Constraints of Subtext
- The app is only available via tablets and the web. There is not a Subtext app for cell phones.
- So many of the awesome features of this app requires you to purchase a premium membership and class "licenses". To conduct an assignment with students (one that you made or other teachers made), you must have a premium membership. A lot of the Common Core resources and progress monitoring tools are also only available to those with premium memberships. However, for free, teachers can share books with their class and use the "Ask" and "Comment" functions to ask students multiple choice or discussion questions and to see their replies.
- The library of pre-uploaded fiction texts is very limited; the app is much better for using nonfiction articles. There is not a way for teachers to upload an e-reader version of a fictional text (say, from a Kindle or another device); they'd have to upload an entire PDF of a fictional text. Teachers must purchase books through Subtext.
- One of the greatest strengths of Subtext will be the assignments that teachers make for texts and share with one another. However, because Subtext is still relatively new and doesn't have that many users, many of the texts do not have assignments already made for them yet (for example, two popular children's books for middle school-- Bud, Not Buddy and Tuck Everlasting-- have zero assignments). Furthermore, though basic users can see these assignments, they cannot actually use these assignments unless they purchase a premium membership.
- When searching the wealth of nonfiction articles available to teachers, there is no category for the most "popular" texts. There is also no quick way to see, when searching, if an article has assignments with it. The teacher must add it to their library and then see if there are assignments. It would be better if teachers could search "popular" articles--ones that have been used by many teachers and that have assignments with them.