STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON BLOGGING ACTIVITY IN ICT ONLINE CLASS AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITAS MUHAMMADYAH YOGYAKARTA
STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION ON BLOGGING ACTIVITY IN ICT ONLINE
CLASS AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITAS
MUHAMMADYAH YOGYAKARTA
A Skripsi
Submitted to Faculty of Language Education
As a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Sarjana Pendidikan
By :
Anggun Selfiani
20120540116
Department of English Education
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
2016
Chapter One
Introduction
This chapter consists of several parts. The first part is background of the study. The
second part is statement of the problem. Then, it is followed by limitation of the problem,
formulation of the problem, purpose of the study and the last part is significance of the study.
Background of the Research
Blog becomes a common resource today. Based on the researcher’s experience during
the class, students of EED UMY commonly used blog to help them finish the assignment.
Students used blog as their resources rather than book. This is caused by blogs are easy to be
accessed.
Everyone can make their blog and write any information on blog. A blog is personal
or professional journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public
consumption on the internet (Zhang, 2009). Blogging becomes very popular especially for
young people. Blogs are easy to be used and simple websites where people can quickly write
thoughts, interact with others, get feedback and post photo (Brown, 2007). People do not
need special competences to use and maintain their blog. They just need to connect with
internet for blogging.
Blogging activity has correlation with ICT because both of them are related to each
other. Blogs are some tools used in ICT-based class. Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) refer to technological tools and resources which are used to
communicate, create, disseminate and manage information (Yunus, Nordin, Salehi, Sun,
Embi, 2013). ICT tools include radio, television, computers, internet, and social networks.
Using ICT tools such as blogs can motivate both learners and teachers in exploring and
maximizing the use of technology and internet.
English Education Department UMY has ICT subject. There are ICT offline subject,
ICT online subject and ICT in Education. English Education Department of UMY wants to
maximize the use of technology in classroom used ICT-based class. It is in line with Cheng
(2010) as cited in Tagoe (2012) who found that rapid development of information,
communication and technologies (ICT) and Web-based application already developed in
universities all around the world. Nunan (1999) in Restuti (2008) added that access to the
internet also brings the world into the classroom. Moreover Philips and Vallance (2004)
argued that ICT plays positive role in the language teaching.
The researcher focused on ICT Online subject because the researcher found some
phenomena based on the experiences. Therefore, this research focused on blogging activities
held in ICT Online subject. Blogs is one of features in ICT that frequently used in EED UMY
rather than radio or podcast. Moreover, ICT Online subject consisted of blogging, operating
the blogs and maintaining the blog. Maintaining the blogs means that students frequently post
something in their blogs such as articles, diaries, journals and photos. Students should reply
any comments on their blogs. In ICT online class that held in EED UMY, students focused on
maintaining their blog during the semester then students get the score based on their blogging
activities.
In the beginning of the class, the lecturer gives an explaination about the rules in ICT
Online class and also explains about scoring system used. In ICT online class, students will
get more score when they post on their blogs often and also actively give any feedback when
people comment their blog. Students should be active in ICT online class for get higher score
in the end of the class. In the other hands, students get bad score if they do not post articles on
their blog.
Based on the reseacher’s experiences, there are two types of EED students in bloging
activities. The first type is students who post articles, diaries or photos in their blog only in
the class and they do not care about their blog outside the class. The second type is students
who maintain and manage their blogs seriously. They always post anything such as articles,
journals, diaries or photos in their blogs whenever they can. Some students will not care
anymore about the blog after the class end. They only make and manage the blog for score
only. They do not have any interest in blog activities.
In other side, some students interests in blogs activities. In spite of the ICT class
ended, they kept maintaining their blogs. However, just few students who still maintain their
blogs after the class end. Leaving their blog when the class ended is like a habit for English
Education Department students. These phenomena happen in all classes and all batches in
ICT Online class at English Education Department in UMY. Based on the phenomena above,
the researcher is interested in a study of students’ perception on the implementation of
blogging activities in ICT class at English Education Department Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Identification of the Problem
Based on the phenomena that have been explained in the background, the researcher
find some problems which are faced by students in blogging activities. The first problem is
classroom facilities who supported blogging activitiy such as connectivity. Second,
plagiarism is the common problems on English teaching and learning process. The third
problem is students’low motivation in posting articles on their blog. Students motivation and
plagiarism is related each other. Students with lack of motivation on blogging activity will
copy and paste articles or journals from other blogs without any citation. Moreover, students
with low motivation on blogging activity will leave their blog in the end of the class. And the
next problem is teachers communication skills. The way teachers or lecturers deliver the
materials during the class is important in helping students understand the materials. The other
problem is process of students in maintaining the blog. Then, the advantages issues of
blogging for students becomes some problems on blogging activity itself. Moreover,
grammar and vocabulary mastery in writing becomes a problem on blogging activity.
Limitation of the Problem
Besides those problems above, the researcher only focused on assesing students’
perception on blogging activity at English Education Department Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The researcher limited the problems into two categories. First is
students’ perception toward the advantages of blogging activity in ICT online class at EED
UMY. Second is the obstacles that students faced on blogging activity at ICT online class.
Formulation of the Problem
There are two questions formulated from the limitation of the problems:
1. What are students’ perceptions toward the advantages of blogging activity in ICT
Online Class at EED of UMY?
2. What are students’ perception toward the obstacles of blogging activity in ICT
online class at EED UMY?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the formulation of the problem, the aims of this research are:
1. Exploring the students’ perception toward the advantages of blogging activity
which conducted in ICT Online Class.
2. Identifiying the obstacles that students faced during the blogging activity in ICT
online class.
Significance of Research
This research study can be beneficial for some parties such as the researcher, students,
and lecturers.
For the researcher. This research helps the researcher to understand the obstacles in
blogging activities. Then, by understanding the obstacles, researcher can think the solution to
solve and decrease the obstacles that occur on bloging activies in future.
For the students. The results of this research will give students understanding about
the benefit and obstacles that may students faced on blogging activities. Students can prepare
the solution to minimize the problems that they faced during blogging activity. Then, students
can get better experiences on blogging class, and it can help students to maximize the features
on their blog for better knowledge.
For the lecturers. This research encourages the lecturers of English Education
Department of UMY providing support for the students in blogging activity. Moreover, the
lectures analyzed the problem that students face and try to find the solution. Then lecturers
can improves blogging activities in ICT Online Class to be more interested than before. Then,
lecturers can rearrange classroom activities on blogging to increase students’ participation
during the class.
Chapter Two
Literature review
This chapter discusses several studies related to this research. The first part of this
chapter talks about some theories of perception. Second, researcher talks about Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT). Then, this part discusses the definition of blogs and
types of blogs in education. This part also discusses advantages and disadvantages of blogs.
In the last part of the chapter discusses review of related study and also the conceptual
framework of this research.
Perception
According to Robbins (2001), perception is a process by which individuals organize
and interpret their sensory impression in order to give meaning to their environment. Then,
Kreiter and Kinicki (1992) stated that perception is mental and cognitive process that enables
us to interpret and understand our surroundings. Based on the explanation above, perception
is a process of people to understand and observe the environment arround them. In other
words, perception is a cognitive process experienced by people in comprehending
information about the environment. Moreover, by using perception people can understand,
comprehend and be aware of something or someone else in their environment.
Futhermore, people have different perception and expectation about world, things,
places, methods, and environments. The personal perceptions are influenced by personal feel,
imagination and interpretation. According to Lahey (2009) stated that humans are aware of
the world because of they have a number of sense organs which enable humans to see, hear,
taste, smell, touch, balance and experience such feeling as body stiffness, soreness, fullness,
warmth, pleasure, pain, and movement.
In teaching and learning process, teachers should know about students’ perceptions.
Knowing students’ perception also help teacher or lecturer in preparing classroom activities.
While, the students’ perception of the classroom can help teacher to identify about what kind
of activities that effective and suitable to be applied in classroom. In line with theory by
Diamantes (2002) as cited in Fullerton and Guardino (2012) who found that students’
perceptions about the classroom environment can guide teachers in making environmental
improvements. Then, students provided valid information about their preferred and ideal
environment which helped the teachers in the classrooms. Knowing about students’
perception also helps teacher to engage students to participate actively in learning process. In
this research, perception refers to how students perceive about blogging activity in ICT
Online Class.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
According to Yunus et al (2013) who stated that Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) cover a wide range of technologies. Toomey (2001) as cited in Restuti
(2008) added ICT refers to a range of Information and Communication Technology which is
including computer workstations, software and hardware. Toomey added that Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) generally relates to those technologies that are used
for accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting or communicating information. Based
on the statements above, it can be concluded that ICT refer to technological tools and
resources which are used to communicate, create and manage information. These
technologies include radio, television, computers, internet and social networks.
