What's up? WhatsApp: Using WhatsApp on the CELTA


WhatsApp.

I am ALMOST certain you'll have heard of WhatsApp but did you know it could be used as a learning tool? Well, that's what I am going to talk about this week but first here is the backstory of this post. 

Around a week ago I was talking to my partner about this blog and he suddenly said: "I can't believe you haven't dedicated a post to WhatsApp considering that's your Ph.D." This caused a eureka moment and quite a lot of disbelief - I mean HOW I had I not thought of this myself? 😹 

WhatsApp and my Ph.D. (If you don't care about this. - skip this part 😆). So, my Ph.D. will look at how online synchronous chat (participants communicating in real-time through digital messaging services e.g. WhatsApp) is being used with teacher- trainees on the CELTA course. For those that don't know anything about the CELTA - it is an ELT teacher training course - a major component of this course is the observed teaching practice sessions that trainees have to pass. Traditionally, during these sessions, one trainee teaches while the trainer and 5 trainees observe. They then discuss the lesson in a subsequent feedback session. However, due to time constraints, the trainers generally dominate these sessions leaving little time for trainees to reflect on what they have learned. For this reason, trainers have begun to employ the use of WhatsApp during TP. Instead of the trainees observing passively, they use WhatsApp to discuss what is going on in the lesson ✌- I was speaking Marie Therese Swabey, who was the first person to start doing this, and for her, this was a eureka moment - using the chat to give trainees tasks not only provides learning opportunities but also helps prevent them from switching off. 


Using WhatsApp to promote learning. 
I am not going to share any real data (for ethical reasons) but to show you I set up a chat and had people discuss a task I modeled as an example. 
As can be seen, WhatsApp can be used as a tool to promote reflection and facilitate dialogue among the trainees... From passively watching 👀 to actively engaging 👄 To say I am pretty excited about finding out how the chat is being done and managed is an understatement. 
WhatsApp in this situation is being used in a pretty specific way, which might leave you wondering about the wider application of the tool for learning.


The opportunities with WhatsApp are endless. Teachers can use it for professional development opportunities, such as sharing lesson plan ideas with colleagues or posting videos of their practice. Students can use it for target language practice, the discussion of course content or for the dissemination of information (reading materials, class announcements, etc). 


Since mobile phones are everywhere and data plans have become more affordable, using them and applications such as WhatsApp as learning tools (in face-to-face, blended or distance contexts) has the potential to make learning more learner-centered, participatory, interactive and communicative ✌👏💥


The best thing about WhatsApp as a learning tool (and I hope I have convinced you of this?) is its versatility



The worst thing about WhatsApp as a learning tool is the potential for students/ trainees to go off task - e.g switch chats and start talking with friends socially - however, this drawback is pretty much applicable to any web 2.0 based tool/ mobile tool - Motivating students and ensuring the task is engaging is the only way to try and prevent this. 

 To read more about how mobiles are being used in teacher education check out this article. To read more about how they are being used with students check out this article 


 Thanks for reading - would love to hear your thoughts,

K

Image 1 by Thomas Ulrich from Pixabay 
Image 3 by aalmeidah from Pixabay 
Image 4 by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay 


Comments

  1. Kamal ShafieMarch 8, 2020 at 4:27 PM

    Hi Katie!

    This is a wonderful post on WhatsApp! I like that you started your blog with the story about your PhD - that's very interesting and I look forward to read about it someday! Just like you, I love WhatsApp and I often use it with my students to share important informations and as well as for discussion. It's interesting that you are currently researching about how to use it as a tool for teacher education and development. I've never thought about that and that shows how versatile WhatsApp is a teaching/learning tool! Love your blog and keep up the great job Katie! 😊

    ReplyDelete
  2. Katie WebbMarch 9, 2020 at 7:06 AM

    Thanks Kamal - I am glad you got something from the post - Since posting this I have been thinking more about whether students are happy to share their personal numbers - have you ever had any issues with this?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kamal ShafieMarch 11, 2020 at 3:56 AM

      I personally feel that it is very important to protect our student's identity and privacy. I guess some students will feel reluctant and uncomfortable in sharing their personal numbers. Maybe we can create a private group and explain to them what we are doing and how we are going to use the data (personal information, etc) so that it might helped to convince them to participate and use WhatsApp as a learning tool.

      Delete
  3. Siqi's ICT in TESOL BlogMarch 9, 2020 at 10:16 AM

    Hi Katie. Thank you for sharing with your Ph.D. researching area! Sounds really interesting. I've got some insights through reading your blog. By the way, there is an application wildly used by Chinese as a chatting tool called Wechat, there is no need to release personal phone number by using Wechat. Hoping you may find it's useful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. FarahMarch 13, 2020 at 5:08 AM

    Hi Katie
    Great PhD topic! This reminds me of my personal experience on using WhatsApp when I was a Theater Director in my university years in Malaysia. That time, I created a WhatsApp group to get feedback after each practice session as well as getting useful suggestions from the whole theater crew.

    Interestingly, the WhatsApp group was constantly bombarded with honest reactions and new ideas almost everyday compared to when I asked them face-to-face. And yeah, it was quite challenging to monitor the conversation as not to stray too much and adhering to what I considered as appropriate content. And thankfully, the respected that.

    Therefore, I think that WhatsApp and feedback is a really interesting research area and I wish you all the best! ^^

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katie WebbMarch 16, 2020 at 5:24 AM

      Wow that sounds super interesting! I am hoping I find similar results in my Phd Project... Considering your experience - Do you think you would ever use it with learners in the ELT classroom? Best K

      Delete
  5. LarysaMarch 24, 2020 at 9:41 AM

    Katie, thanks for sharing! Your PhD topic seems to be very interesting and innovative. I am sure trainees benefit a lot from using WhatsApp to discuss their observations in real time. I liked the ideas that you mentioned about how this app can be used in the English language classroom. As we have learnt in this class, synchronous written chats can improve fluency and speaking skills. That's why such tools as WhatsApp shouldn't be overlooked. I think similarly to your CELTA observation classes students can use it as a platform for giving feedback e.g. on each others' presentations. My concern here is that while they are writing their comments they can be too absorbed by the discussion that there is a danger for them to loose track of what's going on. I'll appreciate your thoughts on this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katie WebbMarch 25, 2020 at 10:21 AM

      Hi Larysa, I am interested to find that exact thing out - do trainees find it distracting - do they miss key learning moments? Unfortunately, I don't have the answer yet... but I do think that even if they do miss one moment that the actual act of the engaging in a practical way with the 'moment' that caused the distraction would outweigh this. I really do believe actively engaging is better than passively watching - if that makes sense... What do you think?

      Delete
    2. LarysaMarch 27, 2020 at 7:28 AM

      This is what true research is about -- you never know the answer))

      Delete
  6. PhoebeApril 6, 2020 at 12:44 AM

    Hi Katie,

    I agree with you that real-time communication softwares could help studing a lot. The difference is that in China, we use Wechat, which is very similar to WhatsApp. Except for the academic benefit, such tools could really bring students and teachers closer and promote better relationships. Good luck to your PhD project>

    ReplyDelete

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