Classroom management tool ClassDojo has publicly launched a new offering called Class Story that it believes streamlines communications between teachers and parents. The aim is to eliminate newsletters and websites that teachers create in order to provide updates to parents about what’s going on in the classroom.

Class Story is a feature that can be found within the ClassDojo app and works on iOS, Android devices and also on any web browser.

“It’s astounding that, in this age of instant messaging, teachers haven’t been given the tools to easily engage families,” says company cofounder and chief product officer Liam Don in a release.

Previously available in beta for the past several weeks, Class Story has signed up 60,000 teachers interested in trying out the service. Now it’s going to become available to the general public.

All communications between teachers and parents are private. Teachers using Class Story can add photos or text posts to their class feed and they are automatically shared with connected parents. The tool will display a read receipt when a parent notices the communication. Parents can register their acknowledgement by “hearting” a post. Additional tools being planned include new types of posts teachers can create such as videos and voice notes.

Parents want to be involved but perhaps now with the proliferation of mobile technologies and devices, getting the information right from your phone instead of waiting for the information to arrive after-the-fact, more engagement can be done. ClassDojo believes that Class Story will help free up a teacher’s day as they won’t have to “squeeze in a phone call at the end of the day, create a public website, or Facebook page.”

At the heart of Class Story appears to be student safety and ClassDojo believes that traditional class websites aren’t secure enough for interactions between parents and teachers. “We think we can dramatically simplify teachers’ lives, help them build incredible relationships with parents, and as a result raise the potential for what students can achieve,” says Don.

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Article source: VB http://venturebeat.com/2015/09/05/classdojo-launches-new-tool-to-simplify-parent-teacher-communications/