El whatsapp: una oportunidad de interacción en contexto de pandemia

Abstract

Mobile phones and the WhatsApp application are widely used as a means of communication; however, in the university environment, the application is not recognized as an official means of communication nor as an ICT resource, although it cannot be denied how useful it might be to launch an educational innovation. The current experience was aimed at providing an account
of the use of the device to aid the teaching-learning process. The participants were 3 educators and a total of 58 students of the Nursing Licentiate Course belonging to the Dean Funes branch in the province of Córdoba. The participants were told to create a WhatsApp group chat for the Nursing in Mental Health course, 1986 curriculum, which was taught during the second term of the year 2020. The proposal was carried out in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and, thus, educators considered that the teaching-learning process is complemented by the functions of mobile phones and WhatsApp, which are integrated to the collaborative processes of communication and learning; therefore, the transfer of knowledge is facilitated through ICT, also taking into account that WhatsApp is a universal, free, accessible and personal application. The students who participated in the experience were between 23 and 53 years old. The group did not change from the beginning of the course up to the end of the academic year. The main questions were related to the practical experience during the holistic interview, to integrated practical assignments on the logbook and, to a lesser extent, to specific aspects of administrative matters, such as the criteria to pass the course.