In the last decade, there has been a growing interest in using computers and internet to
improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning in all levels and in both educational and
non-educational settings (Saleh and Salehi, 2011). Old technologies such as radio, television,
and telephone are given less attention todays, however they a longer and richer background
as educational tools. Nowdays, teachers and the lecturer are used laptop that connect with
internet in teaching on the classroom. Using laptop who always connect with internet make
teachers or lecturer easier in teaching process. The lecturer can add others sample or
resources directly in classroom when it needed. It is related with theory by Yunus et al (2013)
who found that the integration of new ICT tools such as laptop, LCD projector, internet and
social networks in education is still in its infancy in comparison with the use of older
technologies such as radio and television.
The significant purpose in the teaching learning ICT is the increasing convergence of
computer-based, multimedia and communication technologies. And the main goal of
establishing the ICT- based class is preparing students to face future’s challenge. Umiyati
(2006) as cited in Restuti (2008) argued that students of the ICT based class can master
science and technology by using English competence. Students who mastering science and
technology has better chance in the future. According to Philips and Vallance (2004) who
stated ICT based class of the English language teaching is believed to be able to offer
individualized, active, and interactive learning experiences to large numbers of students,
solutions to the problem of an acceleration enrolment and higher demand for education.
Moreover, ICT has a positive role in the language teaching and learning. Students can
access the world in the classroom by using ICT. According to Carrington and Robinson
(2009) who said that today is time for our classrooms became places where digital and print
literacy come together to allow children opportunities to develop the skills and attitudes they
will need to navigate complex urban sites and social forms. Meanwhile, ICT based class offer
the students big opportunities to faced the world and improve their skills used technology.
Concept of Blog
Definition of Blog. The Oxford English dictionary of United Kingdom (2011) defined
that the noun blog as personal record that somebody puts on their website. Zhang (2009)
added that blog is some frequently updated website that consists of personal observations,
quotation from other sources and usually attach with hyperlinks from other sites as an online
journal or diary. Godwin (2003) cited in Zhang (2009) argued that blog is a web-based space
of writing where all the writing and editing information is managed through a web browser
and it is immediately and publicly available on the internet. Based on the statements above,
blog is a place for everyone to share their feelings, ideas, stories, experiences and photos.
People can use blog like their personal diary. In blog, people can write anything that they
want to write.
Moreover, Hossain and Quinn (2012) found that web 2.0 technology is a new
development of internet services available on the World Wide Web, allows internet users to
collaborate and shares web information actively. Blog is a standard example of Web 2.0
technologies. Therefore, Blog is an online journals and their content is depend on the feelings
of people who maintain blog. Blogs can be updated any time by using software that allows
users with little or no technical background to create, design, and maintain the blog.
Drexler, Dwason and Fredig (2007) described blogging is a vehicle for sharing
feelings and insight with the world without leaving the classroom. It can be concluded that
blogs are a constructivist tool for learning where participants construct knowledge, share
ideas, and build upon each other’s work. Blog can combines with text, images, links to other
blog, web pages and other media related to its topic.
Types of Blog in Education. According to Dudeney and Hockly (2007) who stated
that the most common type of blog is kept by one person, who will regularly post comments,
thoughts, analyses, experiences of daily life, interesting links, jokes or any other form of
content, to a web page. Then, Tseng (2008) argued that blogs can be used in various fields,
purposes, and function. In school context, educational blog are being used by more educators
and students. Blog that is used in education are known as edublogs. Futhermore, edublog
cover a wide range of topics related to education. Edublogs also focus on educational policy
and developments to learner compositions.
Campbell (2003) as stated in Tseng (2008) specifically points out three types of blog
used in EFL (English Foreign Laguage) classes. There are tutor blog, learner blog and class
blog.
The Tutor blog. Dudeney and Hockly (2007) stated blog set up and maintained by
teacher is known as tutor blog. In tutor blog, teachers can gives daily reading practice for
students and provides handouts of syllabus or some websites related to articles or journals
that students read. Moreover, this blog provides study tips, reviews class work and provides
extra links on specific topics such as pronunciation.
Campbell (2003) in Tseng (2008) stated that tutor blog can also encourage students to
give comments in tutor’s blogs or their classmate’s blogs, and do some online verbal
exchange. The teachers may decide to allow their learners to write comments in the blog. In a
tutor blog, teachers can ask students to read some journals and teacher should manage them
to make summary from that journal.
The learners’ blog. Blog who maintained by students known as learner blog. The
learners’ blogs can be used as journals for writing practices or for personal expression.
According to Campbell (2003) as cited in Tseng, (2008) who found that by students can
develop a sense of ownership that they master from their own blogs then they can gain the
experience of exchanging comments with their teacher or their classmate.
Afterwards, teachers may encourage students to set up and maintain their individual
blogs. Learner can be asked to post in their blogs once or twice a week or however often
teacher judges’ convenient, and content can range from comments on current affairs to
description of daily activities. Then, the other learners, from same class and from other
classes or even from classes in other countries can be encouraged to post comments and
reactions to students’ blog. Based on the statement above, learners has some opportunities to
comment the others students’ blogs and it is help students to develop their skills in giving
opinion about something.
The Class Blog. According to Campbell (2003) as cited in Tseng (2008) found that
students can join access and publishing rights to create and maintain their class blogs.
Teacher can decide to use a blog provide their learners with news and comments on issues,
extra reading practice or homework, online links, a summary of a class for learners who were
unable to attend and study tips. In the class blog, learners will access and read and possibly
add comments to the blog outside the classroom.
Advantages of Blog. According toTseng (2008) provided that web is a familiar piece
of the educational landscape, and for those sites where personal publishing or chronological
ordered content would be useful, blogs have stepped to the fore. However, blogs are
innovative tools that require learners to interact one another. It is not only having interaction
with computer but also having interaction with people.
Pinkman (2004) argued that blogging takes more communicative role than others
computers assisted language learning (CALL) tools. Pinkman continued that blogging and
CALL can not replace face-to-face interaction, but blog provide a practice environment
where students can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real-life audience. Drexler,
Dawson and Fredig (2007) found that blogging can promote critical and analytical thinking.
Blog can lead to creative, intuitive, associational thinking and also analogical thinking. Blog
is the best combination of solitary reflection and social interaction. Blogs provide a realworld tool for learners with which to practice their written English as well as a way
contacting learners from other parts of the world. In line with theory by Zhang (2009) who
said studies that have been published include effect on learner autonomy, increasing writing
fluency, as a place for completing writing assignments, posting class materials, and as a way
to open communication with bloggers outside the classroom. Moreover, Zhang continued that
blog appears to enrich the learning experience and provide an opportunity for learners to
learn by themselves, such as blog as a learning journal is a way of documenting learning and
collecting information for self-analysis and reflection. It helps students’ nurturance a habit to
study from surface to deep.
Stanley (2005) in Zhang (2009) argued that there are numerous reasons for using
blogs in education, namely provide a real audience for student writing, to provide extra
reading practice for students, to increase the sense of community in a class, to encourage
students to participate, and to create an online portfolio of student written work. Blogs are
well suited to serve as online personal journals for students, particularly since they normally
enable uploading and linking of files. Language learners could use a personal blog, linked to
a course, as an electronic portfolio, showing development over time. Hossain and Quinn
(2012) stated that student has the possibility of writing for readers beyond classmates which
is not usually possible to be talked in discussion forums by publishing it on the blog. Readers
can give comment on what they read, although blogs can be placed in secured environments
as well. Self-publishing encourages ownership and responsibility on the part of students, who
may be more thoughtful in content and structure if they know they write for a real reader.
Disadvantages of Blog. Despite the advantages, blog also bring some disadvantages.
Tseng (2008) found that the first disadvantage of using blog is teachers’ workload when
making correction. Students can post a lot of messages or comments on blogs. It increases
teachers’ workload to correct all the students writing. Tseng continued that blog is a place for
students to express thoughts and comments. It is also a place that everyone can browse. Some
students post diaries, personal information, photos and they could carelessly leak private
matters to the public. Furthermore, blogs are publicly accessible. There is no limitation or
restriction to block those who intentionally leave inappropriate and annoying messages.
Research done by Tseng (2008) found that some students might be lazy to post
something on their blogs. Some of them just copy and paste something like articles or
journals from other resources. Copy paste people’s work on your blog without any qoutation
is a kind of plagiarism. Plagiarism make students uncreative, lazy to work by themselves.
Sweeny (2010) as cited in Yunus et al (2013) added that the concerns of teachers who used
technology like blog is that students will not take the work seriously.
Moreover, blogs is universal and everyone can write and read articles on blog easily.
People can post any articles on their blogs including articles with adult content. And it is
makes risk for students to read unappropriated articles. Ward (2004) as cited in Yunus et al
(2013) stated that students could be exposed to a variety of reading materials and genres of
writing, there is a danger that the reading skills that are developed from scrolling the
computer screen lead to an accelerated but superficial, and often inaccurate, understanding of
the content students can read in some blogs.
Review of Related Study
There are some researcher that has been studied about blog and ICT. Moreover, this
research is little bit different with previous research. This part will explain the previous
research.
