WhatsApp as an SIPs for continued in-service training of teachers in Information Era

 WhatsApp is an important platform or mobile app for connecting with friends, family and co-workers in various fields including the field of education. The use of WhatsApp on mobile has led to the formation of small, cohesive groups and thereby it has become a social media connectivity tool for fellow workers. The precursor of WhatsApp i.e. SMS used only text messages for communication, but now smart-phone technology features added to internet connection have extended the scope and horizon of the use of mobile. The text, PDF, picture, audio, video, animation etc. are some of the different media (multiple media) which can be shared using this platform. The basic advantage for indigenous users in India is that text and content of communication of ideas could be English or/as well as local vernacular languages. Thus, a group of people working in different localities with similar backgrounds could be brought together on one platform as a virtually connected society and share common thoughts and ideas relevant to the particular field of study. The possibility which emerges for learning and sharing includes one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many communication in synchronous and asynchronous modes within and among different groups. This increases the scope of sharing of good practices, knowledge and experience of real field workers who are teachers in this paper. This creates a scope of sharing information in small bits, which is based on the principle of economics viz., ‘small investment plan (SIP)’, that is used for increasing the wealth of individuals with continuous and systematic investment. This paper intends to look into the scope of opportunities and real practices in the use of WhatsApp for educational purposes with special reference to in-service teacher education in the contemporary world.

Keywords: WhatsApp, SIP, in-service training