Hello all,
As a teacher (fellow at Teach for India), I have many last minute announcements to make. With 42 students and their parents, it is a nightmare for me to call each one of them. What do I do? I get inspired by therodinhoods.wpengine.com community.
As I read stories on how problems lead to solutions, I got completely inspired and developed an app called ClassTalk.It is an Android based app that is strictly group based.
Parent’s view: They are not given any ‘Create Group’ option. Things are kept simple for them.
Teacher’s view. They get a ‘Create Group’ option.
Only teacher can see the group members. Again, keeping the app simple for parents.
Key Features:
1) Strictly group based: This eliminates one on one communication (USP. This forces parents with personal concerns to call or meet the teacher one on one (builds parents relationship).
2) Simple registration process: no training session required for parents on teacher’s part.
3) Closed groups: Teacher is the admin for the respective group. Teacher adds (once parents register)/delete members.
The vision I have with this app in mind is two-fold: Financial and Digital Literacy. Since this app uses minimum data, a parent can purchase a minimal data pack (introducing the digital world in a cheaper way). Second, the communities we work in, have a lot of bad habits such as eating processed food such as chips or tobacco chewing. Just by saving on these small items, a parent can buy a smartphone in a month or two.
Here is the link to the app in Play Store.
If you are a parent, please ask your child’s teacher to download this app and use it. I am looking for feedback so the iteration can be done based on feedback rather than top-down approach.
One particular feedback I am looking apart from user stories on how it is helpful or not is whether ClassTalk can be named more generic and used in the corporate or other fields as well and build a revenue stream.
Thank you for your time!
-Ajay Shah
Twitter: @ajaygshah
asha chaudhry
hi ajay, so i love the way you identified a problem and tried to solve it!!
quick q – wouldn’t a whatsapp gp solve this for you? that’s what most people are doing nowadays (i’m a part of my child’s football and singing whatsapp gp).
ps: i didn’t understand how this app would help in this: “Second, the communities we work in, have a lot of bad habits such as eating processed food such as chips or tobacco chewing. Just by saving on these small items, a parent can buy a smartphone in a month or two.”
Ajay Shah
Not so quick answer to your first question. Two points:
1) Whatsapp allows room for one-on-one conversation. The idea with ClassTalk is to discourage parents to address personal concerns over text chat. Either pick up the phone or come to school, thereby building relationship with teacher and vice versa. There is a lack of such strong bonds between teacher and parents in our education system.
2) With ClassTalk, it adds to the professionalism of the school and teacher. Again, there is a lack of professionalism.
To answer your second question/query, if parents are given a presentation on financial literacy, the money saved can be put to better use than tobacco or packaged food. So parents tell me “oh! we can’t afford a smartphone.” I want teachers to guide the parents in building financial literacy and independence. Now, this is keeping in mind the low income community we work with.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
Aren’t there many such apps?
Also, with class sizes being small nowadays, a 100 group on Whatsapp is also being used by kids (my daughter is an IB school and thats how she communicates with her class and teachers)
I’m not sure why this is unique?
Chandrasekar Ramakrishnan
I think one of the objectives (or USP?) is that the parents should just listen or receive the message from the teacher? Can they interact with the teacher? They can’t interact among each other. Isn’t? Things are overly simplified for parents!!
Ajay Shah
The target schools are low income (this also includes lower middle class) community schools (private and government). The parents of the students enrolled in these schools are not yet ready to engage in a meaningful conversation with the school. This is to initiate them in the least invested way (minimal training and time commitment for the parents)
The vision for this particular product is to increase the number of features once parents are OK with communicating with teachers.
Ajay Shah
Yes! As I mentioned in my reply above to Alok, parents and teachers need to start building a meaningful relationship if the child is to succeed. This is just the first step, baby step I rather say.