Is This the Ed-Tech App That Will Change the Way Teachers, Students and Parents Communicate?

At Roy Waldron Elementary School in La Vergne, Tenn., a fourth-grade girl wasn’t where she was supposed to be. A teacher caught her joking around with classmates, and then instructed her twice: Head back to class. A few hours later, when the student returned home, she had excuses at the ready.
“You know I can see the reason why,” Diane Portillo told her daughter.
“Yes, Mami,” the girl replied, cornered. “I’m never going to do it again.”
Portillo found out about disciplinary incident through ClassDojo, an app that allows parents to follow their child’s conduct, classwork and grades in real time. Throughout the day, educators dole out points: They might award them for solving a tough question at the board or sharing art supplies; alternatively, they can deduct points for things like distracting other students. As soon as the behavior, good or bad, occurs, parents can opt to receive a push notification to find out why.
ClassDojo’s creators believe the platform can better shape the learning environment. An unruly classroom not only makes it hard for students to focus, it can also be emotionally draining for teachers. ClassDojo corrects for that by putting Pavlovian reinforcement onto teachers’ smartphones. That’s the baseline benefit: Educators regain control of the classroom as behaving oneself becomes a game. But what’s perhaps just as important to academic success is how the app keeps parents in the loop, allowing them to track points, view schoolwork (in slideshows like a Snapchat Story) and message directly with teachers.
Amid the deluge of other digital learning tools being tested in American classrooms, ClassDojo might not be as familiar a name. But chances are that someone in your school district has already downloaded the app. In 95,000 schools (roughly two-thirds of the nation’s public, charter and private academies), at least one teacher is currently using ClassDojo, according to Lindsay McKinley, a spokeswoman.
ClassDojo was designed specifically with teachers in mind, says Sam Chaudhary, one of ClassDojo’s two co-founders. “For 40 or 50 years, we’ve had a lot of people trying to do things in education from the top down. When there’s a new policy at the district level, it’s pushed down into schools and classrooms. That hasn’t, by and large, been very effective,” he says. “We started the opposite way: from the ground up.”
A former teacher in the British secondary school system, Chaudhary met his eventual co-founder Liam Don, a game developer, at a weekend hackathon at Cambridge. The two traveled to the Bay Area on a 90-day tourist visa, where they approached teachers and asked to hear about their experiences. “We had this amazing freedom, in a way, because we had never lived or worked in America. We didn’t know the system,” recalls Chaudhary, now CEO. “We didn’t start with a solution or even assume that we knew the problem.” The teachers they interviewed kept bringing up the same issue — namely, that the various players in a kid’s education weren’t working as a team. To get parents and teachers on the same page, Chaudhary and Don proposed building a communication tool that could provide live updates about students, and in 2011 ClassDojo was born.

A student uploads an image of his classwork to his personal portfolio on ClassDojo.