The first research has been done by Pinkman (2005). The aimed of this research is
motivating students to take advantages of authentic environments outside the classroom in
order practice language skills and communicate with others. This study seeks to determine
the usefulness of using blogs in the foreign language classroom, and to assist foreign
language professionals interested in developing learner independence in their own learners by
using this relatively new computer-based learning forum. Pinkman used questionnaires and
interviews to collect the data. The findings of the research suggested that learner-perceived
benefits of using blogs included increased interest and motivation to use English because of
interaction with, and feedback from, classmates and teachers. Although the project helped to
improve reading and writing skills, some learners were more interested in developing oral
communication skills not in the blog project.
Second, research done by Hossain and Quinn (2012). This research explored student
perceptions of a twelve week blogging activity that became a standard component of a
college Euclidean Geometry class offered in a university in the Western United States. This
research used qualitative research and focused on students’ perceptions on the advantages and
disadvantages of using blogs as supportive tool in the Euclidean Geometry course. Data were
collected by open-ended interview. This research applied ten themes related to advantages
and six themes related to disadvantages of using blogging activity as a supportive tool for
teaching and learning in this class. The result showed that there is an unconnected aspect of
an overall phenomenon.
Third, research done by Youssef and Dahmani (2008). The purpose of this research is
to examine the relationship between the use of information and communication technologies
(ICT) and student performance in higher education. So far, economic research has failed to
provide a clear consensus on the effect of ICT investments on student’s achievement. The
research aimed to summarize the main findings of the literature and to give two
complementary explanations. The first explanation focused on the indirect effects of ICT on
standard explanatory factors. Since a student’s performance is mainly explained by a
student’s characteristics, educational environment and teachers’ characteristics, ICT may
have an impact on these determinants and consequently the outcome of education. The
differences observed in students’ performance are thus more related to the differentiated
impact of ICT on standard explanatory factors. The second hypothesis supports the using of
ICT in the organization of higher education. While ICT equipment are growing very fast in
the European Union, but the adoption of complementary organizational designs is slow.
This research is different from previous research. What makes this research different is
from the focused of this research. This research focused on students’ perception on blogging
activity at ICT Online Class. This research did not measure the impact or the influences of
blogs with other variables. Then, this research did not focus on improving particular
variables. Therefore, this research collected the data only from students who have joined in
ICT Online Class and they have learnt about blogging at EED UMY.
Conceptual Framework
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) refer to technological tools and
resources which are used to communicate, create and manage information. ICT including
computer workstation,software, hardware, internet and social networks. There are some
examples of ICT tools such as radio, televison, computer, podcast and blog. Hence, one of the
example of ICT tools which are used in teaching and learning process is blog. This is caused
by blogs are easy to be accessed. Moreover, blog is technological tools which are used to
share feelings, ideas, stories, experiences, photos or videos based on internet connectivity.
Although, blog is used on a classroom almost in all universities arroud the world, blog
also has advantages and disadvatagesw for students. The advantages of using blog in
classroom are blog can promote critical and analytical thinking and blogs provide students a
place where they can practice their written English with students who come from others city
without leaving the classroom. Then, blogs also provide students an opportunity to learn by
themselves. Besides that advantages, blogs also bring some disadvantages for students.
Plagiarism is one of the disadvantages of blog. Students will not take the work seriously and
they just copy paste from other resources. Then, others disadvantages is blog is free to access
by everyone, and it is makes a possible access for students to found unapproprited articles on
the blog.
In addition, the researcher has assumption that the implementation of blogging
activity in ICT online class at EED UMY gives some benefits for students, especially in
increasing students’ writing skills and improving the implementation of autonomous learner.
Therefore, there were some problems faced by the students during blogging activity.
Chapter Three
Research Methodology
This chapter discusses research methodology which is used by researcher. The first
part talks about design of this research. Then, the next part explains research setting and
participants of the research. In the last, this chapter discusses data collection method to gather
the data. Moreover, data analysis was also present in this chapter.
Research Design
This research used qualitative method. This was caused the researcher wanted to
assess students’ perception on blogging activities in ICT Class at English Education
Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Creswell (2014) stated that qualitative
research collect data themselves through examining documents, observing behavior, or
interviewing participants. Then, assesing students’ perception means that the researcher
wanted to know the opinions of the students. So, the researcher did some interview to got
students’ opinion.
The type of research used in this research was descriptive qualitative. Lambert &
Lambert (2012) cited in Karlinawati (2015) stateda descriptive qualitative approach was
needed when a direct description of a phenomenon was desired. It was an approach that was
very useful when the researcher wanted to know, regarding events, who were involved, what
was involved, and where did things take place. Hence, this research based on the phenomena
which researcher faced in real life of students at EED UMY. Therefore, the purpose of this
research is to know about students perception on blogging activity in ICT online class. So,
accordance with the statements above the descriptive qualitative was applicable for this
research
Research Setting
Creswell (2014) explained that qualitative research tends to collect data in the field at
the site where participants experience the issue or problem under situation. In this research,
the site where participants of the experience on blogging activities is EED of UMY. Based on
Creswell’s statement, the researchers chose EED as the setting are first, the researcher is also
studying in UMY, so it was easier to gather the data. The main reason is the phenomena on
blogging activity were faced in English Education Department of UMY. The other reasons
were EED UMY had ICT Online class as one of subjects that students should take in third
semester. Moreover, in ICT online class students learned about blogging. And, the researcher
conducted the interview to collect the data in April 2016 (1-30 April 2016).
Research Participants
The participants of this research were the students of English Education Department
of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The batches that ever got ICT Online Class at
EED UMY are batch 2014, batch 2013, batch 2012, batch 2011 and batch 2010. Although,
there are five batches that had been got ICT Online Class, the researcher chose batches 2014,
2013 and 2012 only. The researcher chose those batches because students in those batches are
still studying in EED UMY. Then, it is makes the reseacher easier to do interview for collect
the data.
In ICT Online Class, students learned about blog. This became great moment for
researcher to assess students’ perception on blogging activity in ICT Class at EED UMY. The
total participants of this research were six students from all batches who ever got ICT Online
Class. Six participants consisted of three female students and three male students. According
to Creswell (2012) who stated that in purposive sampling, researchers intentionally select
individuals and sites to learn or understand the central phenomenon. Moreover, the researcher
used purposive sampling to choose the participants because the researcher wants to choose
the participants based on the criteria or type that researcher wants. And, this research used
GPA (Grade Point Average) as the criteria or type.
In purposive sampling also referred to as judge to be typical, or representative, were
chosen from the population (Cohen, Manion, & Marrison, 2011). The six participants on this
research were chosen based on GPA (Grade Point Average). Robert (2003) as cited in
Awaliyah (2015) defined GPA as the average grade obtained by dividing the total quality
points earned by the total quality hours for courses. Awaliyah continued that the academic
guideline book of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Chapter Two about Education and
Teaching determined the classification of bachelor students’ GPA into three levels. They are
excellent/ Cumlaude: 3.51 – above, good : 2.76 – 3.50 and satisfying : 2.00 – 2.75 (Awaliyah,
2015).
The researcher divided the participants into 3 categories. The first participant was two
students who got exellent GPA. The second participant was two students who were clasified
in good categorization. The last one was two students with satisfying GPA. The researcher
chose participants based on the three different categories in GPA and different gender
because the reseacher wanted to get varied data. The researcher categorized students into
cumlaude, good and satisfying based on the classification of bachelor students’ GPA of
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Data Collection Method
Researcher used interview to collect the data. Data were collected by using face to
face interview or telephone interview. Creswell (2014) stated that the researcher conducts
face to face interviews with participants, telephone interviews or engages in focus group
interview with six to eight interviewees. The interview contained of open-ended question to
elicit views and opinion from the participants. The researcher recorded the interview process
to help the researcher in make interview transcripts. This was open ended interview. For the
first time, the researcher asked about general question as the opening. Then, it continued to
specific questions. The researcher asked some elicit question about the participant’s opinion
on blogging activities in ICT Class at EED UMY and it was continued by some question
about the obstacles that students faced during blog activities. The interview process used
Indonesian language.
Data Analysis
Data analysis is an important phase in conducting the research. LeCompte and
Schensul (199) in Karlinawati (2015) stated that the data was analyzed as soon as possible
after the data have been collected, both while the researcher was still in the field, and later,
when the researcher was no longer in the field. The first step in data analysis collected the
data by using interview. Second, all data was transcribed from recording into writing
transcrips. Third, after the transcript was done, the researcher ask the participants to check the
transcription, this step known as member checking. Member checking is important to check
validity of the interview transcript. In member checking, the participants checked the result of
interview and clarify or add something which was needed. The fourth step is coding.
Bohm (2004) described that in coding researchers use their background knowledge
about the context of the textual passage being investigated and, in general terms,
their knowledge about the area of investigation. The result of the work is an
interpretative text which adheres to analytical thinking about the phenomenon and
which often contains questions about how the phenomenon might be further
investigated (p.271).
Coding was done by three steps. The first step was open coding. Bohm (2004) stated
open coding is an expanding procedure in the sense that considerable quantities of
interpretative text can be added to a small segment of an original text. The researchers made
coding based on the transcript. In open coding, the researcher made code the transcribing by
giving sign for information that is important from the participants. In open coding,the
researcher made some table. There were two columns in the table, the left and the right side.
