WhatsApp as an educational tool in Primary Education: Students, teachers and families

Abstract

Social networks are of great interest at present, since they benefit the development of new dynamics in social relations at all scales and in educational centers. The objective of this research is to determine the perception that teachers have about the use of WhatsApp as an educational resource in the development of the curriculum and as a means of communication between school and family in the stage of Primary Education; and analyze their opinions based on different sociodemographic variables. This work is a quantitative study of the type ex post-facto descriptive. To this end, an ad hoc questionnaire was designed consisting of 30 items based on three dimensions related to curricular content, educational resource and relationship with families, assessed with a gradual scale from 1 to 5. It was applied to 98 teachers selected through a non-probabilistic sampling for convenience. The results indicate that social networks and instant messaging are fundamental pillars in the social life of our students so it is convenient to work the different uses and functions of them. The conclusions point to the need to reconsider its use in schools, having to reformulate the use of them to promote family and school communication.