Posterous logoI love Posterous. It’s dead simple sharing. I used to say dead simple blogging, but it’s more about sharing than it is about blogging.

But Posterous is designed to only work with only one cellphone number, which just doesn’t work in a classroom that you’re trying to take advantage of students’ mobile devices like cellphones, smartphones, iPhones, etc. I wanted to offer a method to capture student responses or student artifacts through Posterous.

Particularly with younger students (i.e., elementary & middle schools), I’m beginning to be convinced that students are more likely to have a cellphone than have an email address. So, I started trying to figure out a way to overcome Posterous limit on a single mobile number. In fact, I want students to be able to contribute to a Posterous site without having to collect their email addresses.  So with some testing this is what I (and a number of my graduate students in IDT came up with).

The Process

With some testing, I was able to connect Google Voice up to Posterous.  The process for posting is this:

  1. Google Voice is forwarded to
  2. Gmail is forwarded to
  3. Posterous

This, however, is not the order in which it should be set up.  Instead, follow this order.

  1. Gmail is first. I created a Gmail account specifically for Posterous.
  2. In Posterous, use your gmail address as the primary address for log in.
  3. In Posterous, I set the Settings to “Anyone can Post”.
  4. Then in back Gmail, set up mail forwarding to your Posterous email address, for example post@yourposteroussite.posterous.com (replace yourposteroussite with your Posterous site, for example post@viralnotebook.posterous.com.  Gmail will send a confirmation code in an email to Posterous.
  5. In Posterous, check to see if the post was received. You only want the confirmation code right now.
  6. Enter the confirmation code into Gmail. This should set up the forwarding to Posterous.
  7. Now, you can set up Google Voice by picking your number and doing the phone call verification.
  8. In the Google Voice Settings, under “Voicemail & Text,” choose to forward text messages to my email (which should be your gmail address).
  9. That should do it.  You can try sending a text or an email.  The emails should be posted directly into Posterous.  Texts will have to be approved inside Posterous.  Note, gmail does not support MMS.

This set up should allow your students to post to your Posterous site in one of three ways:

  1. SMS with text only to your Google Voice number.
  2. MMS any media with email to post@yourposteroussite.posterous.com.
  3. Email any files (e.g., .docx, .png, .mp3, etc.) to post@yourposteroussite.posterous.com.

A couple of recommendations …

  1. I do not recommend leaving Posterous’ setting to “Anyone can post. I will moderate.” Posterous’ strongest filtering for spam and authentication is through “Only contributors can post.” where Posterous authenticates the email addresses.
  2. I recommend setting Posterous to “Anyone can post. I will moderate.” for a short period time, such as during class or overnight while students are doing a project or activity.
  3. Don’t freely share the Google Voice number. It could set you up for a spam attack.