Five years and millions of downloads later, teachers report that ClassDojo has dramatically eased communication with parents. Stephanie Smith, the fourth-grade teacher at Roy Waldron Elementary who corresponded with Diane Portillo daily on ClassDojo, used to rely on paper worksheets to connect with parents. She’d write down assignments, add one of three colors (red, yellow, green) for the student’s conduct that day, and ask the kid to bring back a parent’s signature the next day. “It was very tedious and a lot of extra work just to make sure that parents were even looking at it,” says Smith, a teacher with 12 years in the classroom. Even if the sheet did come back signed, Smith wouldn’t know if a parent had actually read it or just signed it pretty much blindly. It became a daily exercise in frustration.
But now, Smith has ClassDojo, and she uses it all day, every day. “Lunch, recess, field trips, anything like that — ClassDojo goes with us,” she says. Smith begins assigning points as soon as work starts. A sound plays, and the room goes quiet as the students hope another will be awarded soon. (The points can be used within the app to buy customizations for an avatar, and often, they can be cashed in at a concessions stand on Fridays.) “It’s nonverbal communication, where students just know what they should be doing,” she says. “It saves time, my voice and words. It’s so much easier than fussing at them to be quiet when all you have to do is push a button.”
Outside the classroom, overworked parents, like those who are employed in La Vergne’s warehouses or commute the half-hour to Nashville, might just stand to gain the most, Smith says. In those cases, a mom might have only a short time to check in on her children’s schooling. “It used to be that they would ask, ‘What happened at school today?’ Like all kids, they’d reply, ‘Nothing,’” Chaudhary says. ClassDojo, which also has an automatic-translation feature compatible with 35 languages, skips that guessing game. Appraised of what’s going on in each subject, a parent feels more involved and their child will likely know it. “Students need all the help and support they can get,” adds Smith. “When their parents and teachers are closely connected, they know they have two people investing their time in them. It helps them realize, ‘Maybe I should take this to heart. This is important.’”
While the cartoon avatars have won plenty of student devotees, ClassDojo isn’t without its critics. The company, for one, hasn’t collected any data on the app’s impact and instead points to the number of people participating as proof the app is working. But a recent study by the Center for Learning in Technology at SRI International, a nonprofit think tank, found that the most popular ed-tech apps are usually the ones that fit best within the status quo, even if they don’t improve student learning. Anecdotal evidence of teachers who use the app also doesn’t give a full picture, adds Brett Clark, the director of technology at Greater Clark County Schools in Jeffersonville, Ind. “That’s like polling people in McDonald’s about how they like the food,” he told The New York Times, without surveying anyone who refuses to eat there. “They are not asking the teachers who looked at the app, walked away and said, ‘Not in my classroom.’”
For his part, Chaudhary says proof is on the way. While more curricula are still in the works, ClassDojo has already demonstrated one important rule for how education technology should be integrated into the classroom. In place of advocating for sweeping change, the platform has prized small but meaningful online tools, and the reward has been millions of downloads. In other words, the role of technology in the classroom shouldn’t be to replace teachers, but to simply help them do their jobs. After that, the company will need to show how — and whether — it measurably helps the kids.

The State That Plans to Issue Digital Drivers’ Licenses

Technology may soon encroach the rite of passage of getting a driver’s license, turning a once antiquated tradition into another digital download.
The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) will begin rolling out a highly secure app that features a resident’s driver’s license next year, according to DOT Director Paul Trombino.
Unveiled at the state agency’s budget meeting, the new app will serve as “an identity vault app” using a pin number for verification, the Des Moines Register reports. The DOT plans to allow the use of  digital licenses during traffic stops and at airport security screenings, but also as a way to reconnect with citizens.

“I think the longer term prospect is if you can really be successful in establishing a driver’s license as an app, it really transforms the way we can interact with the customer,” says Mark Lowe, director of the Motor Vehicle Division at the state’s DOT. “It really becomes instead of a thing in your pocket, it becomes a customer relationship.”

The state agency plans to internally build and test a prototype type over the next six months, according to Government Technology. The goal is to introduce the app as an alternative to temporary permit licenses granted before permanent licenses are mailed out, eventually hoping to replacing traditional licenses as well.

With more residents reliant on smartphones, Trombino contends it’s a logical step in updating government practices. The state agency is exploring other forms of technology through a program to install dashboard cameras on snowplows, an initiative for “paperless construction projects,” more driver’s license kiosks and a new type of bridge building via modular construction. Iowa is also one of more than three dozen states that enables drivers to carry electronic proof of insurance.

Digital licenses also help allay concerns over stolen licenses by eliminating the chance of losing a physical card and introducing more security with the use of biometric data, Lowe adds. Another benefit includes saving time. For example, changing an address wouldn’t require an in-person visit to the DMV, but instead a simple update on the app.
While the agency still has some kinks to work out in developing the app, Lowe contends the idea makes sense for the modern lifestyle.

“It came from us having mobile devices and using them the ways that everybody is using them and really thinking about the possibilities,” Lowe says. “It’s hard to use your device and use it for mobile boarding passes and not think ‘why couldn’t I carry my license this way?’”

