Using Facebook and WhatsApp in rebuilding the education in areas affected by armed conflicts: The Syrian case

Abstract

Since the beginning of the conflict in Syria in 2011 more than 45% of the population have been forced to displace, half of them being children. For a large part of the Syrian population, the access to education has been interrupted and statistics show that almost three million children were deprived of any type of education during a period of more than four years. Armed conflicts can disrupt or totally destroy the conditions necessary to ensure a healthy, stable and safe environment for education. This article reports part of the results of an investigation concerning the opportunities offered by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in rebuilding the education in countries affected by armed conflicts. The ongoing conflict in Syria is chosen as a particular case study. Concretely, this work focuses on the use of social networks (Facebook) and instant messaging (WhatsApp). The research is multi-case study based on the qualitative method. The analysis of the collected data indicates that Facebook and WhatsApp improve the performance of organizations and institutions whose objective is to offer a solution to the Syrian educational crisis regarding three main aspects: (1) in the teaching and learning process, (2) in communication, coordination and information and (3) in data collection and management.