Bits | The Business of Technology - November 17, 2014: Privacy Concerns Over Classroom Tracking Software.
Monday, November 17, 2014 For the latest updates, go to nytimes.com/bits » Morning Report Privacy Concerns Over Classroom Tracking Software | One morning in mid-October, Greg Fletcher walked to the front of a third-grade classroom at Hunter Elementary School, where an interactive white board displayed ClassDojo, a behavior-tracking app that lets teachers award points or subtract them based on a student's conduct. On the board was a virtual classroom showing each student's name, a cartoon avatar and the student's scores so far that week, Natasha Singer reports . "I'm going to have to take a point for no math homework," Mr. Fletcher said to a blond boy in a striped shirt and then clicked on the boy's avatar, a googly-eyed green monster, subtracting a point. ClassDojo is used by at least one teacher in roughly one out of three schools in the United States, according to its developer. The app is among the innovations to