MORE: How Los Angeles County is Rethinking Antiquated Voting Technology

The Controversial Math App That Can Solve Equations Using a Smartphone Camera

Math homework will never be the same again.
The hot, new smartphone app PhotoMath allows a user to point their camera at a math equation in a textbook and solves it instantly. It even shows all the work.
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The free app (which was downloaded 2 million times within the first 24 hours) can solve up to 10th grade math, which probably means there are high school students cheering all around the world; math teachers are invariably less than enthused.
However, the app’s creators (MicroBlink, a London-based text recognition technology company) say that it actually promotes learning. “PhotoMath can be really helpful to many children when they are stuck with their homework and there is no one around to help them to figure it out,” the team writes in a recent blog post. “If we can eliminate kids’ frustration at the point when they can’t do anything else but helplessly stare at the book, we’ll feel awesome. It’s as simple as that.”
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Not only that, but when solving a math equation is as easy as pointing and shooting, it also urges math teachers to revisit their way of teaching. The problem with the way math is taught in schools is that it stresses formulas and rote memorization — leaving scores of students with a hatred for math because they are forced to complete difficult and seemingly endless drills.
We’ve mentioned before that the struggle with math can put a pupil at a serious disadvantage as he or she seeks higher education. In fact, a whopping 70 percent of community college students never complete the remedial math courses that are required for a degree.
Math is beautiful and fascinating and helps us understand our complex universe. As Dan Meyer, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University in the field of math education says to the New York Daily News, “If [PhotoMath] could do everything it promised, it’d ideally mean teachers would assign fewer dull exercises and the more interesting problems that PhotoMath can’t solve — real-world problems, questions that require arguments, estimation questions, graphing questions, etc.”
Technology is developing at light speed and it isn’t going away. Perhaps teachers might want to keep up with it.
DON’T MISS: The Math Class That Could Cut the College Dropout Rate
 

This Mobile App Is Preventing Veteran Suicides

In 2011, Jake Wood attended the funeral of Sergeant Clay Hunt, a fellow Marine Corps veteran who suffered from PTSD and depression that committed suicide just a few months after he left the military. While there, Wood learned that three other Marines from their unit lived near Houston, but didn’t know Hunt was there.
Wood had the thought that if these Marines had known where their fellow comrades settled after leaving the military, it might’ve enabled someone get Hunt help before it was too late.
Inspired by this idea, Wood teamed up with veterans Anthony Allman and William McNulty to create an app that would let former service members know when other veterans were nearby, and if needed, guide them toward organizations offering help. The app, called POS REP (military jargon for “position report”), uses GPS data to plot veterans and resources on a map and aims to stop the disheartening number of veteran suicides — an average of 22 a day, according to the VA.
When veterans using the app draw near a fellow vet, they receive a message saying who “has entered [their] perimeter.” (For safety reasons, it doesn’t show a vet’s exact location unless the vet wants to make it known.) And when users are near a career or counseling center for veterans, POS REP also sends an alert.
The app is available across the country, but for now according to Hayley Fox of TakePart, it works best in Los Angeles, where the developers are working with the Volunteers of America’s “Battle Buddies” program.
Allman explains its purpose to Kenrya Rankin Naasel of Fast Company: “We’re now in our 13th year of combat operations in the global war on terrorism that has been executed with an all-volunteer force — there hasn’t been a draft — and the burden of war has fallen on a small segment of American society. This makes transitioning out of the military and returning to civilian life particularly challenging. POS REP allows veterans to discover and communicate with a network of peers who can relate to those unique situations. Think of it as a sacred digital space where veterans can discuss issues pertaining to reintegration without judgment.”
The veterans behind POS REP hope it will help prevent other veterans from feeling isolated and that the information it provides will spur them to meet each other or just reach out online. Allman says that he recently received an email with the news that POS REP helped prevent a suicide. “Knowing that we were involved in preventing another loss of life is the reason I get up in the morning,” he says. “It really doesn’t get any better than that, considering our inspiration.”
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The App That’s Making Responsible Food Choices A Breeze

