One of the most popular topics of the 2018 workshop was Making learning relevant: Using current accessible technology in teaching and learning. The most popular being, using WhatsApp to engage students in learning. Post-workshop, some participants took back lessons learned and introduced using WhatsApp as a tool for learning.
Prior to attending the Collaborative, most participants viewed WhatsAppas merely a distraction in the classroom and not something that could beused for student engagement. However during the workshop, participantslearned the art of using digital and social media tools (e.g. Whatsapp,Twitter, blogs & podcasts) in the classroom to explore how technologyand media can be used to teach inclusion, tolerance andopen-mindedness. Education Collaborative 2018 participants left withideas on how to constructively introduce social media into the classroomin genuinely useful ways and keep it from becoming a distraction.
Participants from Garden City University and NIIT in Ghana have adoptedusing whatsapp as a tool for student engagement. Mr. Augustine Danso alecturer at NIIT, introduced WhatsApp to 40 software engineeringstudents for student engagement and discussions pre and post classroomtime. Feedback from Augustine showed an increase in studentsinvolvement in discussions, assignments and classroom activities. Mr.Emmanuel Awusi of Garden City University also introduced WhatsApp to40 science students currently working on a cancer research project. A WhatsApp virtual classroom is held once a week for an hour for subjectmatter discussions and problem solving. This new approach is expected tobe permanently adopted by the department after this semester.