Using the PubNub Real-Time Network, ClassDojo has managed the lifecycle of a potentially chaotic real-time communications service for tens of thousands of educators worldwide. PubNub Real-Time Network could connect with classDojo’s iPad/iPhone apps and web-based teacher portals to provide the crucial social component, which was all too appealing to education apps.

While the app remains in closed beta, we wanted to highlight how the whole ClassDojo stack works together to understand better how the system works. The app provides the application software that allows teachers to display a real-time count of their students’ scores to improve. The community is provided with a web service that stores all of the student data used by the teacher to score and maintain scores.

To start, administrators and teachers were “intimidated by the technology.” Administrators were unwilling to become data-driven because the capabilities of these software solutions are often more limited than what they are used to. The teachers were also concerned about managing their data. This is the plight of many educators and administrators we work with every day – their requirements are simple to explain and immediately understandable but have become increasingly complex.

PubNub is a communications platform that allows developers and enterprises to create scalable real-time communication software. Many enterprises use PubNub to power the core infrastructure that powers their internal messaging platforms (see our Real-Time Strategy page for more information). PubNub is a great platform to build real-time solutions that connect with web browsers or mobile devices. The only requirement to build real-time messaging services for your business is a few lines of code and open source libraries.

How does the software work? ClassDojo uses PubNub software libraries to detect when the app is running and deliver cues and notifications via push notifications to the class from the education app mobile application or server. Dominick Bellizzi, CTO of ClassDojo, explained the market impact of ClassDojo’s switch to PubNub: “The ability to provide world-class service to our student members was limited due to the limitations of the technology at that time.”