I read the article Privacy Concerns for ClassDojo and Tracking Apps for Schoolchildren by Natasha Singer. This article is about the use of Behavioural Tracking apps to manage a classroom by Teachers. The article explains some concerns from parent’s perspective and teacher/administrator’s perspective.
There was more brought up in this article beyond the scope of privacy concerns. I think the bigger concerns that were made in the article was more of a reputation or feeling that can be imposed on the student by using a platform like this because it does keep this information in their database. As far as I know, if its anything like KnowledgeHook for set up the system only gets the students name and grade so concerns of privacy, I don’t think that any of the information can really be traced back to that specific student. Now for developing a reputation for the student, I don’t think that the apps will enhance or develop this “Problem Child” type of reputation. Teachers talk and each student has a file that follows them through their school career anyway so the reputation already gets predisposed whether it’s with the use of an app or not. My multimedia piece has included some personal experience but generally speaking, I see it in the classroom where a Grade 8 teacher has talked to me about how they remember when a student was in Grade 1 or 2 and they told me about the horror story even back then. However, just because the reputation is there does not mean we as teachers look at it and turn back to a high school version of ourselves and trust the rumors. It is a teacher’s duty to provide each student with equal opportunity to prove themselves in the classroom. With respect to imposing an emotional strain on students from explicitly having the students remove their own points and then having a negative sound heard by the entire class, there are other ways to address the situation. But again, this happens anyway with or without the use of an app. When a student gets addressed in front of the class because of their conduct a teacher may call them out in a split second reaction/decision or they will pull them aside after the lesson. My personal experience with this when I was in Elementary and Secondary School, the embarrassment to be singled out has actually been a motivator for me to behave the way I should. Maybe it’s not the best motivator but it worked. In conclusion, yes I think we can use these databases in the classroom and there’s not really a lot of harm to be done. It supports punishment and reward based behaviours.
I actually looked into using a tracking app like this for my class last year. I looked into using ClassCraft. I honestly thought it looked like fun and wish I had something like it when I was in school. However, I did not end up engaging with it because it seemed like it was a lot of work on my part and I just wasn’t ready for that while lesson planning. I had never considered the scope of which these apps could really effect a child in the long term. Teachers having potential access to the database following the student through all of elementary and high school. I do hope to use it moving forward but I’m glad I read this article because now I can make a conscious effort to take all the precautions necessary prior to trying to implement it into the classroom.
For this reflection, I downloaded a software called Mindjet MindManager and basically, all it allows you to do is some mind mapping. I found it fairly simple to work with and didn’t take me long to make at all. The hardest part was trying to make sure it looked organized by just rearranging arrows. Overall, I would probably use this again. I would have liked to add a legend but the program does not allow me to so look below for a legend to help guide your viewing experience.
Click picture for larger viewing.
Prior to viewing:
- Yellow: Basic Description of Class Dojo
- Purple: Parent’s Perspective
- Blue: Teacher’s Perspective
- Orange: My Perspective Weighing out the Pros and Cons (my verdict is YES)
- Red is YES Path & Green is NO Path
- Dotted Lines: Display some overlap amongst the different perspectives or ideas.
