WHATSAPP AS A SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA

WHATSAPP AS A SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN NIGERIA [A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF PORT HARCOURT]

Code No: 673227

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ABSTRACT

Whatsapp is getting to be one of most tools for communication among people, where everyone can exchange, share, comment, discuss and create information and knowledge in a collaborative way. With the increase in Social media rapidly changing the communications landscape, it emergence has impacted significantly how students learn and the way instructors teach. In today tertiary institution settings, lecturers, students and others collaborate on the tasks of knowledge construction. The definition of social media is "the connections that exist between network of individuals" The impact of social media on teaching and learning condition is growing every year and its applications can fortify class materials, positively influenced exchanges, collaborative work and community oriented work, etc. The lecturers and students testing the use of social media technologies to stimulate collaboration, information developments, knowledge constructions and thinking skills. The main aim of the research is to discover the hole of knowledge in adoption of whatsapp in teaching and learning process in formal sites that can efficiency applied in educational system.

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The emergence of Whatsapp has revolutionized communication and facilitating teaching and learning activities in recent years. Social networking has blended learning and has become one of the most significant communication tools among young people; and is generally applied to the practice of using both and in-person learning experiences when teaching students. In a blended learning course, students might attend a class taught by a teacher in a traditional classroom setting, while also independently completing online components of the course outside of the classroom. In this case, in-class time may be either replaced or supplemented by online learning experiences, and students would learn about the same topics online as they do in class, that is, the online and in-person learning experiences would parallel and complement one another (Edglossary, 2016). Applying Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in teaching and learning offer a positive impact on the adoption of SNSs and open the door to the new days of learning and teaching. Whatsapp is a mobile application that allows users to communicate with them using mobile gadget and computer. Whatsapp can be used for teaching and learning for the following reasons:
Multiple platforms: smartphones (Operating system, Android), PC, Laptop, iPad, Tab, and Web.
Compatible file format: jpg, audio, movie, pdf, excel, word, PowerPoint.
Large files transfer.
Grouping facilities: 250 members, access to old/past messages, members add members.
Better storage capacity and management
Better memory system and management
Better security with the encryption.
Whatsapp can also be accessed on the web and can be run easily run on a laptop, which can be used to engage students as a means of innovative learning mode and flipped learning mode. All messages, both incoming and outgoing are sent by the users (students) and can be displayed on multiple platforms concurrently. Whatsapp can also be used to conduct a flipped learning mode before the class meeting, as a means of passing information to students, and after the class lecture.
Selamat (2015) noted that whatsapp can be used to solve the following reasons and also used for blended learning:
Announcement 2. Forum i.e. whole class discussion 3. Quizzes 4. Open ended question 5. Group project report 6. Listening practice 7. Pronunciation practice 8. Speaking practice 9. Writing practice 10. Audio input/feedback 11. Video input/feedback 12. Problem solving 13. Content/materials sharing 14. PowerPoint presentation.