Review by Alexander Brown
5

ClassDojo is an app that's used in elementary and middle schools. Children are awarded points for perseverance and hard work and deducted points for disrespect. Teachers can upload photos and videos and communicate with parents. According to Forbes, 90% of schools in the US use ClassDojo.

Encouraging Positive Attitude

By offering a convenient way for teachers to monitor student behaviors, ClassDojo helps gather information about students and give them feedback. By taking and giving points teachers reinforce good behavior. The company says the app is about classroom culture. To achieve this goal, the app gives teachers tools to promote positive behaviors and create new communication lines. Besides, it frees teachers from being trapped at their keyboard. They can control it with their phones.

Another way to encourage positive behavior is to publicly display points and stigmatize any behaviors teachers find unacceptable. The app also offers educational videos developed together with Stanford’s Project for Education Research that Scales. These videos focus on improvement and teamwork. The majority of functions can be accessed after setting up a profile through the company's website.

Think-Pair-Share Activities

Students get a question and spend time individually thinking about their answers. Then they work in a group and share their activities with each other. If this is done at home, they can snap pictures of completed assignments and send them to their teachers. Analytics can be easily printed and shared with parents.

During the class, the app awards point to positively reinforce students for meeting expectations. It also sends reminders to students who need positive reinforcement. Parents can track a child's behavior and have private conversations with teachers. Additionally, teachers get information about their own behavioral patterns. Thanks to engagement dashboards, teachers can understand what happens inside all of their classrooms.

Getting Creative

Each student gets a "monster", a cute character associated with their profile. Children can get creative and customize their avatar. The app offers lots of accessories and body parts for the monsters. One student can be a part of many ClassDojo classrooms, their points, and their avatar will be displayed via a smartboard. The app provides teachers and users with videos geared towards the importance of teamwork and perseverance.

Conclusion

ClassDojo is based on game mechanics: badges, level-ups, achievements, avatars, and in-classroom games. The app is teacher-centered and allows teachers to award points, add notes, keep track of events, and so on. The effectiveness of ClassDojo depends on proper and consistent use.

Highlights

  • Encourage students by giving points;
  • Teachers connect with parents;
  • Monitor what happens in classes;
  • Manage assignments and grades.