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A popular classroom app’s ‘disturbing implications’
There's nothing sinister about cute monster avatars, right? Wrong, say University of South Australia researchers. They evaluated the cartoon critter-laden classroom app, ClassDojo, and reached a worrisome conclusion, namely, that it 'promotes controlling techniques of discipline and governance, rather than an educational approach'.
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It depends how you use it – you are able to specify the positive and negative behaviours that the app uses and these can be determined in collaboration with the students. I personally never took points away from students, I only used it for positive reinforcement and to determine rewards/prizes for students at the end of each week. Some of the positive behaviours identified by my class were things like listening to others, contributing ideas, being prepared for lessons, completing homework, asking questions and problem-solving. They were able to nominate their classmates for points as well if they observed them doing these things. Although the app does collect long-term data on their behaviour, I made it clear to students that this wouldn’t be used by me or shared with their parents, so each week was a fresh start. My students loved the app and it did help them to self-regulate their behaviour. Because of some of the positive behaviours identified by the class it also encouraged some quieter students to start contributing more – asking questions and sharing their ideas. So like any tool, I think it very much depends how you use it in the classroom!