September 7, 2011 | 2:17 PM | By

Can Mobile Phones Help Teachers Manage Classroom Behavior?

FILED UNDER: Tech Tools, ClassDojo, Classroom management

We can talk all we want about what students should learn in the classroom. But the reality is that most teachers have to balance “academics” with a multitude of other lessons: how to be good students, how to be good citizens, and simply how to behave. Behavior management is actually a significant part of what teachers have to do every day, and while there’s a wealth of information to help them with tips and tricks, there isn’t a lot of technology in place to help them with the implementation of best practices.

The startup isn’t just interested in “gamifying” good behavior. It wants to foster instrinsic, just not extrinsic, motivations in education.

There may be a solution with the use of tech — at least that’s what ClassDojo founder Sam Chaudhary believes. His startup is working on a Web and mobile app that will allow teachers to quickly and easily track class behavior. Those two things are key. Rather than filling out paperwork after a disruptive incident or trying to recall values to praise come report-card time when a child has no record of disruption, ClassDojo provides real-time feedback loops. ClassDojo hopes both teachers and students will benefit from this, and parents will eventually be able to tap into it, as well.

Currently, ClassDojo lets teachers track students’ behaviors with an easy +1 or -1 system — you can reward students for good behavior (participation, helping others, creativity, insight) or you can make note of negative behaviors (disruption, disrespect, tardiness). Reports can be generated per student or per class, so that teachers and students (and parents and/or administrators) can have a glimpse at what’s happening in a class.

And while tracking this sort of data is, no doubt, important for adults, its impact on the students themselves is also something that ClassDojo wants to highlight. Students respond better to feedback when it’s immediate — both when it’s reinforcing positive behavior and when it’s aimed at correcting disruptive behavior. Teachers can project ClassDojo onto a whiteboard or computer screen so the whole class can see their status; but in addition to updating the site via a desktop computer, teachers can also use their smartphones or other mobile devices in order to quickly flag these behaviors.

Each student has an avatar, and ClassDojo plans to implement levels to encourage good behavior. But as Chaudhary makes clear, the startup isn’t just interested in “gamifying” good behavior. It wants to foster instrinsic, just not extrinsic, motivations in education. How or whether that happens will be interesting to watch.

ClassDojo is still in beta, and the startup has a far broader vision than just this behavior management app. A former teacher himself, Chaudhary says his company isn’t merely interested in tracking and monitoring behavior — good and bad — in the classroom. Rather, he wants to share strategies for developing students’ characters. “We want to bring the same rigor to developing character as ed-tech as an industry currently reserves for developing test scores.”

ClassDojo is currently free while in beta.

    Related posts:

    1. Should Schools Subsidize Mobile Phones for Kids?
    2. Mobile Phones Open Up a Word of Learning
    3. Where Does Disruption Begin? With Teachers Who Teach Teachers

  • daria

    Will the police give +1 OR -1 when driving safely or dangerously, +2 or -2 for paying on time or stealing? When will we end using grades and points, as feedbacks? When will we ask ourselves first what is the reason why students or adults abide by the rule or beat the game, obey or rebel. New technologies will never be more than modern back up material if essential questions are not being asked before. Grading people using new technologies or not, won’t make them more intelligent, nor more independent or obedient.

    • Sam

      Daria – thanks for this comment! I completely agree that just throwing out points or grades is superficial – which is why we are not a superficial game, but a real-time feedback tool based on research. I wanted to respectfully disagree with some of your assertions:

      - Evidence shows that giving real-time feedback is more effective at stopping dangerous driving than giving driving tickets or jail sentences – you may find this article interesting, on the power of real-time feedback: http://bit.ly/loX33y.

      - I agree with your general point that ultimately we should (and
      ClassDojo will!) build self-regulation; however, in the meantime we
      can’t afford to not educate our students about what kinds of behavior
      are acceptable and which are not. You ask why students don’t abide by
      the rules – not only do many schools not make this kind of character education explicit, but they also set up a perverse incentive structure: the best that can happen if you do
      behave well is that you don’t get a detention. That is a skewed
      incentive structure where we’re not motivating or inspiring children to
      behave positively, but rather just not to behave (too) negatively. We can
      argue that ‘we shouldn’t laud children for being good, because they
      should just do that anyway’ – but that is an idealistic view
      of what should happen, not what is actually happening right now. We are bridging
      the divide with positive steps, to take us to a world where all our
      children are learning self-control and developing great character, so behavior management becomes a thing of the past. Our goal, of which ClassDojo is the first step, is to actually build those character traits – and to make it transparent and tangible to do so.

