As the MCO dawns its third week on Malaysian, teachers are looking for alternatives to teach remotely. As expected, we turn faithfully to social media to help us in this quest. Countless platform to explore with an endless array of materials to choose from, do create excitement (initially?), then confusion (which one?) and anxiety (oh my god, oh my god!). 

Digital Classroom provided by the ministry may help to reduce this anxiety (or so I hope) by grouping the noteworthy educational apps that teachers can use in its platform. I will not get on to that, but you can check out my previous post here and here. 

What I wish to cover in this post is how teachers can use WhatsApp to facilitate learning. Yes, you read it right, the WhatsApp. Based on my survey for teachers in my district, it is the most popular social media platform  I can't assume for the whole of Malaysia, but if you ask around, everybody is into it. 

1. Create a focus group. 

To ensure the success of the learning and efficient delivery, first, we must set up a focus group. The focus group might be according to the proficiency level, interest or outcomes desired. While it is easy to just disseminate instruction and tasks in a larger group, but as a conventional classroom, there will be backbenchers and it will be harder to spot them in an online setting. 

2. Set the learning objectives. 

You must have a sense of direction in your TnL. Discussions need to stay in its course amid the emojis and all other noises. At the end of the interaction, it will be easier for both teachers and learners to evaluate the outcome of the session and take further action. 

3. Assign one task at a time.

It is helpful when one task is being given at a particular time. It helps learners to maintain focus on the content as well as the discussion. The teacher may set a time frame for a task to complete its cycle before proceeding to the next task. 

4. Tag students when replying.

It is important to highlight feedback to students. Using the reply feature is not enough when you have many students that have the same problem. Tagging them to the feedback you made serve to alert them and point out to things that require their attention. Tag also useful when highlighting achievement, conveying praises and acknowledging hard work. 

5. Mind the language.

Never forget to cultivate good language used (I don't mean just grammatically correct sentence) and observing manners. Apart from teaching the content of a subject, teachers must instill good values in their learners all the time. Reality check...I know in some ESL classrooms, mixed-used languages do occur, but we might want to keep it to the minimum. We would like WhatsApp to become not only a tool for learning to take place but also for learning to take its place. 

While there are issues concerning students' engagement and internet connectivity, I think teachers' efforts are all that matter. We must not think that our effort goes to waste, but rather as an investment to our questions bank and personal growth as an online tutor. After all, the ministry has long encouraged the use of online learning as a tool to educate and don't you think that NOW is the right time?