How could inclusion be made easier in schools?

Where the problems are — Support the big ones to help the little ones.
Much research has confirmed that parental involvement has a positive impact on children's learning, achievement, motivation and self-confidence. In addition, when parents take a stake in school life, ask relevant questions, and actively participate, the chances increase that their children will not only be more successful, but also happier. So they shouldn't just be passive spectators of the education system, but active co-creators of their children's educational journey. This is exactly where we want to start with Eduia and empower all parents in the best possible way to overcome obstacles and provide their children with optimal conditions. To do this, Eduia focuses not only on educational support, but on genuine human contact and equal opportunities for all.
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What to do — Reduce inequality & increase equity.
While the research results showed the uncertainty but also relevance of parents, the issue of growing inequality in particular became clearly visible. This is because, especially in early years, it is important that all parents have the same opportunities to support their children. For us, establishing equal opportunities therefore means that all citizens*, regardless of their social background, gender, ethnicity, disability and other factors, should have equal conditions for access to education and participation in society.Eduia has taken up this challenge and tries to actively combat the problem areas and the pronounced inequality of opportunities for parents and children and to generate valid solutions.

Eduia as a transformative project that seeks to identify real problem areas in the field of tension between inequality, social classes and education and solve them in a participatory way has therefore only been able to develop in cooperation and close collaboration with a school and its practical relevance. The joint design process, with the help of which relevant insights can be identified and real solutions to existing social problems can be generated, has opened up new perspectives and made it possible to avoid prejudices.
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Together with the teachers, children, psychologists and members of the school family, the four phases of the extended design thinking framework were carried out and possible starting points discussed. The solutions developed were not only to be designed in a human-centered way, but in particular to be universally usable and also to be designed in a society-centered and system-oriented way. Only through a systematic approach and the inclusive basis, we were able to move from a comprehensive problem description to a prototypical development.
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The result is Eduia - an app that allows parents to connect with other participants in the school family and get educationally valuable tips. All in one place and collected by exactly the people who need this concept in their everyday lives.

Inclusion by networking
By building a network, the app enables parents to support each other. A mentoring system ensures that all parents can be involved in the exchange from the beginning to clarify individual questions and problems. Shared activities and personal support proactively engage everyone in the school family.
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Bypass language barriers
Thanks to an integrated language selector, the app enables multilingual communication. A language bot based on a Large Language Model provides direct translation and chat capabilities so that all parents can actively participate regardless of language, enabling Eduia to promote inclusion. The underlying LLM was also refined based on pedagogical information to provide explicit assistance with questions in any language.
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‍Reducing inhibitions & uncertainties.
The app offers texts in simple and clear language as well as practical tips that can be implemented by all parents without prior knowledge. This makes it easier to get started with a wide variety of topics and reduces uncertainties. The personal feedback provided by the godparents in the app creates a less intimidating environment than in direct contact and takes the pressure off parents when they first make contact. In addition, the overall concept includes onboarding within the school and the app, as well as a personal "app tutorial" for app users. This also makes it easier for media-averse people to access the digital platform.

Eudia works as an interactive application based on a digital app, but also includes a personal app onboarding and real interactions. For this, clear goals and requirements, such as simplicity, inclusion and usability, have been defined, based on which an intuitive, user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing interaction structure has been created.
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Basically, three instances are implemented for Eduia in the backend, with the help of which the respective user can fulfill his task. Thus, one application alternative is usually required for the school administration, the mentors, and the parents, each of which displays and generates different content.
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Intuitive & flat information architecture
In addition to the main page, the parents can also access the "Sponsors" and "Advisors" sections, as well as the additional "Notifications" and settings options. The focus here is on a quick and clear presentation and the reduction of complexity within the navigation structure. The main areas "Patrons" and "Advisor" can be easily accessed from any page, different visual order structures provide clarity, and indicators for navigability.
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User Interface - The Information Levels
Within the application, Eduia consists of three information levels. The navigation bar in the lower area allows switching between the most relevant menu items, the middle area contains the main information such as texts, profiles or for example news. The upper area includes filtering options, displays the user's own profile, lets the user choose between classes and shows news in the form of a notification access. The fonts and colors were chosen in such a way that even multilingualism does not pose a problem to the basic architecture and design.

For more information, check out the documentation on top of the page.