In the left side was the dialog transcription between the researcher and the participants and
the right column for open coding. The researcher gives code “R” that refers to “Respondent
(participant)”.
The second step was axial coding. Cohen et al (2011) stated that axial coding is a
category label ascribed to a group of open codes whose referents (the phenomena being
described) as similar in the. In axial coding, the researcher should categorize the information
from the result of open coding. Then, researcher divided the result based on the research
question.
The third step of coding was selective coding. According to Strauss (1990) as cited in
Cohen et al (2011) it is the process of identifying the core category in a text that central
around which all the categories identified and created are integrated. In selective coding,
researcher had to shorten the information from axial coding. This steps selected the
information from the participants that has similarity. The researcher should analyze and
categorize the data into two part, where each part contained some information that relate to
answer the research questions.
Chapter Four
Findings and Discussions
This chapter presents the result of the study. Finding and discussions report several
information that was gotten from the interviews. This chapter report and discuss some
information about students’ perception on blogging activity in English Education Department
of UMY. The first part of this chapter explain about the students perception on the
advantages on blogging activity at EED UMY. The second part of this chapter reports the
obstacles that students faced on blogging activity during ICT online class at EED UMY.
Students’ Perception toward the advantages of blogging activity in ICT online class at
English Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Based on the interview, the researcher got students’ perception about blogging
activity that was implemented in ICT online class at English Education Department UMY.
The first is students’ perception toward the advantages of blogging activity. Based on the
result of interview, there are five advantages that students got during the blogging activity.
Finding 1: Blogging increases students’ writing skills. Based on the result of
interview, blogging activity increases students’ writing. There are four students stated that
blogging activity increased their writing skills.
“My writing skill is not good before I write in blog mbak, but my writing skill has
increased after getting feedback from reader. Through feedback, I learn more about how to
write in a good sentence. Besides that, I make sure that grammar is right and acquire some
vocabularies.” (R2.13)
“…if we talk about the effectiveness for writing skill, this really helps. We practice to
write in blog.” (R3.2)
“Blog has benefits especially in writing skill mbak. When there is writing assignment,
I can write more than before. I got some benefits in writing like increasing vocabularies and
also improving grammar. When I have to write, I have a lot of vocabularies to be used so that
this will be better. Grammar is different because I got improvement in how to write in a good
structure.”(R6.12)
“...there is benefit of blog mbak, blog increase my ability more than before I use
blog.” (R4.6)
The statements indicated that blogging can help students to improve students
vocabulary and grammar mastery. Blogging does not only improve vocabulary and grammar
mastery, but also students mastering on structure in English literacy. The statements are in
line with Zhang (2009) who stated that writting blogs offers students ways to improve their
writting skills and encounter new ideas though interaction with other students. Moreover,
Aydin (2014) added that using blogs has significant effects on developing rhetorical
strategies, improving grammar, designing paragraphs and essays, revising written works,
giving and receiving feedback and participating in peer reviews.
It can be concluded that some students agreed that blogging activity increases
students’ writing skills. Students who agreed reported that their number of vocabulary
increased because they should write some articles. Besides vocabulary, their articles should
have grammatical correct. When students post some articles on blog they will get feedback
for grammatical and increase their vocabulary. Vocabulary and grammar mastery are
important aspects on writing in English teaching and learning.
Finding 2: Blogging improves students’ creativity. Based on the interview, the
second advantages of blogging activity is blogging improves students’ creativity. Creative
means able to make something new or make some innovation. In this research, creative
means that students able to make articles with different topics or ideas. In blogging activity
that held in EED UMY students were required to post some articles frequently in their blogs.
They should post new article with different topics in each week on their blog. Based on the
interview process, there were two participants who stated that blogging can improve their
creativity.
“I really like it mbak, because we will be more creative, write our ideas to be posted
in blog. We can know about technology then our creativity increased.” (R2.2)
“…then we will be more creative because we should posts some articles to increase
visitor.” (R6.13)
The statements above showed that students at EED UMY agreed that blogging
activity help them to improves creativity because they need to think about articles with
different topic on every weeks. Drexler, Dwason and Fredig (2007) stated that blog be a
powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking. The statement is in line
with perception of students who stated that students’creativity incerased by writing articles on
blog because they need think about the topics.
Finding 3: Blogging improves students’ knowledge.The third advantages of
blogging activity for students is blogging helped students to improve their knowledge. There
were two participants who stated that blog can improve their knowledge.
“…through blog, we can learn outside the classroom and also share ideas with
another. We can also increase our knowledge by reading another blog. We can read both
article and journal to get another insight.” (R2.8)
“We add some new knowledge from that. For example, if we have problem in
vocabularies, we can read blog which explain about vocabularies, there are a lot.” (R3.3)
It means that students shared their feelings and ideas on their blogs. Blogging also
help students to improve their knowledge by reading articles from another blog. The
perception of participants are in line with Drexler et al (2007) who stated that blogs are a
constructivist tool for learning where participants construct knowledge, share ideas, and build
upon each other’s work. The statements indicated that students of EED UMY agreed of
blogging activity can improve their knowledge. Students shared their opinion and ideas on
the blogs.
Finding 4: Feedbacks in the blog motivate students in maintaing the blog. Fourth,
the others advantages of blogging is students feel motivated because they were given
feedback on their blog. Feedback or comment is an important aspect on blogging. Moreover,
the students gave big attention on comments from others who read their blog. Giving
comments mean that the readers gave feedback for what they have written. Based on the
interview, some participants said that:
“I love when my work is useful for other. My work can be read by other people, I
really thank for that moreover when they give me positive feedback. When there are a lot of
people who read my blog, I feel really happy. They will evaluate what I post through
feedback given. (R2.9)
This indicated that feedback or comments from other give big influences for
participants in blogging activity. The feedback give the participants constructive thoughts to
improve the blog. Getting feedback from others learners makes students of EED UMY aware
that they needed to upgrade their blogs. This statement is in line with Drexler et al (2007)
who stated that constructive feedback helped the learners organize their thoughts, refine the
writing details and take a pride on blogging.
According to Drexler et al statement, students enjoyed the positive comments from
others learners which was left on their blogs. Students felt that the reader appreciated their
writing when the readers left comment on the blog. This is the following statement.
“…when I posted some articles on the blog, and people read and quoted my
statements, I felt that they appreciated my works” (R2.12).
Moreover, there is some participant who stated that feedback from readers motivate
them in maitaining the blog. This is the following statement.
“When I did blogging seriously and there are a lot of visitors read my blog, so I could
got money from blogging. I felt motivated and enthusiasm to maintaing my blog” (R6.18)
Pinkman (2005) argued that comment on blog makes the project communicative,
interactive, and interesting. This can be concluded that students agreed about getting
feedback such as comments, opinions or suggestion on the blog was impressive for students
and also motivated them to improve their blog. Futhermore, commenting encoursges students
to frequently check their blog.
Finding 5: Blogging motivates students to be an autonomous learner. The fifth
advantages is blogging motivated students to be an autonomous learner. There were two
participants who stated that blogging activity help them to become an autonomous learners.
“That is good to develop autonomous learning mbak, because through blog our
autonomous learning skill increased indirectly, we become independent in learning. In other
word, we find anything by our self then improving our skill.” (R2.6)
“When talking about independent in learning, blog can be one of examples because
through blog we should push our self to improve. Lecturers give general explanation then we
should make it by our self. We should find anything related to this so that we can develop
blog. We are pushed to be an autonomous learner.” (R5.2)
Blogging activity in ICT online class at EED UMY, students had chance to take an
active role in their learning process. In blogging activity, students became a centre of
learning. Leacturer as a fasilitator helped students when they faced a problems. This
statement is accordance with Lee (2011) who said that blogging suported self-directed
learning, as they individually and socially constructed meanings to develop their intercultural
knowledge and skills. Lee added that students perceived that contributing to different types of
blogs empowered them to become autonomous learners, as they made the informed choice of
being self-regulated by working individually and collaboratively with others. The statements
above showed that students at EED UMY agreed that blogging activity promoted learner
autonomy through self-regulation and self-management.
Students’ perception toward the obstacles on blogging activity in ICT online class at
English Education Department UMY.
Based on the interview, students of English Education Department UMY faced some
obstacles during the blogging activity. The obstacles which was faced by students during the
ICT online class are connetivity, finding ideas, vocabulary and grammar mastery. The finding
and discussion had been described those obstacles in detail here.
Finding 1 : Bad connectivity obstruct students in posting on blog. In blogging
activity, students should connect with internet when they wanted to post articles, journals,
photos or videos on blog. Moreover, students needed high connectivity to make a post on the
blog, but students faced bad connetivity when they connect with internet. These are following
statatements of students.
