What is Misuse

The need to keep educational links going during the COVID-19 lockdown has prompted African education stakeholders to use various methods, including those not initially intended for education, such as the use of “WhatsApp,” as a tool for distance learning platforms. This chapter analyses how this instant messaging platform has been misused and displaced and translates these into a path for developing its educational version. The authors used data from online documentary exploration, direct observation of digital traces of teaching and learning, and interviews with teachers and students. The content analysis of collected data reveals original practices of pedagogical use of WhatsApp, whose benefits in terms of densification of interactions, learners' autonomy and security, pedagogical socialization, and continuity of learning led to the design of “WhatsApp Ed.,” which is incredibly pedagogical and profoundly social and relational.