ClassDojo, the behavior management platform for the education sector, has launched its first native mobile app (iOS) to help teachers bring order to their classrooms.
Just to recap, ClassDojo rolled out of beta last month as it announced a chunky $1.6m seed funding round. The funds came from some pretty well-known investors, such as Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator, who made a personal investment, while Ron Conway at SV Angel also stumped up some cash.
ClassDojo works like this. Teachers create a free account, add their students’ names and customize the behaviors they want to encourage. During class, positive behavior is reinforced by dishing out feedback points to students, using any computer, tablet or smartphone; these feedback points are displayed in real-time in the classroom with audio-visual cues.
ClassDojo automatically compiles this data into reports, letting teachers monitor progress, trends and share information with parents.
The mobile app, which launches today, is designed for all iOS devices, and is a natural extension to the existing ClassDojo platform as it’s designed to make it easier for teachers to monitor and track behavior in real-time.
Teachers can walk around their classroom and promote positive behavior by serving up feedback to students. These points are displayed in the classroom with audio-visual cues allowing students to see how they are progressing, both individually and as a class.
Through the app, teachers can register for an account, set up and view all of their classes, and assign personalized avatars to each of their students.
Teachers can also randomly select a student to call on, assign points to one or multiple students, choose the student display order, and synchronize the student list for the day based on attendance.
“Real-time feedback like this, especially when used to provide consistent, positive reinforcement, has the power to influence future behavior,” says Sam Chaudhary, co-founder of ClassDojo. “This instant feedback loop helps students build the kinds of positive behaviors that promote learning. In the process, we’re taking on a frustrating pain point for teachers and turning it into a positive experience that benefits all.”
ClassDojo co-founders Sam Chaudhary and Liam Don were part of the inaugural class at ImagineK12, which is like a Y-Combinator specifically for education tech. They developed the service after interviewing hundreds of teachers who reported behavior as the biggest problem in the classroom.
This is where ClassDojo is looking to carve a niche for itself, as the company is setting out to help teachers build positive learning behaviors with students and grow character strengths such as persistence, creativity, curiosity, self-control and leadership.
Chaudhary actually worked as a high school teacher, before heading to the education arm of McKinsey & Co in London, while Don was an MMO games developer at Runescape (Jagex). He was midway through a PhD in Computer Science, which he left to start ClassDojo.
To date, more than 3.5 million teachers and students have used ClassDojo, with 20,000 new teachers adopting the platform each month. We’re told that the company will unveil a mobile app for Android devices soon.
Feature Image Credit: Black Vanilla | Flickr
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