“…besides that, the connectivity to internet is poor connectivity.” (R1.16)
“I think internet speed mbak, when internet has high speed, we will have more spirit
in writing blog. However I live in rural areas as we know that internet speed is poor so that I
posted blog late. That internet speed gives effect for productivity in posting blog.” (R2.14)
“Poor internet speed becomes the obstacle. When I want to post videos then it will be
fail because o
CLASS AT ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITAS
MUHAMMADYAH YOGYAKARTA
A Skripsi
Submitted to Faculty of Language Education
As a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
For the Degree
Sarjana Pendidikan
By :
Anggun Selfiani
20120540116
Department of English Education
Faculty of Language Education
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta
2016
Chapter One
Introduction
This chapter consists of several parts. The first part is background of the study. The
second part is statement of the problem. Then, it is followed by limitation of the problem,
formulation of the problem, purpose of the study and the last part is significance of the study.
Background of the Research
Blog becomes a common resource today. Based on the researcher’s experience during
the class, students of EED UMY commonly used blog to help them finish the assignment.
Students used blog as their resources rather than book. This is caused by blogs are easy to be
accessed.
Everyone can make their blog and write any information on blog. A blog is personal
or professional journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public
consumption on the internet (Zhang, 2009). Blogging becomes very popular especially for
young people. Blogs are easy to be used and simple websites where people can quickly write
thoughts, interact with others, get feedback and post photo (Brown, 2007). People do not
need special competences to use and maintain their blog. They just need to connect with
internet for blogging.
Blogging activity has correlation with ICT because both of them are related to each
other. Blogs are some tools used in ICT-based class. Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) refer to technological tools and resources which are used to
communicate, create, disseminate and manage information (Yunus, Nordin, Salehi, Sun,
Embi, 2013). ICT tools include radio, television, computers, internet, and social networks.
Using ICT tools such as blogs can motivate both learners and teachers in exploring and
maximizing the use of technology and internet.
English Education Department UMY has ICT subject. There are ICT offline subject,
ICT online subject and ICT in Education. English Education Department of UMY wants to
maximize the use of technology in classroom used ICT-based class. It is in line with Cheng
(2010) as cited in Tagoe (2012) who found that rapid development of information,
communication and technologies (ICT) and Web-based application already developed in
universities all around the world. Nunan (1999) in Restuti (2008) added that access to the
internet also brings the world into the classroom. Moreover Philips and Vallance (2004)
argued that ICT plays positive role in the language teaching.
The researcher focused on ICT Online subject because the researcher found some
phenomena based on the experiences. Therefore, this research focused on blogging activities
held in ICT Online subject. Blogs is one of features in ICT that frequently used in EED UMY
rather than radio or podcast. Moreover, ICT Online subject consisted of blogging, operating
the blogs and maintaining the blog. Maintaining the blogs means that students frequently post
something in their blogs such as articles, diaries, journals and photos. Students should reply
any comments on their blogs. In ICT online class that held in EED UMY, students focused on
maintaining their blog during the semester then students get the score based on their blogging
activities.
In the beginning of the class, the lecturer gives an explaination about the rules in ICT
Online class and also explains about scoring system used. In ICT online class, students will
get more score when they post on their blogs often and also actively give any feedback when
people comment their blog. Students should be active in ICT online class for get higher score
in the end of the class. In the other hands, students get bad score if they do not post articles on
their blog.
Based on the reseacher’s experiences, there are two types of EED students in bloging
activities. The first type is students who post articles, diaries or photos in their blog only in
the class and they do not care about their blog outside the class. The second type is students
who maintain and manage their blogs seriously. They always post anything such as articles,
journals, diaries or photos in their blogs whenever they can. Some students will not care
anymore about the blog after the class end. They only make and manage the blog for score
only. They do not have any interest in blog activities.
In other side, some students interests in blogs activities. In spite of the ICT class
ended, they kept maintaining their blogs. However, just few students who still maintain their
blogs after the class end. Leaving their blog when the class ended is like a habit for English
Education Department students. These phenomena happen in all classes and all batches in
ICT Online class at English Education Department in UMY. Based on the phenomena above,
the researcher is interested in a study of students’ perception on the implementation of
blogging activities in ICT class at English Education Department Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Identification of the Problem
Based on the phenomena that have been explained in the background, the researcher
find some problems which are faced by students in blogging activities. The first problem is
classroom facilities who supported blogging activitiy such as connectivity. Second,
plagiarism is the common problems on English teaching and learning process. The third
problem is students’low motivation in posting articles on their blog. Students motivation and
plagiarism is related each other. Students with lack of motivation on blogging activity will
copy and paste articles or journals from other blogs without any citation. Moreover, students
with low motivation on blogging activity will leave their blog in the end of the class. And the
next problem is teachers communication skills. The way teachers or lecturers deliver the
materials during the class is important in helping students understand the materials. The other
problem is process of students in maintaining the blog. Then, the advantages issues of
blogging for students becomes some problems on blogging activity itself. Moreover,
grammar and vocabulary mastery in writing becomes a problem on blogging activity.
Limitation of the Problem
Besides those problems above, the researcher only focused on assesing students’
perception on blogging activity at English Education Department Universitas
Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The researcher limited the problems into two categories. First is
students’ perception toward the advantages of blogging activity in ICT online class at EED
UMY. Second is the obstacles that students faced on blogging activity at ICT online class.
Formulation of the Problem
There are two questions formulated from the limitation of the problems:
1. What are students’ perceptions toward the advantages of blogging activity in ICT
Online Class at EED of UMY?
2. What are students’ perception toward the obstacles of blogging activity in ICT
online class at EED UMY?
Purpose of the Study
Based on the formulation of the problem, the aims of this research are:
1. Exploring the students’ perception toward the advantages of blogging activity
which conducted in ICT Online Class.
2. Identifiying the obstacles that students faced during the blogging activity in ICT
online class.
Significance of Research
This research study can be beneficial for some parties such as the researcher, students,
and lecturers.
For the researcher. This research helps the researcher to understand the obstacles in
blogging activities. Then, by understanding the obstacles, researcher can think the solution to
solve and decrease the obstacles that occur on bloging activies in future.
For the students. The results of this research will give students understanding about
the benefit and obstacles that may students faced on blogging activities. Students can prepare
the solution to minimize the problems that they faced during blogging activity. Then, students
can get better experiences on blogging class, and it can help students to maximize the features
on their blog for better knowledge.
For the lecturers. This research encourages the lecturers of English Education
Department of UMY providing support for the students in blogging activity. Moreover, the
lectures analyzed the problem that students face and try to find the solution. Then lecturers
can improves blogging activities in ICT Online Class to be more interested than before. Then,
lecturers can rearrange classroom activities on blogging to increase students’ participation
during the class.
Chapter Two
Literature review
This chapter discusses several studies related to this research. The first part of this
chapter talks about some theories of perception. Second, researcher talks about Information
and Communication Technologies (ICT). Then, this part discusses the definition of blogs and
types of blogs in education. This part also discusses advantages and disadvantages of blogs.
In the last part of the chapter discusses review of related study and also the conceptual
framework of this research.
Perception
According to Robbins (2001), perception is a process by which individuals organize
and interpret their sensory impression in order to give meaning to their environment. Then,
Kreiter and Kinicki (1992) stated that perception is mental and cognitive process that enables
us to interpret and understand our surroundings. Based on the explanation above, perception
is a process of people to understand and observe the environment arround them. In other
words, perception is a cognitive process experienced by people in comprehending
information about the environment. Moreover, by using perception people can understand,
comprehend and be aware of something or someone else in their environment.
Futhermore, people have different perception and expectation about world, things,
places, methods, and environments. The personal perceptions are influenced by personal feel,
imagination and interpretation. According to Lahey (2009) stated that humans are aware of
the world because of they have a number of sense organs which enable humans to see, hear,
taste, smell, touch, balance and experience such feeling as body stiffness, soreness, fullness,
warmth, pleasure, pain, and movement.
In teaching and learning process, teachers should know about students’ perceptions.
Knowing students’ perception also help teacher or lecturer in preparing classroom activities.
While, the students’ perception of the classroom can help teacher to identify about what kind
of activities that effective and suitable to be applied in classroom. In line with theory by
Diamantes (2002) as cited in Fullerton and Guardino (2012) who found that students’
perceptions about the classroom environment can guide teachers in making environmental
improvements. Then, students provided valid information about their preferred and ideal
environment which helped the teachers in the classrooms. Knowing about students’
perception also helps teacher to engage students to participate actively in learning process. In
this research, perception refers to how students perceive about blogging activity in ICT
Online Class.
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
According to Yunus et al (2013) who stated that Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) cover a wide range of technologies. Toomey (2001) as cited in Restuti
(2008) added ICT refers to a range of Information and Communication Technology which is
including computer workstations, software and hardware. Toomey added that Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) generally relates to those technologies that are used
for accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting or communicating information. Based
on the statements above, it can be concluded that ICT refer to technological tools and
resources which are used to communicate, create and manage information. These
technologies include radio, television, computers, internet and social networks.
In the last decade, there has been a growing interest in using computers and internet to
improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning in all levels and in both educational and
non-educational settings (Saleh and Salehi, 2011). Old technologies such as radio, television,
and telephone are given less attention todays, however they a longer and richer background
as educational tools. Nowdays, teachers and the lecturer are used laptop that connect with
internet in teaching on the classroom. Using laptop who always connect with internet make
teachers or lecturer easier in teaching process. The lecturer can add others sample or
resources directly in classroom when it needed. It is related with theory by Yunus et al (2013)
who found that the integration of new ICT tools such as laptop, LCD projector, internet and
social networks in education is still in its infancy in comparison with the use of older
technologies such as radio and television.