      - Classroom management skills have consistently emerged as one of the most
      difficult problems facing new teachers, and one of the biggest barriers
      to effective learning in our classrooms (http://bit.ly/nSr29B). The reality of a classroom is that 4/10 teachers report that managing
      behavior in class takes up more than 50% of their class time
      (http://bit.ly/pHUUrP) – that’s
      half a school career teachers spend not being able to teach, and
      students spend not being able to learn. We want to solve that problem,
      so more learning can happen, more effectively, right now rather than at some unspecified time in the future when society thinks differently and values character development more. I’m sure we all agree that we can’t bear to see half our kids’ school lives wasted because of this
      problem: what’s worse is that it may not even be our own child –
      whenever another student disrupts class, they rob everyone of the
      education they deserve. While we still send our kids to school, its got to be our responsibility to equip teachers with the tools they need to do the best job they can: we’re building ClassDojo to do just that.

      - On a final point: it turns out building self-control is actually the biggest predictor of children’s life outcomes: from average income, to incidence of criminal prosecution, to health outcomes: this is based on 40 years’ worth of research, including some by a Nobel prize-winning economist: see, for example, James Heckman (http://bit.ly/l7UvlA), or the results of the Perry pre-school programme (http://bit.ly/bA0jDZ)

      In sum: we’ve started our work with teachers as they feel the pain acutely in class, and we are in complete agreement on a key point: we need to go far beyond building better behavior in the classroom, to actually building character and self-control in society – and we will. We’re 3 weeks in; we just need a little time to get there :)

      Sorry this has turned out so long Daria! I get passionate about this :) if there’s ever anything we can do to help, please do let me know at sam at classdojo.com.

      Cheers

      Sam
      Co-founder, ClassDojo

      • Davidhlemon

        FAKE AND GAY

        • Guest

          Sorry Davidhlemon, but you sound fake. 

          Okay, I would like to ask one question to all of the people posting negative comments:  Have you ever taught Middle School in an inner city school district with no parental support?  If not, do NOT knock this program or think any type of research will tell you how these children will respond to “close relationships” or “behavior management”.  These children are NOT self-motivated and their parents do NOT make them do better. 
          I have taught in a very prominent public school system for the last eight years and can tell you that ClassDojo has made a difference with students who misbehave, disrespect others, and refuse to complete homework- all in a three week period.  

          Please, if you are not in the classroom, do NOT assume you know because you read “research”!  Ask a teacher who is actually dealing with issues on a daily basis and is FIGHTING to teach students to be responsible for their behavior.  This is what ClassDojo does.  

          Sam and Liam, you have done and are still doing an excellent job.  As a teacher, I can tell you this program works and I look forward to all of your proposed changes!

          Signed,

          A Teacher Who Loves ClassDojo!!!!!

      • Bobbi

        I think what the opposers are sensing, Sam, is that the feedback is public if displayed on a SmartBoard. It is really not about self-control if it is used in that way, it is top-down control, and possibly control through humiliation. With that said, I think that your fabulous site may be used in a more private way. I plan to use it for independent goal setting. Sometimes a child really doesn’t understand the frequency of a negative behavior. Seeing that frequency, working toward lessening it, and analyzing the positives that come from the improvement helps a child gain self-control.

  • Shelley Garza

    As a former classroom teacher & now trainer on
    behavior for educators & parents in a region of Texas that serves
    over 1 million students, I completely agree. If we look at basic
    behavior principles, we know that immediacy & consistency in
    providing feedback & the use of positive reinforcement for
    individuals helps change behavior & lasts much longer than the use
    of punishment. Expecting students to act the way they’re ‘supposed’ to
    is extremely idealistic, even well adjusted adults don’t do that…do
    you never speed or roll through a stop sign when no one is around?

    Tools such as these, which help teachers respond quicker & are
    presented in a format our digital native students enjoy, understand,
    & appreciate, makes being effective much easier. The research shows
    us when you decrease behavior issues in the classroom you increase
    student achievement outcomes socially & academically, which as
    educators we’re in the business of doing.