Standing in front of a supermarket shelf featuring a variety of virtually the same product can give you a headache. Try figuring out which option is the most sustainable and that headache will quickly turn into a migraine.
But now, there’s a helpful guide: the HowGood app.
Created by the New York-based research organization HowGood (which has researched the global impact of producing of 100,000 food items), the app allows a customer to browse through a list of products or scan a product’s barcode and receive a sustainability rating. According to TechCrunch, each product receives a rating of good, better or great — represented by one, two or three worlds, respectively. The worst of the bunch don’t receive a rating.
The judging system is based on 60 indicators that go into producing the item — including health, humane treatment of animals, worker wages, location of food and the product’s sustainability, among others. Overall, it encompasses nearly every aspect of its production.
Based on the organization’s research, only six percent of the goods actually receive the highest rating.
Currently, the app is available for free download on iOS and Android phones.
So, with all of the “ethically wrong” goods out there, will this rating system actually matter? The answer is surprisingly yes. The HowGood organization has reported a 27 percent increase in the sales of the highest-rated products, showing that people do care about what they are consuming.
And for HowGood CEO of Alexander Gillet, that is exactly what he hoped for.
“We’re providing stores with a way to help people understand the real cost of food,” Gillet tells Fast Company. “If you want something that is made well, made healthy, and made in a way that’s good for the world, it will cost a little bit more. We’ve found that when people have that information in front of them, the same information across the store in a standardized way, they feel uplifted to make their choice.”
If there’s one thing that this app is showing, even a mundane act like grocery shopping can impact the world.
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The Apps That Connect Utah with Its On-The-Go Citizens

Most of us have probably complained about how the government is out of touch and outdated — both at the state and federal level, especially when it comes to technology.
With technology rapidly changing and advancing every day, it’s pertinent for the government to get tech savvy. After all, this year is the first time that Americans will access the Internet through mobile devices more than through their PC. With 55 percent of Internet activity coming through smartphones or tablets, governments really need to reassess their tech efficiency.
Enter Utah’s state government. Of the handful of states that actually have mobile-friendly websites, Utah is leading the pack by a huge margin.
So what makes the Beehive State so advanced? Well, back in 2009, it became the first state to develop an iPhone app that allowed users to see the licensure status of various professionals in the state. It also worked with Google Glass and created an app that notifies users about incoming trains and light rail as well as other transit-related information.
And that was five years ago. Since then, it has also created apps that provide information based on the user’s current location and one that allows mobile payments, making life a little easier for on-the-go workers.
Up next, Utah is working on how to adapt the new biometric fingerprint scanning feature that will be on the next Apple iPhone.
All of these advances only beg the question as to why other states aren’t implementing the same policies. Well, for many, the worry is that by updating to mobile-friendly websites, they will alienate other groups, particularly those of the older generation or people without access to mobile devices.
In that respect, Utah is lucky. By far, its residents are the youngest in the country: There are 2.8 million under the age of 18, making them much more receptive to anything tech-related. (It’s no surprise that 26 percent of the 1.63 million unique visitors to the state’s website in June accessed it through mobile devices.)
“Our mobile strategy is reaching new population groups that haven’t interacted with government before. That’s why total visits to the state’s websites have grown substantially in the last couple of years,” Dave Fletcher, the state’s chief technology office, tells Governing
Not only is the mobile-friendly website making it easier for citizens, but it’s taking some of the cost pressures off the government. With jobs being cut, the government is becoming more reliant upon technology, and mobile devices are a huge asset.
But it isn’t all smooth-sailing, though. There are always concerns about having to work with developers, managing security and keeping pace with new technology.
However, for Utah, the benefits definitely outweigh these challenges.
Hopefully, by following Utah’s example, other states will start implementing the same technology. In this new age, it’s about the time the government tells its citizens: “yes, there is an app for that.”
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How Mobile Apps Help Local Governments Connect with Citizens

