MU Safe vs Chat2Learn

MU Safe was designed by three Mercer Engineering students (Taiyah Lockett, Jacob Just-Buddy, and Corbin Jones), as their senior design project. The app was designed to better enable students to stay safe on campus and to report dangerous/suspicious incidents more easily. Programming was done by Taiyah Lockett, Jacob Just-Buddy, Corbin Jones, and Dr. Ekong. This app is maintained by Dr. Ekong and students in his Mobile Application Development course.

Chat2Learn is the fun, free app for parents that makes connecting with your child easy and joyful, even when your day is jam-packed. It suggests questions to ask your child that spark curiosity and learning. Chatty, our AI chatbot, helps you follow your child wherever their imagination takes the conversation! ——— Talking with your child is the very best way to boost your child's curiosity, skills, and love of learning — and how you talk makes all the difference. Chat2Learn promotes "small talk that makes a big difference." It does this by suggesting playful, open-ended questions to ask your child at their just-right level. Suggested questions come with fun illustrations and invite great conversation. You can keep the conversation going as long as you want by interacting with Chatty, the AI chatbot who helps keep chatting fun and interesting. You can also record chat text and audio snapshots as memories for safekeeping — you never have the same conversation twice, and it's amazing to see how conversations evolve as your child grows! ——— Create a Conversation Habit: Chatty is always ready when you're ready to chat with your child. Choose the question of the day from the home page, or ask Chatty to suggest a question about something you or your child is interested in chatting about. Since Chatty has AI superpowers, she can help keep the conversation fun and flowing! Chat Anywhere, Anytime: Whether you're running errands, waiting in line, or cuddling on the couch, Chatty is ready to help you spend quality time with your child. If your hands are full or you just want a more hands-free experience, Chatty can ask suggested questions out loud, and instead of texting back your child's response, you can send in a voice recording — Chatty is listening and responds to voice recordings, too! Capture Memories: Document your conversations with your child for safekeeping! Save conversation snapshots as precious memories to look back on. For Educators & Classrooms: Chat2Learn works in the classroom, too. With a classroom sign-in, educators can spark engaging conversations with their students using curated daily prompts (Chat of the Day and More Chats), chat alongside Chatty, share favorite prompts, and save standout conversations as memories — bringing the same playful, language-building talk into the classroom. ——— Chat2Learn was developed by leading researchers at the University of Chicago Behavioral Insights and Parenting Lab (BIP Lab) to support quality, joyful parent-child talk. The approach is grounded in the BIP Lab's research, which has shown that the Chat2Learn program approach boosts children's vocabulary skills and strengthens parents' growth mindset about engaging with their children's learning. In the BIP Lab's studies, parents who used the Chat2Learn approach saw that: • Children talked in more complex sentences and engaged more actively in conversation than children talking with their parents without support from Chat2Learn. • Parents were more responsive to their children's talk and felt more confident about supporting their children's learning. ——— Many parents aren't in the habit of talking to their children in ways that engage them and support their development. It's hard to be creative after a long day at work. Asking "How was school?" or "What did you have for lunch?" can feel like success in connecting with your child — but there's a better approach. Chat2Learn helps turn "What did you have for lunch?" into a friendly debate about the merits of spaghetti versus sandwiches, with suggestions like, "Ask Joey: Would you rather eat spaghetti or sandwiches every day? What about a spaghetti sandwich? What toppings would you add for the best taste?" Chat2Learn uses technology not to replace interactions, but to enrich them — making them joyful, curious, and full of connection. ——— Chat2Learn is currently available in English and Spanish.