    Also, as educators we should be making data driven decisions, not just
    academically, but behaviorally…it’s called Response to Intervention
    (RtI), mandated by No Child Left Behind. A tool such as this makes
    taking that data easier for teachers to identify students needing
    targeted or intensive intervention much sooner, which in turn helps
    assure that we intervene early to help those students achieve & not
    fall through the cracks. It also allows other students whose learning may
    be disrupted, learn effectively in a well managed classroom.

    I’m excited we have this type of technology moving forward that I can share with the many educators I train!

    Shelley Garza
    Education Specialist

  • Pgroff

         During my lengthy career as a teacher and teacher instructor I spent most of my efforts in schools that enrolled children from low-income familes. I cannot find any of the content of this
    ‘mobil phones” proposal that would be useful toward the classroom management of these children. In short, it seems to me that such ventures will have little, if  any, influence on the type of  children’s behavior that is the most difficult for teaches to manage. Why do not proposals, such as the current one, make this condition clear?

    Dr. Patrick Groff, Professor of Education Emeritus, San Diego State University.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Henny-OHenthorne/100001267996308 Henny O’Henthorne

      This is a teacher use of technology, not asking that all students have technology. I think a simple, fast way to monitorthe behavior of allL the children in a classroom would be beneficial, and demonstrable to students, parents, and administrators using school technology.

  • Anonymous

    This sounds like something that will add distance between teachers and students, a verfremdungeffekt. All kinds of behavoiuristic adjustment are based on this distance, which is one of the main reasons why they don’t work. Well, for a while they do, but the only thing the student or the child learns is the how the program works. If you don’t have a close (but professional) relation whith the child or the young student, it’ll probably never understand the basic ideas behind good behaviour; they need to practise empathy. Which app teaches that?

  • Pgroff

          As a longtime teacher, and teacher educator, I would advise teachers who work in public schools that enroll almost exclusively students from low-income homes, to beware of advice such as that which is presented here. During my many years above I visited the above schools on a regular basis. Nothing is more obvious here than that children with the above parent(s)  are uniquely different from youngsters  in  middle- and upper-income families. As long as the assumption continues that all children are alike in their needs persists, I fear that the horrible statistcs that now prevails will continue. I refer to the fact that most of children from poor-families drop-out of high school by year two. Half of these quitters become criminals. Large numbers of their teachers currently are fired after being falsely accused as being hopelessly inferior instructors. I could go on with these dreatful figures!

    Dr. Patrick Groff, Professor of Education Emeritus, San Diego State University.

  • Anonymous
  • David Ginsburg

    Sam:

    I think you’ve confused behavior management with classroom management. And what a HUGE difference, as I explain in this article: http://bit.ly/fmBz6S.

    The reality is that teachers with strong classroom management skills spend very little time on behavior management. I know this from personal experience as an urban teacher, instructional coach, school leader. and consultant the past 18 years. And I also know this from research, including Martin Haberman’s 40-year study of the ideologies and practices of successful teachers of at-risk youth: http://www.habermanfoundation.org/Book.aspx?sm=c1

  • Sue Bartow

    This technology sounds like a nightmare reversal of some of
    the most democratic affordances of social media. Feedback in this form may be
    effective but what does effective mean? The development of the technology comes
    without questioning the assumptions on which it is based. If we don’t ask why
    behavior management is an issue, we can’t get to the reasons why some children
    don’t want to or can’t behave in classroom settings.

     

    It seems like the technology will only enable larger
    teacher/student ratios, more top-down learning, and more docile students.
    Genuine learning about real questions is the goal, not compliance to perform
    better on tests. Not only are our decisions about what to learn being driven by
    what can be measured (so we can make data-driven decisions that are based on
    only one kind of data), our decisions about how students should behave seem to
    be driven by how to make only one kind of performance better.

     

    This is a giant step toward putting collars on children,
    ones that give a gentle correction in the “invisible fence” vernacular, couched
    in language we are conditioned to accept as beneficial.  Who decides what behavior is being
    reinforced? Why isn’t it valuable to spend time on social/emotional learning?
    What happens when learning to engage others in a civic setting is completely
    dominated by learning subjects that have little bearing on being a full
    participant in a democratic society? The fact that we can be manipulated by
    feedback like this is not one of the aspects of being human that I’m proud of.