As Apple has taught us, for every daily issue we face — be it finding the name of a song or tracking a run — there’s an app for that.
And as more cities begin exploring the benefits of digital tools, mobile apps are quickly becoming a platform for civic engagement as well.
More Americans are more mobile than ever before, with 90 percent of the population toting a cell phone and more than half using a smartphone, the Pew Research Center finds. The phone, as government officials have found, is the quickest way to connect with local residents when it comes to anything from crime alerts to voting reminders. Which is why cities including Atlanta, Philadelphia and Chicago are tapping into Silicon Valley’s playbook in an effort to reconnect with residents.
Pioneering civic technologies is Boston, which has been touted as the first city to use a mobile app — Citizens Connect — to plug into its community. Launched in 2009, the app is designed similar to the city’s 311 hotline: Residents can report problems like potholes or graffiti by snapping a photo, tagging the location, and sending a report through the app. Users receive a tracking number and can monitor when the city fixes the issue. Authorities sometimes take as little as a day to send a response. Other cities have followed suit, including Philadelphia’s 311 and Mobile Citizen in Oakland, California.
Now, five years after launching Citizens Connect, Boston is again trailblazing civic technologies with the creation of the Design Action Research with Government (DARG) initiative.
The city office teamed up with Eric Gordon, director of the Engagement Game Laboratory at Emerson College, who examines how games and social media can impact urban life and democratic processes. Through DARG, Gordon and city officials will use a step-by-step approach to figure out what civic behavior is in need of change and what are the best tools to achieve that, according to Governing.

“It’s all about asking the right questions prior to deploying a civic app, so that the focus isn’t so much on absolute success or failure but finding insight or knowledge that a city can use,” said Gordon.

For example, officials found 38 percent of Citizens Connect users never used the app to look at other reports about the city, while the app generated little social media activity. While it’s important to see more governments use tools like Instagram to engage residents, Boston officials understand social media can play a much bigger role in community development.

“We keep asking ourselves: How do we know if we actually are impacting peoples’ lives?” said Nigel Jacob, co-chair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics.

Through DARG, Boston has launched Street Cred, an app directed toward measuring users civic engagement through a score based on their activities, akin to Klout.

Should the DARG evaluation be successful, Boston hopes to apply it to other civic apps cropping up. But Boston isn’t the only city aiming to connect with residents. Smaller cities are catching on, using apps like SeeClickFix, which supports setting up and connecting neighborhood watch groups with authorities; PublicStuff, an app similar to Citizens Connect that helps residents report issues directly to government officials; and Street Bump, which targets potholes and road pavement issues.

And more recently, the launch of  iCitizen is directed toward not only increasing civic engagement but also quelling voter apathy. Users can aggregate information from different media outlets about a variety of political issues on the app, serving as a nonpartisan, fact-based platform to inform citizens,  Politico reports.

“Everything from resilience to health and economic vitality of a city is tied to how well people are engaged,” said Jacob. “It’s in everyone’s best interests to encourage people to report their concerns and become engaged. We want to encourage that behavior.”

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Want to Spread Positivity? There’s an App for That

Like any great invention, social media platforms have had various effects: We saw them help citizens share messages of freedom and democracy during 2011’s Arab Spring. But we’ve also witnessed teenagers abuse them to bully their peers — sometimes with devastating, fatal consequences.
But two Canadian grads are hoping to usher more positivity through social media with the launch of an app called Posi. With it, users can share positive images and messages with friends and peers; there’s no ability to leave comments, though, which prevents people from leaving snarky comments.
In the short month the app has been available, Posi has been downloaded 3,500 times in 35 countries.
Co-founder Jason Berard came up with the idea for Posi while backpacking. Traveling always left him feeling inspired and enlightened — feelings that were often washed away as soon as he logged into Facebook or other social media platforms. Berard and fellow co-founder Braden Pyper wanted to halt the negativity and instead create, in their words, a “positive sanctuary on our phones” with the app.
“Social media is not about self-promotion and negativity, even though that’s what it’s perceived as,” Berard told the Winnipeg Sun, while referencing the “meanness after meanness after meanness and selfie after selfie after selfie” on existing social media sites. “People are starting to perceive social media as a negative thing, when it’s a really important tool for connection now.”