Now get ClassDojo on-the-go for classroom management

ClassDojo launches its 2.0 app to make first real jump into mobile

Anyone who has ever tried to teach a group of elementary school kids anything knows how complex the challenges can be. For example: bad behavior. If one kid is acting out, do you stop the whole class to address his behavior? Do you ignore it and risk letting him fall behind? Teachers devote a whopping 50% of their class time just to managing behavior—that’s half the school year wasted.

ClassDojo was developed to address behavior quickly and efficiently by reinforcing positive behavior and character development using a seating chart of cute little avatars. Until now, once teachers and students left the classroom, they were in no man’s land. But now ClassDojo is updating its mobile app to allow teachers to take the entire system on-the-go with them.

Previously, ClassDojo’s mobile app for iOS and Android was meant to be used like a remote control for the website. But when classrooms were dismissed for recess or went on field trips, teachers couldn’t take the site with them unless they had Wi-Fi. For teachers in low-income schools with poor Wi-Fi, they were out of luck altogether.

The new app update, ClassDojo 2.0, marks the company’s first real jump into mobile. The update now allows teachers to access the full suite of ClassDojo’s offerings from their mobile devices for the first time. Now, teachers can set up and customize their classes, take attendance, view progress reports, and invite other teachers to the platform from their iOS or Android device.

Roughly two-thirds of all teachers have a smart device. For teachers in low-income schools, this is a particularly useful app update.

“Teachers in underfunded schools with limited tech budgets don't have laptops or desktops provided to them by their schools; however, they do have personal smartphones or tablets. They want to use ClassDojo to build positive learning habits, behaviors and character strengths, and using their personal mobile devices is the only way they can do it,” said ClassDojo co-founder Sam Chaudhary. “The new app update means for the first time these teachers, in the poorest schools, can use ClassDojo with their students to reinforce positive behaviors like persistence, curiosity, and teamwork.”

In a survey of ClassDojo users, teachers reported a 45% to 90% increase in the incidents of positive behavior among students, and a 50% to 85% decrease in the incidents of negative behavior. 

Some 15 million teachers and students now use ClassDojo in over 80 countries. The Imagine K12 graduate meets such a critical pain point for teachers that the service attracted 3.5 million users in 30 countries before it was even out of beta last August. The company has raised $1.6 million in seed funding from Paul Graham, Ron Conway, SV Angel, Kapor Capital, New Schools Venture Fund, and more.