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Writer's pictureJavier Rodriguez

Supporting the Whole Child: Using AI Beyond Menu-Based Chatbots

AllHere Explained #5


The ASCD Whole Child Framework™, which first launched as an initiative in 2007, transitions the focus from narrowly defined academic achievement to one that meets students’ comprehensive needs through shared responsibility of students, families, schools and communities.


This approach is changing the conversation about education in schools by focusing on five tenets: that students are: healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. ASCD explains the five tenets as the following:


  • Healthy: Students enter schools healthy and learn about and practice a healthy lifestyle.

  • Safe: Students learn in a physically and emotionally safe environment for students and adults.

  • Engaged: Students actively engage in learning and connect to the school and broader community.

  • Supported: Students access personalized learning and are supported by qualified, caring adults.

  • Challenged: Students are challenged academically for career pursuits and to be critical thinkers in a global environment.

In order for schools to address the whole child, it is important for them to know about the tools and resources out there that support this approach.


AI’s role in supporting the whole child

AI is often thought of as menu-based chatbots that only address a specific menu of topics. And, no wonder that is the thought when we interact with AI in this way all of the time in our daily lives.  However, menu-based chatbots, while handy in some situations such as when getting technical support, can be limiting. Fortunately, our AI is able to go beyond the menu-based approach and can be a great tool to support the whole child. We like to say “It’s good at finding the needles in the haystack because it is constantly learning and acquiring new, fresh data.”


AllHere supports the whole child

As AllHere developed its award-winning AI-based solutions, we were intentional about ensuring our solutions support the whole child. The AllHere chatbot, for instance, provides 24/7 support to families and students via two-way messaging covering a wide array of topics such as academics, attendance, enrollment, anxiety, planning for graduation and college, and all of the challenges in between. It offers a non-confrontational, non-judgmental way for families to ask for support that can help grow the number of children getting the help they need. For instance, if a student misses school, the parent can tell the chatbot the specific reason it was missed - due to transportation issues, the bus was late, or the parent had to work and could not be there to wake up the child or drive them to school. This helps the school identify specific issues involving attendance and allows them to work on ways to support the student moving forward. 


There might be another student who comes in to school hungry and says something about it to the chatbot. The school receives this important information and can then look into the root cause (if there are issues going on at home or if they live in a food desert). Additionally, messages about mindfulness or connecting the user with resources schools have available to deal with stress and other mental health challenges are just some of the examples of how AllHere supports the whole child.


How Ed™ supports the whole child

AllHere’s newest solution, Ed™, is a first-of-its-kind personal learning acceleration platform designed to provide students and families with an ecosystem of valuable resources and support for fast tracking student achievement in and beyond the school day. It was created in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School district and it helps support the whole child.


Ed™ is designed to be an educational co-pilot, using AI to support the district by analyzing district data, including grades, attendance and district offerings, and recommending resources, programs and at-home skill practice based on that analysis. The platform can safely, securely and proactively engage with students and families, offering reminders and prompts, including those for social-emotional well-being.


Ed™ meets families where they are and is able to have human-like, personalized conversations and provide appropriate responses to concerns raised by students or parents. It uses these conversations to gather data about non-academic issues and has a knowledge base of appropriate, district-approved resources that it can share. And, there is always a human in the loop to address issues of escalated concern.


 Ed™ does this all while keeping students’ data safe and secure.


AllHere understands the importance of supporting the whole child and developed Ed™ to be flexible and extendable to help the district meet each student’s and family’s needs. By helping provide insight about non-academic barriers to student learning, AllHere is helping schools and districts across the country strengthen their support of the whole child.


About this Series: This blog post is the fifth in a series called “AllHere Explained.” The series explores a range of topics, including AllHere’s approach to security, privacy, AI/ML safety, education innovation, digital transformation, and more. We hope you find these blogs useful and informative; and we welcome feedback.

 

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