Remind vs Bookopolis

They've recently changed the character count so even individual messages are limited to 140 characters. The 140 character limit for whole group announcements was Remind's biggest flaw - making that applicable to individual messages as well means it is not longer useful at all. I can't limit all my communications with students to 140 characters and I can't ask them to receive 2 or 3 or more texts every time we communicate. I will be researching and finding another service for the fall. (It also sucks that they are implementing this in the middle of the school year.

- Amanda H.

"Effective Solution for Large Group Communication" What do you like best about Remind? Remind is an effective and easy-to-use solution for large group communication. The ability to schedule messages ahead of time as well as add and remove people from groups easily makes it ideal for our setup. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Remind? You cannot remove group leaders from a group even after they have left the organization. It requires us to start a new group when one of the leaders leaves. This makes it difficult when we have new leaders every year. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Remind: Remind meets all of our needs for large group communication. It is moderately priced and works well for our educational setup. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Remind solving and how is that benefiting you? We are solving the problem of getting messages and links out to everyone quickly. This allows us to avoid large group texts, especially with and without iphones. It will enable us to send messages without bothering everyone with responses.

- Caleb N.

"Two-Way Communication Messages with Remind" What do you like best about Remind? Remind allows our school and district personnel to communicate with parents and other community members through text messages. I like that the product can auto-translate messages into other languages based upon the end-user's preferred language. I also like that the product enables me to schedule outgoing messages. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Remind? I wish the product allowed me to schedule messages at the district level. I can currently schedule outgoing messages at the individual schools, but that requires me to copy and paste my content into the platform several times if I want to broadcast district-wide. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Remind solving and how is that benefiting you? We can communicate with our stakeholders via two-way messaging, giving us the ability to send messages and answer any questions related to that outgoing content. Since Remind uses SMS text messages, we can often contact parents and caregivers who we could not reach by phone or email in the past.

- Chris S. Director of IT

Bookopolis is a social reading website (and Chrome app) that allows students to log, rate, and review books they’ve read. With a parent's help, students create an account, choose an avatar, and create lists of books they'd like to read, books they're currently reading, and books they've already read. Kids can browse built-in book lists, including curated lists by award winners, Common Core-aligned books, and read-alike ("if you liked this, try this") lists. These built-in lists are available for early readers (grades 1-3), older readers (grades 3-6), and middle school readers (grades 6-8). There's also a Fun & Games section where students can engage in word games, trivia, and puzzles. Students earn points and badges by logging their reading and recording their progress, and their friends, parents, and teachers can view their updates. Teacher accounts have more extensive features that let teachers create classes, monitor reading progress, recommend books to kids, and create assignments linked to specific books. Kids can then submit book reports directly from the site. Keep in mind that users can link directly to vendor sites where books are for sale; there's an alert that lets kids know they're leaving the site, but it might not prevent purchases. Recent updates add a lot more features: Discover books with BookQuest or Bookopolis Reader Picks, make and share book lists, and make and share wish lists. Other features include Summer Reading HQ, Book Trailers & Talks, and weekly book giveaways. These features add a bit more dimension to a student's experience.

- Fayme E.

“I love this app so much! I like the design and the quality! Most apps that say “e-books for children! Free E-Books for kids!” are all a waste, they have books that have hard words and offer books as old as Romeo and Juliet… But this app is amazing!”

- Matthew Lynch

Bookopolis is a great site for students to discover new books. The 'Book Ideas' section is really useful because they will find suggested books that are award winners, newly released, and liked by other readers. Reviews by other readers is a great feature to read their feedback on why they enjoyed or did not enjoy the novel. Leaving their own reviews encourages students to express their own opinions and use their writing skills. They can also practice digital citizenship as they write reviews.

- Trisha S.