The significant purpose in the teaching learning ICT is the increasing convergence of
computer-based, multimedia and communication technologies. And the main goal of
establishing the ICT- based class is preparing students to face future’s challenge. Umiyati
(2006) as cited in Restuti (2008) argued that students of the ICT based class can master
science and technology by using English competence. Students who mastering science and
technology has better chance in the future. According to Philips and Vallance (2004) who
stated ICT based class of the English language teaching is believed to be able to offer
individualized, active, and interactive learning experiences to large numbers of students,
solutions to the problem of an acceleration enrolment and higher demand for education.
Moreover, ICT has a positive role in the language teaching and learning. Students can
access the world in the classroom by using ICT. According to Carrington and Robinson
(2009) who said that today is time for our classrooms became places where digital and print
literacy come together to allow children opportunities to develop the skills and attitudes they
will need to navigate complex urban sites and social forms. Meanwhile, ICT based class offer
the students big opportunities to faced the world and improve their skills used technology.
Concept of Blog
Definition of Blog. The Oxford English dictionary of United Kingdom (2011) defined
that the noun blog as personal record that somebody puts on their website. Zhang (2009)
added that blog is some frequently updated website that consists of personal observations,
quotation from other sources and usually attach with hyperlinks from other sites as an online
journal or diary. Godwin (2003) cited in Zhang (2009) argued that blog is a web-based space
of writing where all the writing and editing information is managed through a web browser
and it is immediately and publicly available on the internet. Based on the statements above,
blog is a place for everyone to share their feelings, ideas, stories, experiences and photos.
People can use blog like their personal diary. In blog, people can write anything that they
want to write.
Moreover, Hossain and Quinn (2012) found that web 2.0 technology is a new
development of internet services available on the World Wide Web, allows internet users to
collaborate and shares web information actively. Blog is a standard example of Web 2.0
technologies. Therefore, Blog is an online journals and their content is depend on the feelings
of people who maintain blog. Blogs can be updated any time by using software that allows
users with little or no technical background to create, design, and maintain the blog.
Drexler, Dwason and Fredig (2007) described blogging is a vehicle for sharing
feelings and insight with the world without leaving the classroom. It can be concluded that
blogs are a constructivist tool for learning where participants construct knowledge, share
ideas, and build upon each other’s work. Blog can combines with text, images, links to other
blog, web pages and other media related to its topic.
Types of Blog in Education. According to Dudeney and Hockly (2007) who stated
that the most common type of blog is kept by one person, who will regularly post comments,
thoughts, analyses, experiences of daily life, interesting links, jokes or any other form of
content, to a web page. Then, Tseng (2008) argued that blogs can be used in various fields,
purposes, and function. In school context, educational blog are being used by more educators
and students. Blog that is used in education are known as edublogs. Futhermore, edublog
cover a wide range of topics related to education. Edublogs also focus on educational policy
and developments to learner compositions.
Campbell (2003) as stated in Tseng (2008) specifically points out three types of blog
used in EFL (English Foreign Laguage) classes. There are tutor blog, learner blog and class
blog.
The Tutor blog. Dudeney and Hockly (2007) stated blog set up and maintained by
teacher is known as tutor blog. In tutor blog, teachers can gives daily reading practice for
students and provides handouts of syllabus or some websites related to articles or journals
that students read. Moreover, this blog provides study tips, reviews class work and provides
extra links on specific topics such as pronunciation.
Campbell (2003) in Tseng (2008) stated that tutor blog can also encourage students to
give comments in tutor’s blogs or their classmate’s blogs, and do some online verbal
exchange. The teachers may decide to allow their learners to write comments in the blog. In a
tutor blog, teachers can ask students to read some journals and teacher should manage them
to make summary from that journal.
The learners’ blog. Blog who maintained by students known as learner blog. The
learners’ blogs can be used as journals for writing practices or for personal expression.
According to Campbell (2003) as cited in Tseng, (2008) who found that by students can
develop a sense of ownership that they master from their own blogs then they can gain the
experience of exchanging comments with their teacher or their classmate.
Afterwards, teachers may encourage students to set up and maintain their individual
blogs. Learner can be asked to post in their blogs once or twice a week or however often
teacher judges’ convenient, and content can range from comments on current affairs to
description of daily activities. Then, the other learners, from same class and from other
classes or even from classes in other countries can be encouraged to post comments and
reactions to students’ blog. Based on the statement above, learners has some opportunities to
comment the others students’ blogs and it is help students to develop their skills in giving
opinion about something.
The Class Blog. According to Campbell (2003) as cited in Tseng (2008) found that
students can join access and publishing rights to create and maintain their class blogs.
Teacher can decide to use a blog provide their learners with news and comments on issues,
extra reading practice or homework, online links, a summary of a class for learners who were
unable to attend and study tips. In the class blog, learners will access and read and possibly
add comments to the blog outside the classroom.
Advantages of Blog. According toTseng (2008) provided that web is a familiar piece
of the educational landscape, and for those sites where personal publishing or chronological
ordered content would be useful, blogs have stepped to the fore. However, blogs are
innovative tools that require learners to interact one another. It is not only having interaction
with computer but also having interaction with people.
Pinkman (2004) argued that blogging takes more communicative role than others
computers assisted language learning (CALL) tools. Pinkman continued that blogging and
CALL can not replace face-to-face interaction, but blog provide a practice environment
where students can think, reflect, and create language slowly for a real-life audience. Drexler,
Dawson and Fredig (2007) found that blogging can promote critical and analytical thinking.
Blog can lead to creative, intuitive, associational thinking and also analogical thinking. Blog
is the best combination of solitary reflection and social interaction. Blogs provide a realworld tool for learners with which to practice their written English as well as a way
contacting learners from other parts of the world. In line with theory by Zhang (2009) who
said studies that have been published include effect on learner autonomy, increasing writing
fluency, as a place for completing writing assignments, posting class materials, and as a way
to open communication with bloggers outside the classroom. Moreover, Zhang continued that
blog appears to enrich the learning experience and provide an opportunity for learners to
learn by themselves, such as blog as a learning journal is a way of documenting learning and
collecting information for self-analysis and reflection. It helps students’ nurturance a habit to
study from surface to deep.
Stanley (2005) in Zhang (2009) argued that there are numerous reasons for using
blogs in education, namely provide a real audience for student writing, to provide extra
reading practice for students, to increase the sense of community in a class, to encourage
students to participate, and to create an online portfolio of student written work. Blogs are
well suited to serve as online personal journals for students, particularly since they normally
enable uploading and linking of files. Language learners could use a personal blog, linked to
a course, as an electronic portfolio, showing development over time. Hossain and Quinn
(2012) stated that student has the possibility of writing for readers beyond classmates which
is not usually possible to be talked in discussion forums by publishing it on the blog. Readers
can give comment on what they read, although blogs can be placed in secured environments
as well. Self-publishing encourages ownership and responsibility on the part of students, who
may be more thoughtful in content and structure if they know they write for a real reader.
Disadvantages of Blog. Despite the advantages, blog also bring some disadvantages.
Tseng (2008) found that the first disadvantage of using blog is teachers’ workload when
making correction. Students can post a lot of messages or comments on blogs. It increases
teachers’ workload to correct all the students writing. Tseng continued that blog is a place for
students to express thoughts and comments. It is also a place that everyone can browse. Some
students post diaries, personal information, photos and they could carelessly leak private
matters to the public. Furthermore, blogs are publicly accessible. There is no limitation or
restriction to block those who intentionally leave inappropriate and annoying messages.
Research done by Tseng (2008) found that some students might be lazy to post
something on their blogs. Some of them just copy and paste something like articles or
journals from other resources. Copy paste people’s work on your blog without any qoutation
is a kind of plagiarism. Plagiarism make students uncreative, lazy to work by themselves.
Sweeny (2010) as cited in Yunus et al (2013) added that the concerns of teachers who used
technology like blog is that students will not take the work seriously.
Moreover, blogs is universal and everyone can write and read articles on blog easily.
People can post any articles on their blogs including articles with adult content. And it is
makes risk for students to read unappropriated articles. Ward (2004) as cited in Yunus et al
(2013) stated that students could be exposed to a variety of reading materials and genres of
writing, there is a danger that the reading skills that are developed from scrolling the
computer screen lead to an accelerated but superficial, and often inaccurate, understanding of
the content students can read in some blogs.
Review of Related Study
There are some researcher that has been studied about blog and ICT. Moreover, this
research is little bit different with previous research. This part will explain the previous
research.
