Working with a Virtual Classroom in WhatsApp

As we know, in recent years specifically at the educational level we have experienced important changes, where information and communication technologies have been integrated into the teaching-learning process. With respect to this topic I want to focus on the use of the mobile device, as it has become one of the most used tools by most people, it allows group interaction and can be used to achieve the connection between teacher and student obtaining great benefits.

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Particularly, I had not had the experience of working using whatsapp for meetings in virtual classrooms, previously I had not used this tool, however, it has not been as easy as it seemed, so it is important to seek information for better results. That is why, I find it useful to share some tips to take into account when using the mobile device for educational purposes.

One of the main problems that can be generated is that all participants maintain order in classes and this is because students prefer to write messages to the direct and not participate in the group, in addition to sending messages outside the established time.

So the first step is to create the virtual class group, this can be done by sending a link to the participants to start the chat. As a chat administrator you can control the function of opening and closing the chat at the set time and only receive messages during this time. You can work with WhatsApp from the computer which brings as advantages to manage a large number of messages.

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As a second step and one of the most important is to establish very clearly the rules, including class schedule, consultation, the purpose of the group, type of information to be worked with, use only for important topics related to the subject, the language to be used, respect to intervene among others.

On the other hand, it is necessary to dedicate time for the preparation of the classes taking into account the available materials, different strategies, activities that can be adapted to the study modality.

Information can be shared through text messages, voice messaging, images, videos that can be sent before the classes to be reviewed by students, video calls among others, which promotes discussion and participation of students in relation to a given topic, with real-time responses as in face-to-face mode. Once they join the group they can access the files at any time.

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In the case of evaluation, it is very important to establish very clearly the instructions, evaluation criteria, time to be executed.

As we see working with WhatsApp groups requires working with organization, responsibility and allows to advance the classes from home and use more tools in the teaching process.

Well friends, I say goodbye, thanks for reading.