1

Communication Tools Paper

Liana Frias

Department of Advanced Studies, Azusa Pacific University

EDUC 546: Digital Communications

Professor KH

October 4th, 2021

 2

Communication Tools Paper

For this assignment I have chosen two communication tools that I plan on

implementing the classroom. These communication tools will be used to interact and

inform parents, motivate students, and monitor student progress. The two communication

tools I have decided to discuss in this paper are, ClassDojo and SeeSaw.

ClassDojo
ClassDojo is a wonderful app that many teachers implement in their classrooms

today. It is a fun interactive app that is easy to use for parents and teachers alike.

Teachers can use the app to reward students for participation, working hard, helping

others, staying on task, and working as a team. Teachers can also upload student work

onto the app in order to keep a record of student improvement. This not only helps the

teacher keep an electronic portfolio of each student but it also helps communicate with

parents about the progress of their student.

In addition to being helpful for monitoring student behavior, it is a great resource

for communicating with parents. For example, each student has a portfolio or profile

page. This allows parents to see what their student is completing in class for the day. In

addition, parents can see what the teacher has assigned for the day. Teachers can also

share anchor charts, and field trip photos in the stories section for parents to see. Teachers

can also upload a class and school newsletter to keep parents informed and up to date. A

few things I love about this app, for one it has a reminder feature. Teachers can schedule

reminders to send out to parents. Another thing I love about this app is that you can send

group, individual or whole class messages to parents. In addition, you can send feedback

notes to parents regarding student work and behavior. Lastly, this app is great because it

has a translator tool, which is so practical for those parents who may speak other
 3

languages besides English. Overall, I feel ClassDojo is a great communication tool that is

practical, user friendly and engaging for all and it is why I will be implementing it in my

classroom.

Seesaw

Similar to ClassDojo Seesaw is a great way to communicate with parents. One

thing that is great about Seesaw is that there is a family section for teachers. In the family

section, teachers can send an invite to parents or add them individually through their

email. With Seesaw parents can view their students portfolio, which is where the teacher

can post student work. Teachers can also communicate with parents via the Seesaw for

parents App. Teachers can send direct messages to parents and parents can instant

message back. One thing that is different from ClassDojo, that I personally love, is that

parent’s can like or comment on their students work. Parents can also leave voice

messages. Finally, parents can view their students work by calendar dates in the calendar

section or they can select filter to view their students work based on a subject. Utilizing

this tool will be very effective when communicating with parents and will be useful to

reference during parent teacher conferences.

In conclusion, while there are many communication apps today, I feel ClassDojo

and Seesaw will be my go-to apps for communicating with parents. Both apps have

similar features but can also be utilized differently depending on subject and grade level.

While I feel these will be my main apps to communicate with, I do believe I will

experiment with other apps too. For instance, I found ParentSqaure to be another fun app

to implement in the classroom. Therefore, I plan on experimenting with various apps in

order to find what fits with my class best.