The first research has been done by Pinkman (2005). The aimed of this research is
motivating students to take advantages of authentic environments outside the classroom in
order practice language skills and communicate with others. This study seeks to determine
the usefulness of using blogs in the foreign language classroom, and to assist foreign
language professionals interested in developing learner independence in their own learners by
using this relatively new computer-based learning forum. Pinkman used questionnaires and
interviews to collect the data. The findings of the research suggested that learner-perceived
benefits of using blogs included increased interest and motivation to use English because of
interaction with, and feedback from, classmates and teachers. Although the project helped to
improve reading and writing skills, some learners were more interested in developing oral
communication skills not in the blog project.
Second, research done by Hossain and Quinn (2012). This research explored student
perceptions of a twelve week blogging activity that became a standard component of a
college Euclidean Geometry class offered in a university in the Western United States. This
research used qualitative research and focused on students’ perceptions on the advantages and
disadvantages of using blogs as supportive tool in the Euclidean Geometry course. Data were
collected by open-ended interview. This research applied ten themes related to advantages
and six themes related to disadvantages of using blogging activity as a supportive tool for
teaching and learning in this class. The result showed that there is an unconnected aspect of
an overall phenomenon.
Third, research done by Youssef and Dahmani (2008). The purpose of this research is
to examine the relationship between the use of information and communication technologies
(ICT) and student performance in higher education. So far, economic research has failed to
provide a clear consensus on the effect of ICT investments on student’s achievement. The
research aimed to summarize the main findings of the literature and to give two
complementary explanations. The first explanation focused on the indirect effects of ICT on
standard explanatory factors. Since a student’s performance is mainly explained by a
student’s characteristics, educational environment and teachers’ characteristics, ICT may
have an impact on these determinants and consequently the outcome of education. The
differences observed in students’ performance are thus more related to the differentiated
impact of ICT on standard explanatory factors. The second hypothesis supports the using of
ICT in the organization of higher education. While ICT equipment are growing very fast in
the European Union, but the adoption of complementary organizational designs is slow.
This research is different from previous research. What makes this research different is
from the focused of this research. This research focused on students’ perception on blogging
activity at ICT Online Class. This research did not measure the impact or the influences of
blogs with other variables. Then, this research did not focus on improving particular
variables. Therefore, this research collected the data only from students who have joined in
ICT Online Class and they have learnt about blogging at EED UMY.
Conceptual Framework
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) refer to technological tools and
resources which are used to communicate, create and manage information. ICT including
computer workstation,software, hardware, internet and social networks. There are some
examples of ICT tools such as radio, televison, computer, podcast and blog. Hence, one of the
example of ICT tools which are used in teaching and learning process is blog. This is caused
by blogs are easy to be accessed. Moreover, blog is technological tools which are used to
share feelings, ideas, stories, experiences, photos or videos based on internet connectivity.
Although, blog is used on a classroom almost in all universities arroud the world, blog
also has advantages and disadvatagesw for students. The advantages of using blog in
classroom are blog can promote critical and analytical thinking and blogs provide students a
place where they can practice their written English with students who come from others city
without leaving the classroom. Then, blogs also provide students an opportunity to learn by
themselves. Besides that advantages, blogs also bring some disadvantages for students.
Plagiarism is one of the disadvantages of blog. Students will not take the work seriously and
they just copy paste from other resources. Then, others disadvantages is blog is free to access
by everyone, and it is makes a possible access for students to found unapproprited articles on
the blog.
In addition, the researcher has assumption that the implementation of blogging
activity in ICT online class at EED UMY gives some benefits for students, especially in
increasing students’ writing skills and improving the implementation of autonomous learner.
Therefore, there were some problems faced by the students during blogging activity.
Chapter Three
Research Methodology
This chapter discusses research methodology which is used by researcher. The first
part talks about design of this research. Then, the next part explains research setting and
participants of the research. In the last, this chapter discusses data collection method to gather
the data. Moreover, data analysis was also present in this chapter.
Research Design
This research used qualitative method. This was caused the researcher wanted to
assess students’ perception on blogging activities in ICT Class at English Education
Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. Creswell (2014) stated that qualitative
research collect data themselves through examining documents, observing behavior, or
interviewing participants. Then, assesing students’ perception means that the researcher
wanted to know the opinions of the students. So, the researcher did some interview to got
students’ opinion.
The type of research used in this research was descriptive qualitative. Lambert &
Lambert (2012) cited in Karlinawati (2015) stateda descriptive qualitative approach was
needed when a direct description of a phenomenon was desired. It was an approach that was
very useful when the researcher wanted to know, regarding events, who were involved, what
was involved, and where did things take place. Hence, this research based on the phenomena
which researcher faced in real life of students at EED UMY. Therefore, the purpose of this
research is to know about students perception on blogging activity in ICT online class. So,
accordance with the statements above the descriptive qualitative was applicable for this
research
Research Setting
Creswell (2014) explained that qualitative research tends to collect data in the field at
the site where participants experience the issue or problem under situation. In this research,
the site where participants of the experience on blogging activities is EED of UMY. Based on
Creswell’s statement, the researchers chose EED as the setting are first, the researcher is also
studying in UMY, so it was easier to gather the data. The main reason is the phenomena on
blogging activity were faced in English Education Department of UMY. The other reasons
were EED UMY had ICT Online class as one of subjects that students should take in third
semester. Moreover, in ICT online class students learned about blogging. And, the researcher
conducted the interview to collect the data in April 2016 (1-30 April 2016).
Research Participants
The participants of this research were the students of English Education Department
of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta. The batches that ever got ICT Online Class at
EED UMY are batch 2014, batch 2013, batch 2012, batch 2011 and batch 2010. Although,
there are five batches that had been got ICT Online Class, the researcher chose batches 2014,
2013 and 2012 only. The researcher chose those batches because students in those batches are
still studying in EED UMY. Then, it is makes the reseacher easier to do interview for collect
the data.
In ICT Online Class, students learned about blog. This became great moment for
researcher to assess students’ perception on blogging activity in ICT Class at EED UMY. The
total participants of this research were six students from all batches who ever got ICT Online
Class. Six participants consisted of three female students and three male students. According
to Creswell (2012) who stated that in purposive sampling, researchers intentionally select
individuals and sites to learn or understand the central phenomenon. Moreover, the researcher
used purposive sampling to choose the participants because the researcher wants to choose
the participants based on the criteria or type that researcher wants. And, this research used
GPA (Grade Point Average) as the criteria or type.
In purposive sampling also referred to as judge to be typical, or representative, were
chosen from the population (Cohen, Manion, & Marrison, 2011). The six participants on this
research were chosen based on GPA (Grade Point Average). Robert (2003) as cited in
Awaliyah (2015) defined GPA as the average grade obtained by dividing the total quality
points earned by the total quality hours for courses. Awaliyah continued that the academic
guideline book of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta Chapter Two about Education and
Teaching determined the classification of bachelor students’ GPA into three levels. They are
excellent/ Cumlaude: 3.51 – above, good : 2.76 – 3.50 and satisfying : 2.00 – 2.75 (Awaliyah,
2015).
The researcher divided the participants into 3 categories. The first participant was two
students who got exellent GPA. The second participant was two students who were clasified
in good categorization. The last one was two students with satisfying GPA. The researcher
chose participants based on the three different categories in GPA and different gender
because the reseacher wanted to get varied data. The researcher categorized students into
cumlaude, good and satisfying based on the classification of bachelor students’ GPA of
Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Data Collection Method
Researcher used interview to collect the data. Data were collected by using face to
face interview or telephone interview. Creswell (2014) stated that the researcher conducts
face to face interviews with participants, telephone interviews or engages in focus group
interview with six to eight interviewees. The interview contained of open-ended question to
elicit views and opinion from the participants. The researcher recorded the interview process
to help the researcher in make interview transcripts. This was open ended interview. For the
first time, the researcher asked about general question as the opening. Then, it continued to
specific questions. The researcher asked some elicit question about the participant’s opinion
on blogging activities in ICT Class at EED UMY and it was continued by some question
about the obstacles that students faced during blog activities. The interview process used
Indonesian language.
Data Analysis
Data analysis is an important phase in conducting the research. LeCompte and
Schensul (199) in Karlinawati (2015) stated that the data was analyzed as soon as possible
after the data have been collected, both while the researcher was still in the field, and later,
when the researcher was no longer in the field. The first step in data analysis collected the
data by using interview. Second, all data was transcribed from recording into writing
transcrips. Third, after the transcript was done, the researcher ask the participants to check the
transcription, this step known as member checking. Member checking is important to check
validity of the interview transcript. In member checking, the participants checked the result of
interview and clarify or add something which was needed. The fourth step is coding.
Bohm (2004) described that in coding researchers use their background knowledge
about the context of the textual passage being investigated and, in general terms,
their knowledge about the area of investigation. The result of the work is an
interpretative text which adheres to analytical thinking about the phenomenon and
which often contains questions about how the phenomenon might be further
investigated (p.271).
Coding was done by three steps. The first step was open coding. Bohm (2004) stated
open coding is an expanding procedure in the sense that considerable quantities of
interpretative text can be added to a small segment of an original text. The researchers made
coding based on the transcript. In open coding, the researcher made code the transcribing by
giving sign for information that is important from the participants. In open coding,the
researcher made some table. There were two columns in the table, the left and the right side.
