App of the Week – ClassDojo

Some of us remember the day when you dreaded that call from your teacher. Or the letter home. It was an old school way of alerting your parents of what was happening in class and it was not always good news. Black parents should be aware and monitor their child’s progress and performance in class. It is vital to your child’s education that you know exactly what they are doing and how they are performing. As a parent you can help your child by spotting weaknesses and deficiencies in their classroom performance early. That is what ClassDojo can do for you.

ClassDojo is the App of the Week. This app helps to keep parents and teachers in constant communication about the performance and behavior of students in the classroom.  Teachers using the app can encourage a better classroom atmosphere by providing immediate feedback to parents of a student’s accomplishments or infractions.

For students the app helps to encourage new skills and improved behavior. The recognition of the child’s progress can be recorded for the parents to see.

The app is applicable to all grades kindergarden through 12th grade as well as speciality classes.

ClassDojo permits teachers to communicate with parents in real time via text-based messaging, photos and voice notes. The app also tells children how well they are doing and collect points for good behavior and class performance and lose points for not performing or behaving. When a child has points deducted the app will notify the parent who has signed up for the service.

According to the ClassDojo website the app is currently being used by one out of two schools in the United States. The app is one of the many innovations to be spurred by the estimated $7.9 billion education software market for students from pre-kindergarten to high school. Although there are similar behavior-tracking programs ClassDojo may be the most popular.

As with any app there some who are not completely pleased with it. Some parents, teachers as well as privacy advocates say ClassDojo, and other new unproven education technologies are being deployed without proper consideration for students privacy.

These critics believe that the “carrot-and-stick” method of classroom discipline is outmoded saying the behavior apps themselves are too subjective. Some don’t believe that teachers should reward or penalize students for undefined acts like “disrespect.” They argue that behavior databases could potentially label a student as a problem and this label could stick with them for years.

My only question about this app is; What does it to do monitor the performance of the teacher and school? The app appears to be a one way street. What if the deficiencies of teacher is responsible for the child under-performing in certain subjects? I would argue there should be an app that monitors a teacher’s and schools abilities and performance. This would be an equally or even more valuable app for parents.

ClassDoJo is free and available for Apple and Android platforms.