As a future educator, I have heard a lot about an app called Class Dojo from professors, elementary teachers, and other students at my university. Since I had never checked it out for myself, I thought this would be a good app to explore. The ClassDojo app can be downloaded on any iOS device, Android device, or computer and is used to manage behavior in classrooms of any age (preschool- high school). Since its launch in 2011, the popularity of this app has absolutely exploded. I had never heard a bad word about the app, but when I began my research, I unearthed some surprising controversy and many different opinions.What is ClassDojo and How do I use it?
The mission of ClassDojo is to engage students, keep parents updated, and most importantly, encourage students. This free site allows teachers to keep a simple, electronic record of behaviors in the classroom. You can always give students a point or take one away whenever they exhibit certain behaviors such as showing perseverance or being disrespectful. You can choose how to use it and decide what circumstances will cause you to enforce the discipline. This app also enables you keep attendance and convey any of this information (positive or negative) with parents.
First, you must sign up and give a minimal amount of personal information about yourself such as your name and email. Once you do that, you are ready to begin using the app/ website. Now, you will be given the option of signing up with your school but you are able to skip this step. From there, ClassDojo brings you to what will be your home page or class story. Your class story looks very similar to a Facebook page. On this page, you will be able to post comments and photos that parents can view. If you are doing a really cool hands-on unit, you can take a picture of what is taking place and give your student's parents a small glimpse of what their children are learning.
Before you can really do anything, you have to add your students to your class. All you do is click a button, enter the name of each student, and before you know it, each student has his or her own fun
From here, you can actually begin monitoring behaviors. By clicking on a student's avatar, you are given multiple positive categories such as helping others, on task, participating, perseverance, teamwork, and working hard. You are also given areas that need work such as disrespect, no homework, off task, talking out of turn, and being unprepared. By going to the settings, you can also add your own categories you would like to keep track of. This way, you can add categories that directly correspond with your classroom rules. At any time, you can click any of these categories to either give the student a point or take now away. The app will keep a tally of how many points each student has but it will also show you how many points the class has as a whole.
You can also divide your students into teams. I know of many teachers who separate students into pods and give each one of those pods or teams a nickname. They then give points to the teams who are displaying exceptional behavior. For example, if one team has a very good answer for a question or sits quietly doing individual work, the team will get a point. In ClassDojo, you can separate your students into groups and give or take away points from everyone in the group all at once. Instead of doing this on the board, ClassDojo allows you to keep a digital record and makes it even easier for you to give or take away points from a group of students.
Additionally, you can use ClassDojo to take attendance. As each student comes in, you can click their monster to record that they arrived to class on time, late, or not at all. One teacher, Erin Klein, projected the attendance page onto her SMART Board each morning and allowed her students to tap their monster avatar each morning. In her experience, her students loved getting to do this (Quattrocchi, 2014).ClassDojo does not allow just anyone to view your account information. In order for someone to view your class story or any other information, they must be invited to view the app. To do this, you will need to locate a rectangle that says "Connect parents" on the class story page. If you click on the button in this box, a page will pop up giving you the option to enter either a phone number or email address of a parent for each child. If the parent accepts the invitation, he or she will then be able to view your posts, receive updates about their student, and receive any personal or public messages you may choose to send. For instance, you could send a message to every parent reminding them that picture day is tomorrow or you could send a message to one specific parent about how well their student is doing with an activity. There are many ways you can keep parents in the loop by using ClassDojo.
Main Features
- Class attendance
- Class story page
- Invite and message parents
- Give or take points away from individual students, groups, or whole class
- View timeline (see how the student has changed)
- Invite co-teachers or special ed teachers to join your class
- Customize behavior categories
- Stopwatch and Countdown timer
How Can I use this in my Classroom?
ClassDojo can be a great way to manage behavior by encouraging students. Personally, I think it is important to remember we must always give more positive comments then negative ones. You also need to create a specific set of guidelines as to what behaviors warrant giving points and taking them away.
Additionally, you need to decide whether you want to use this in lieu of another form of classroom management or in addition to it. One phenomenal teacher I have observed used a chart with clothes pins (each containing a child's name) and when her students made good or bad decisions, they could either clip up or clip down. The top level says "Role Models", the second level says "I'm Ready to Learn", etc. She also grouped the students into teams based on where they were sitting and awarded team points at her discretion. Because ClassDojo offers an electronic form of each of these tactics, you could use ClassDojo as your main form of classroom management.
Lastly, you could use it to communicate with parents. Many teachers take the time to set up a class website but if you use ClassDojo, that may not be necessary. If you post regularly to the class story and send class-wide messages regarding major announcements, parents would be kept entirely updated. My professors suggest connecting with a parent and praising their child within the first week of a school year. You could do this through ClassDojo and also message them whenever you see fit.
What do I Really Think?
ClassDojo seems very useful but like I mentioned at the beginning of my post, there is a lot of controversy surrounding this tool. The New York Times expressed privacy concerns. Because teachers are using the app to record detailed information about children and their behaviors, many parents became concerned that their data could be viewed by others. Some viewed it as harshly judgmental and were worried it could label their student as a problem child. Many parents vehemently disagree with teachers displaying the information publicly on a class SMART Board as well.
Another argument is that students need to be motivated intrinsically not extrinsically. However, the principal of Hunter Elementary School in New York believes you have to start with extrinsic motivation to hopefully encourage intrinsic motivation. Two third grade teachers at Hunter Elementary school use ClassDojo: one privately and one publicly on the class SMART Board. Both have had varying levels of success with this tool.
Overall, most teachers give ClassDojo a positive review and have come to the conclusion that it depends on how you use it. First of all, I certainly would not display my ClassDojo information for the entire class to see. I always tell students they need to focus on themselves and make the best decisions based on their needs (not what other students may or may not be doing). By displaying this so prominently, students could easily get distracted by the performance of others and miss the point of using the tool.
To me, the most important aspect of being a teacher is building authentic, caring relationships with students. If you do not do this, it would be hard to accomplish very much during the school year. This should come before anything else. I like the idea of ClassDojo but I have also seen other, less controversial forms of classroom management that have worked just as well. Personally, I would have to judge my class and my students' parents and decide if ClassDojo is the right choice for all of us. If I did choose to implement it, I would make sure to use it in a way that would truly benefit my students. Even though I could do all of my discipline through this app, I would still make sure to communicate regularly with my students in order to continue building stronger relationships.
I would never use ClassDojo without the permission of every parent and if even one parent chooses to opt out, this program would be much less effective. I would have to revert to a different form of management because it could cause problems to leave one child out. Over time, it may become more accepted, especially since ClassDojo has updated their privacy policy in response to parental concern. I think this app is really cool and when it's used in the right context, it is a source of communication and fun to connect teachers, parents, and most importantly, the students.
References
ClassDojo logo [online image]. Retrieved February 14, 2016 from https://www.classdojo.com
Quattrocchi, C. (2014). When classroom culture conflicts with edtech. Retrieved February 13, 2016, from Ed Surge Inc.website:https://www.edsurge.com/news/2014-02-09-when-classroom-culture-conflicts-with-edtech