In the left side was the dialog transcription between the researcher and the participants and
the right column for open coding. The researcher gives code “R” that refers to “Respondent
(participant)”.
The second step was axial coding. Cohen et al (2011) stated that axial coding is a
category label ascribed to a group of open codes whose referents (the phenomena being
described) as similar in the. In axial coding, the researcher should categorize the information
from the result of open coding. Then, researcher divided the result based on the research
question.
The third step of coding was selective coding. According to Strauss (1990) as cited in
Cohen et al (2011) it is the process of identifying the core category in a text that central
around which all the categories identified and created are integrated. In selective coding,
researcher had to shorten the information from axial coding. This steps selected the
information from the participants that has similarity. The researcher should analyze and
categorize the data into two part, where each part contained some information that relate to
answer the research questions.
Chapter Four
Findings and Discussions
This chapter presents the result of the study. Finding and discussions report several
information that was gotten from the interviews. This chapter report and discuss some
information about students’ perception on blogging activity in English Education Department
of UMY. The first part of this chapter explain about the students perception on the
advantages on blogging activity at EED UMY. The second part of this chapter reports the
obstacles that students faced on blogging activity during ICT online class at EED UMY.
Students’ Perception toward the advantages of blogging activity in ICT online class at
English Education Department Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Based on the interview, the researcher got students’ perception about blogging
activity that was implemented in ICT online class at English Education Department UMY.
The first is students’ perception toward the advantages of blogging activity. Based on the
result of interview, there are five advantages that students got during the blogging activity.
Finding 1: Blogging increases students’ writing skills. Based on the result of
interview, blogging activity increases students’ writing. There are four students stated that
blogging activity increased their writing skills.
“My writing skill is not good before I write in blog mbak, but my writing skill has
increased after getting feedback from reader. Through feedback, I learn more about how to
write in a good sentence. Besides that, I make sure that grammar is right and acquire some
vocabularies.” (R2.13)
“…if we talk about the effectiveness for writing skill, this really helps. We practice to
write in blog.” (R3.2)
“Blog has benefits especially in writing skill mbak. When there is writing assignment,
I can write more than before. I got some benefits in writing like increasing vocabularies and
also improving grammar. When I have to write, I have a lot of vocabularies to be used so that
this will be better. Grammar is different because I got improvement in how to write in a good
structure.”(R6.12)
“...there is benefit of blog mbak, blog increase my ability more than before I use
blog.” (R4.6)
The statements indicated that blogging can help students to improve students
vocabulary and grammar mastery. Blogging does not only improve vocabulary and grammar
mastery, but also students mastering on structure in English literacy. The statements are in
line with Zhang (2009) who stated that writting blogs offers students ways to improve their
writting skills and encounter new ideas though interaction with other students. Moreover,
Aydin (2014) added that using blogs has significant effects on developing rhetorical
strategies, improving grammar, designing paragraphs and essays, revising written works,
giving and receiving feedback and participating in peer reviews.
It can be concluded that some students agreed that blogging activity increases
students’ writing skills. Students who agreed reported that their number of vocabulary
increased because they should write some articles. Besides vocabulary, their articles should
have grammatical correct. When students post some articles on blog they will get feedback
for grammatical and increase their vocabulary. Vocabulary and grammar mastery are
important aspects on writing in English teaching and learning.
Finding 2: Blogging improves students’ creativity. Based on the interview, the
second advantages of blogging activity is blogging improves students’ creativity. Creative
means able to make something new or make some innovation. In this research, creative
means that students able to make articles with different topics or ideas. In blogging activity
that held in EED UMY students were required to post some articles frequently in their blogs.
They should post new article with different topics in each week on their blog. Based on the
interview process, there were two participants who stated that blogging can improve their
creativity.
“I really like it mbak, because we will be more creative, write our ideas to be posted
in blog. We can know about technology then our creativity increased.” (R2.2)
“…then we will be more creative because we should posts some articles to increase
visitor.” (R6.13)
The statements above showed that students at EED UMY agreed that blogging
activity help them to improves creativity because they need to think about articles with
different topic on every weeks. Drexler, Dwason and Fredig (2007) stated that blog be a
powerful promoter of creative, intuitive, and associational thinking. The statement is in line
with perception of students who stated that students’creativity incerased by writing articles on
blog because they need think about the topics.
Finding 3: Blogging improves students’ knowledge.The third advantages of
blogging activity for students is blogging helped students to improve their knowledge. There
were two participants who stated that blog can improve their knowledge.
“…through blog, we can learn outside the classroom and also share ideas with
another. We can also increase our knowledge by reading another blog. We can read both
article and journal to get another insight.” (R2.8)
“We add some new knowledge from that. For example, if we have problem in
vocabularies, we can read blog which explain about vocabularies, there are a lot.” (R3.3)
It means that students shared their feelings and ideas on their blogs. Blogging also
help students to improve their knowledge by reading articles from another blog. The
perception of participants are in line with Drexler et al (2007) who stated that blogs are a
constructivist tool for learning where participants construct knowledge, share ideas, and build
upon each other’s work. The statements indicated that students of EED UMY agreed of
blogging activity can improve their knowledge. Students shared their opinion and ideas on
the blogs.
Finding 4: Feedbacks in the blog motivate students in maintaing the blog. Fourth,
the others advantages of blogging is students feel motivated because they were given
feedback on their blog. Feedback or comment is an important aspect on blogging. Moreover,
the students gave big attention on comments from others who read their blog. Giving
comments mean that the readers gave feedback for what they have written. Based on the
interview, some participants said that:
“I love when my work is useful for other. My work can be read by other people, I
really thank for that moreover when they give me positive feedback. When there are a lot of
people who read my blog, I feel really happy. They will evaluate what I post through
feedback given. (R2.9)
This indicated that feedback or comments from other give big influences for
participants in blogging activity. The feedback give the participants constructive thoughts to
improve the blog. Getting feedback from others learners makes students of EED UMY aware
that they needed to upgrade their blogs. This statement is in line with Drexler et al (2007)
who stated that constructive feedback helped the learners organize their thoughts, refine the
writing details and take a pride on blogging.
According to Drexler et al statement, students enjoyed the positive comments from
others learners which was left on their blogs. Students felt that the reader appreciated their
writing when the readers left comment on the blog. This is the following statement.
“…when I posted some articles on the blog, and people read and quoted my
statements, I felt that they appreciated my works” (R2.12).
Moreover, there is some participant who stated that feedback from readers motivate
them in maitaining the blog. This is the following statement.
“When I did blogging seriously and there are a lot of visitors read my blog, so I could
got money from blogging. I felt motivated and enthusiasm to maintaing my blog” (R6.18)
Pinkman (2005) argued that comment on blog makes the project communicative,
interactive, and interesting. This can be concluded that students agreed about getting
feedback such as comments, opinions or suggestion on the blog was impressive for students
and also motivated them to improve their blog. Futhermore, commenting encoursges students
to frequently check their blog.
Finding 5: Blogging motivates students to be an autonomous learner. The fifth
advantages is blogging motivated students to be an autonomous learner. There were two
participants who stated that blogging activity help them to become an autonomous learners.
“That is good to develop autonomous learning mbak, because through blog our
autonomous learning skill increased indirectly, we become independent in learning. In other
word, we find anything by our self then improving our skill.” (R2.6)
“When talking about independent in learning, blog can be one of examples because
through blog we should push our self to improve. Lecturers give general explanation then we
should make it by our self. We should find anything related to this so that we can develop
blog. We are pushed to be an autonomous learner.” (R5.2)
Blogging activity in ICT online class at EED UMY, students had chance to take an
active role in their learning process. In blogging activity, students became a centre of
learning. Leacturer as a fasilitator helped students when they faced a problems. This
statement is accordance with Lee (2011) who said that blogging suported self-directed
learning, as they individually and socially constructed meanings to develop their intercultural
knowledge and skills. Lee added that students perceived that contributing to different types of
blogs empowered them to become autonomous learners, as they made the informed choice of
being self-regulated by working individually and collaboratively with others. The statements
above showed that students at EED UMY agreed that blogging activity promoted learner
autonomy through self-regulation and self-management.
Students’ perception toward the obstacles on blogging activity in ICT online class at
English Education Department UMY.
Based on the interview, students of English Education Department UMY faced some
obstacles during the blogging activity. The obstacles which was faced by students during the
ICT online class are connetivity, finding ideas, vocabulary and grammar mastery. The finding
and discussion had been described those obstacles in detail here.
Finding 1 : Bad connectivity obstruct students in posting on blog. In blogging
activity, students should connect with internet when they wanted to post articles, journals,
photos or videos on blog. Moreover, students needed high connectivity to make a post on the
blog, but students faced bad connetivity when they connect with internet. These are following
statatements of students.
“…besides that, the connectivity to internet is poor connectivity.” (R1.16)
“I think internet speed mbak, when internet has high speed, we will have more spirit
in writing blog. However I live in rural areas as we know that internet speed is poor so that I
posted blog late. That internet speed gives effect for productivity in posting blog.” (R2.14)
“Poor internet speed becomes the obstacle. When I want to post videos then it will be
fail because o