Self" to leave a message to yourself, start talking, stop talking, & listen for JOTT to say "Got it" then hang up. Come on.... That is so very easy you just have to try it out. 

Wait! It gets better. Ever need to text many people at the same time QUICKLY? Let's say you are on your way to a party and suddenly need to change the location. You can go to the JOTT website, set up contacts in groups like FAMILY or FRIENDS, then when you phone in to JOTT simply say "FRIENDS" instead of self. Leave your message which will then be immediately sent out to everyone in your FRIENDS list, then if you remember someone else to JOTT a short text message or short voice message to you can stay on the line and keep recording until all your messages are taken care of.

There is just so much to discover. I'm trying to figure out how it will work with this blog since I am so often on my cell phones.

Posted by Diane Chen on April 30, 2008 | Comments (0)