What is it about?
The mobile phone has become the preferred means of communication, especially among young people, and there are many teachers who are committed to introducing it as a resource in their classrooms. Therefore, the objective of this work was to describe the educational uses of WhatsApp. The methodology was a systematic review of published work on the subject, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) and similar phases in the process. The sample was made up of 192 papers, which shows the large amount of research that has gone into the subject. WhatsApp’s educational use comes from the creation of groups—students alone or including the teacher. It is applied in both formal and informal education in all educational stages and in numerous subjects. It is also related to improvements in active learning, decision-making, and motivation, in addition to skills related to efficiency, planning, and time organization. Although the application was not designed for the educational environment, its advantages have shown it to be an adequate educational and support resource in teaching and learning at all educational stages.
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Why is it important?
This article is important because it offers the first comprehensive synthesis of how WhatsApp—an application not designed for education—has become an effective pedagogical resource in over 190 global studies. It demonstrates that educators can leverage technology that their students already use to improve motivation, communicative competencies, and academic results, without investing in costly platforms. Particularly relevant for educational contexts with limited resources and to guarantee quality and inclusive education (SDG 4), especially for vulnerable populations.
Perspectives
The perspectives opened by this article include the need to investigate how findings on virtual education through WhatsApp are consolidated into permanent post-pandemic hybrid models, study how new platform functionalities (group calls, screen sharing, polls) can further enhance educational processes, and expand research toward specific populations such as people with disabilities, students in conflict contexts, and rural populations with limited access. Equally important is to evaluate sustained long-term effects on digital competencies and independent learning, develop regulatory frameworks that formalize the educational use of WhatsApp while considering privacy and teacher well-being, and investigate how WhatsApp strategically complements other formal learning platforms such as LMS, thus opening new research lines on the effective integration of mobile tools in broader educational ecosystems.
Yolanda Deocano Ruiz
Universidad de Extremadura
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The Educational Use of WhatsApp, Sustainability, August 2022, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/su141710510.
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