    • Marty Higginbotham

      Sue, 

      What you are saying is, in some ways correct, but missing a very important factor: The reality of the classroom. Learning, of *any* kind, in *any* format, is impossible when students are popping in and out of their seats, yelling across the room at one another or throwing paper balls.   Ask the student to stop, they don’t. Next choice… what? Send the student outside? Great, they’ve learned that disruptions get them out of class. Call home? That has to wait until class is over and assuming you *do* get in touch with a parent, and the parent does say something to the child, the warning has faded long before they get back in your class. Send them to the principle? Students have to be escorted, which leaves the rest of my class on hold, NOT learning. Write the student up? Again, takes time out of teaching the rest of the class and leaves the offending student feeling like he’s gotten away with disruptive behavior. 

      Only once students have experienced what a focused, well-behaved classroom feels like can they benefit from the type of student-centered, participatory activities you mention (and that I, a 9th grade teacher, wholeheartedly believe in).  Yes, we want freedom in the classroom, but that has to happen within structure or no one learns. 

      I used Class Dojo for the first time today with a class that has a number of… exuberant… students. Today, for the first time, I spent more time working one-on-one with students as they worked on a creative writing activity than I have all year… because in the past, such “work with a partner” activities would have devolved into games of trashketball, as students jumped out of their seats as soon as I tried to give attention to another student. Today, I had students feeling like they accomplished something in class, because they could hear each other’s comments or shared work.  I am not sure yet how I will continue to use class dojo in the future, but I am *very* hopeful that after a few weeks, the students will see how much more they get out of class when they’re focused on learning. My belief (and sincere hope!) is that they’ll “wean” themselves off this external reminder and  eventually learn to monitor their own behavior. . We’ll see. but for now, I am very, very thankful to have this tool available. 

  • Jennie Dougherty

     Today, my second period lesson didn’t go as well as I’d planned. After staying up all Sunday night working to apply for grants to get technology for my student’s to use, I just didn’t get it 100% right-and in my classroom you get it 100%, or you do it again. After school, I stayed in my classroom to record and edit a video of the failed lesson so that my students would be able to have a quick recap of the information before diving into tomorrow’s agenda. In case my description wasn’t enough of an indication, I will be explicit in telling you that I am profoundly committed to my students’ learning.  Working in one of the largest urban comprehensive high schools East of the Mississippi, I am  tirelessly dedicated to optimizing my practice and my student’s outcomes. I want to be very clear in expressing my gratitude to anything and anyone who makes it easier for me to do this work, especially a program like Class Dojo. See, I already had a points system so robust it would take hours of my time to update and calculate participation averages for each student. My kids LOVED my points system, and that’s all the reason I needed to commit myself to maintaining and updating it each day. The reason I am so grateful for Class Dojo is that it makes it easier for me to reward my students for doing what’s right. In making this process easier, Class Dojo gives me more time and energy to focus on my students rather than the points I award them.

  • http://mulloverthings.com Matt Hurst

    I’ve been trying out ClassDojo in my classroom this week.  When I put the screen up that shows all the students’ avatars, they’re suddenly on their best behavior.  I’m not sure how exactly I will use it, as the way I use tools morph to fit the needs of the group of students I’m working with, but I really do like it.  You can see me using it in my classroom here in my demonstration video on my blog:  http://mulloverthings.com/2011/09/29-free-online-classroom-management-tool-classdojo/

    • Sanjmeh

      Good app. Which grade do you teach? And do you know of any competitor for this type of solution which runs classroom behaviour or rating systems in realtime?

      • http://mulloverthings.com Matt Hurst

        I teach grades 6-8.  I haven’t seen anything like it, and it offers a lot of unique features.  Keep in mind that it is in Beta – test mode right now.  The company is continually making updates and adding features.  I’m certain that ClassDojo will continue to improve what is already a well designed and intuitive behavioral management system.

      • Anonymous
  • Elizabeth Luff

    Fascinating.  I have mixed feelings.  I can see kids liking it — it almost duplicates interactive video games.   But I am flashing back to when my  son was in 2nd grade and the teacher gave out certificates for good behavior (which could be for good listening, or helping someone,etc.).  I was proud to have  a dozen or more certificates taped on my wall.   But my son was mad because his buddy Liam had more.  And he was disdainful of Jacob, who had none.   As a then 7  year old, Jacob was active and different in many ways.  Now, as a 17 year old he is in advanced math and science, a dedicated breakdancer and an undefeated wrestler. I am not sure the certificates helped the teacher or the students.  They certainly did not predict future performance.

    Best,
    Elizabeth