Edmodo Writing Skills Definition of Terms
12 develop their writing skills
. If the students‟ goal towards learning descriptive text could not be achieved through Edmodo then the students would bring a bad
perception on it. However, if the students‟ goal towards learning writing descriptive text could be achieved through Edmodo then the students would bring
a good perception. Kleinke 1978 says that participants who have just experienced a positive
feeling of success are significantly more likely to help the person in need than participants whose immediate feelings are neutral p. 32. In other words, the
participants who have positive reaction will influence other people to have positive feeling. In addition, perception is also related to motivation. According to
Lai 2011, motivation involves a constellation of closely related beliefs, perceptions, values, interests, and actions p. 2. Based on that definition, it can be
concluded that students who have positive perception will have a high motivation in order to achieve the learning goals. It is proven by the data gained from the
interview and direct observation in this research p.90 that students are motivated to learn English when they are using Edmodo. Through Edmodo, they can
develop their writing proficiency by revising the writing products repeatedly after they got some suggestions and feedbacks. That is the way the researcher chose
Edmodo as a medium to teach writing. Hodgetts et al. 1985, p. 85 state that the way people see things depends
on how the available information is organized. It means that every person has different perception because he or she has availability to organize the information
13 that is received. Therefore, according to Hodgetts et al. 1985, p. 86 the process
of the perception is called perceptual process.
Figure 2.1 The Perceptual Process Source: Hodgetts et al., 1985, p. 86
Based on the perceptual process drawn in Figure 2.1 , the people‟s
individual sensors select data from the stimulus and allow people to interpret, or give meaning to the sensory message. The way people interpret or perceive this
information depends on several factors, including the clarity and familiarity of the stimuli, the physical characteristics blurry vision or poor hearing will distort the
massage or the stimuli, people ‟s need and value, knowledge, feeling, and past
experience. After the data are organized and interpreted, then people will give responses through them. In addition, Hodgetts et al. 1985, p. 86 state that, there
are number of factors inf luenced someone‟s perception. They are selection of
stimuli, organization of stimuli, the situation, and the person‟s self concept. a.
Selection of Stimuli The first factor is selection of stimuli. In the process of receiving all the
stimuli, people only focus on a small number. They do not catch all the stimuli that they have had at the same time. Therefore, they need to select them so that
behavioral response
perception, organization, and
interpretation of stimuli
stimuli s
ensors‟ selection
of stimuli
14 they can receive it well. The process of selecting the stimuli is known as
„selection‟. People usually select specific cues and then they filter or screen them. It is one of the reasons why people perceive things differently. Actually, people
have different threshold levels. Some people can write or read and still be able to follow the plot of a television program, whereas others cannot. Because there are
different threshold between people, the same person may have different threshold at different times Hodgetts et al., 1985, pp. 86-87.
b. Organization of Stimuli
The second factor influencing perception is organization. After information has undergone the screening process that is selected, it should be
arranged to be meaningful. The mind tries to bring order out of the chaotic onslaught of sensory data by selecting certain items and putting them together in a
meaningful way that is based on experience. The perceptual organization of information, then, helps people to
categorize sensory inputs. The central function of the categorization process is to reduce initially complex information into simpler categories. This categorization
occurs not only with objects but also with people. People take familiar cues and translate them into meaningful wholes Hodgetts et al., 1985, pp. 87-89.
c. The Situation
Another factor influencing perception is the situation. A person‟s familiarity with, or expectations about a situation, as well as his or her past
experience, affect what that person perceives. Perceiving a situation accurately is