You may be aware of The New York Times article earlier this week about the classroom management tool ClassDojo — I wrote about it in my post, One Of The More Depressing Passages You’ll Read This Week.

You can also find other posts about the app at The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students.

Two posts have been written this week about the app that I think are important for educators to read:

6 reasons to reject ClassDojo is by Joe Bower, who lays-out the critiques of ClassDojo clearly and articulately.

Bill Ferriter, a teacher who I respect very much, has written a very thoughtful post about he uses ClassDojo. It sounds like he applies it in a very careful and effective way, and not just as a blunt extrinsic motivation weapon. Based on how I read other teachers are using it, however, it sounds like Bill is more the exception than the rule. I think the creators of an app need to take responsibility for how people use the products of their work in destructive ways, just as education researchers need to do the same for their studies,

What do you think?