ClassDojo is a classroom communication app that is being used by K-8 teachers during the time children are staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be thought of as similar to how Zoom is being used by adults to communicate. Younger children don’t typically have social media accounts, so teachers have turned to ClassDojo to keep children engaged in their learning and connected to other students.
Teachers send videos to their students in the morning. They can send activities and homework kids can complete at home. They often build each day’s learning around a theme, such as Marvel Superhero Day. While ClassDojo already a popular app, its usage has skyrocketed since schools were shut down for the rest of the year. Five times as many families downloaded the app in the last week of March than at any other time in the app’s history.
One of the most popular ClassDojo features has become “translate.” The feature helps families who don’t speak English. The app has performed over 100 million translations since the middle of March. The 50 people working for ClassDojo have been working hard to keep up with demand and roll out new features needed during the school shutdown.
The team at ClassDojo heard many teachers say they want to teach short lessons to their students that are easily completed at home. They quickly built a “record” feature that teachers can use to record short video lessons their students can play back. This feature was started and completed in just 48 hours.