Local schools have moved away from a controversial communication app, which has been accused of pitting students against each other and creating a “culture of surveillance.” Until recently, several schools across Kiama and Shellharbour LGAs have been communicating with parents via the Class Dojo app—a popular platform, which is used by over 50 million teachers and families, globally.

As of February 2024, the NSW Department of Education, however, does not list Class Dojo in their ‘Administration Marketplace Panel of Schools’—a list of department-approved apps that have undergone an assessment to ensure they match school syllabus and meet data and cyber requirements.

One of the reasons is, Class Dojo stores its data overseas in America. It has also been criticised by educational professionals for its ‘behaviour management’ features, which includes a points system, where students can earn ‘positive points’ for admirable behaviour and nominate each other for points. Parents also must pay a fee to access ‘pro’ features.

Currently, Minnamurra Public School is transitioning from Class Dojo to the popular app, School Bytes, which has a heart-warming backstory. The app was first launched in 2015 by Blake Garrett, whilst he was in year 12 at Chatswood High School. Since then, it has been adopted by schools across the country. It is not, however, the only app available. 

Globally, the ‘ed tech’ sector is booming with developers racing to create a digital product that solves every school’s problem (how to communicate with parents, track absences, collect payments, process permission slips, and more). The problem is that no platform currently ticks all the boxes, leaving schools juggling several applications and online tools, which are putting parents and educators at risk of digital overwhelm.

Many schools use Google Classrooms to communicate with families but also use additional apps, including School Bytes, Compass, Flexischools, Edsmart, Hero and Sentral. Kiama High School has taken a proactive approach with the development of its own app. They also use School Bytes so parents can make payments, including for school excursions. 

Amongst other features, School Bytes allows parents to receive real-time push notifications for school-related news. Some parents, however, will miss the directness of Class Dojo. Gone is the ability to send your child’s educator an instant message (a key feature of the Class Dojo app). Instead, parents at Minnamurra Public School have been told to email the school or to send in a handwritten note via a student. 

Although this may feel inconvenient to parents, it will help educators to have better digital boundaries. There have been reports of parents messaging educators late at night, getting frustrated when they don’t receive a fast reply.

“The problem with Class Dojo is, it feels too much like social media,” an educator based in Kiama told The Bugle. “During the pandemic, many teachers became very relaxed with boundaries and now they’re struggling to re-establish communication expectations.” 

To avoid email overload, some teachers are adopting a ‘three before me’ approach. If you’re a parent looking for an answer to a question, don’t email a teacher directly until you’ve attempted to source an answer in three ways (for example, the school’s website, a school app and a parenting Facebook group).

“Teachers do want to be there for families, especially if a child is vulnerable,” says our source. “But there currently isn’t one digital platform capable of doing everything that we need, and parents want.”

In February, it was announced, that the NSW Department of Education will be trialling an Artifice Intelligence tool for students in 16 public schools across the State, including primary schools and high schools. The app, called NSWEduChat, will respond to students' questions relating to school activities and educational-related topics. It has embedded safeguards to monitor and remove inappropriate content.

If successful, it will open the gateway for AI to be used in communications between students, parents and teachers – another option for streamlining interactions in the future.