aprendIA: an AI-driven chatbot to reach last-mile learners and teachers

• In Event: Learning in and Out of Formal Schooling

Proposal

The sudden acute need driven by the rapid onset of crisis forces large numbers of children out of school overnight. When emergency strikes, physical infrastructure that education relies on is often damaged or made inaccessible. 
Despite the vast scale of need for education solutions in humanitarian settings, existing ones face common challenges: low scalability, personalization to the learning, and lack of resources. 
"aprendIA" is an AI-driven chatbot that delivers learning/training experiences to learners using well-known messaging platforms and devices refugee communities have at hand. Messaging can be used in a range of learning activities through a combination of sharing educational materials with interaction between pupils, peers, caregivers and teachers. 

In aprendIA, we have a) an intuitive platform to enhance teachers'/learners' education experiences and b) project cases that portray possibilities in emergency scenarios where low-tech replicable platform-based approaches might face the challenges of accessing and quality in education. 
We will share the main characteristics, how we use AI and other tools, and some cases in crisis contexts.

Authors

• Sheila Burkhardt, International Rescue Committee

• April Somboun, International Rescue Committee