94
management tool for students it exist to show progress on certain activities within a selected course, the progress bar is color coded to help students track their
progress or the completed activities and ordered by times or datelines in the course.
As mentioned before Lia sometimes have difficulties in time management when writing and in one of the MOODLE activities is the called the practice page
she gets to practice writing her text there on a limited time using the countdown plug in, usually for one hour. When finished, if she is satisfied with her work, she
can use that draft for her assignment or homework and submitted right away. It turns out that for Lia that it has been a great help for her since it accommodate her
learning styles that is preferred timed writing. Most of her assignments were the product of that practice page and apparently it helps Lia complete with her task by
making since it made her aware of the amount of study she had completed and consequently getting a better grade. I would see this as a way MOODLE to
accommodate ones learning style to improve writing skills.
4.2.5 Reducing academic procrastination
As mentioned before, writing 3 class integrates a form of technology namely MOODLE in classroom pedagogy and within this learning management
system it contains core material and supporting material. What makes it appealing to many students like Lia, was the many features that MOODLE offers such as
user friendly mechanics, similar layout, entertainment system, and even the ability to host video conference. These features are common throughout most of the
popular software available on electronic devices for instance the layout and the
95
mechanics resembles that of Yahoo or Facebook, the entertainment system is a plug in from YouTube, the mini games is available through the embed script
supported by MOODLE engine, while the video conference is supported by a special MOODLE plug in. The environment of MOODLE has enough features
and plug-in to approximate most popular websites or social networking sites making it difficult for students to ignore.
I think its visually exciting and very easy to use; its like riding a motorbike you dont have to think but just do it. Yes in some sense it makes
me wanna study sir. And also makes me attend the video conference as well, since I dont have to come to class to study with the lecturer. AL-
RED-AP-D33 Students are drawn into such visually exciting environment of MOODLE
and at the same time they are accessing the materials, this perception is owed to the idea that the many hours spent on non academic items can be infused with
academic items as well, this paradigm is a reflection of control in the concept of consciousness elaborated by Schmidt, where the participants not only had enough
knowledge of the learning model but accepting the learning model as part of daily routine Schmidt: 1990. The allotted time that she allows herself to be with so
many exemplars of text types was also increasing, she insisted. Again, one of the contributing factors was the introduction of internet in classroom pedagogy such
as MOODLE. I dont really know well sir, maybe yes. What I do feel is that whenever I
access the internet to update my status, I also open the website because I already bookmarked it. So I always thought to myself why not, you know
...what harm can it do to me? So yes..I opened the website and do some reading in between my activities in Facebook. Sometimes when Im waiting
for a reply from a friend I go the website, well at first its just for notifications or announcements or perhaps some messages from my
96
friends but you know it kinda inviting to do some reading or exercises. AL-RED-AP-D34
Maybe every hour I spent on Facebook, I spent twenty minutes doing some reading so... AL-RED-AP-D42
Most of the time I access the Internet I always look up the website since it has been bookmarked and it takes literally seconds so I do that. When Im
inside if not just checking notifications, I always look up the materials again just to refresh the memory or do some practices AL-RED-AP-D43
This insinuates that there is a will power to access education website such as MOODLE and actually gain better practice in writing text types. Lia like many
other student, is without a doubt in a way enslaved to technology like as if it was her personal drug. In her interview explicitly state that she would use any
kind of gadget whether it is her mobile phones, tablets, or laptops on a daily basis, not to mention accessing internet several times a day and at times the whole day
I usually spend five to six hours for accessing the internet but not consecutively ...yes laptops, iPhone, and my iPad AL-DRIV-ON-C35
I believe that her experience in terms of technology usage reflect that of most if not all of her classmates. Lias addiction towards technology has a flip side on the
coin. In other words, it could have a serious repercussion towards her life, which apparently has been experienced by Alina in some stage of her life.
Well, at that time, Im really addicted to Facebook, Twitter, and Ask.Fm so I forgot about my assignments and the final result was C...After that I
promise not to do it again, but its really hard to keep that promise. AL- RED-AP-D35
When designing MOODLE I am well aware of this issue and try to develop a mechanism to treat such addictions, apparently enough my hope was not in
despair. That is by approximating MOODLE design and mechanics towards
97
popular websites in the hopes of encouraging students with internet addiction to visit education websites such as MOODLE for study purposes as part of routine to
through the day. I think so, even though its not like that but still... hmm.. yeah I guess so. I
think that accessing internet has become an integral part of me but for accessing education website in a routine basis.. I think this is the first time.
I think so, the percentage maybe still high like 70 social networking and 30 for something else but its definitely going up. Its more like 35-40
now. AL-RED-AP-D30
MOODLE has done precisely that, to subconsciously reconstruct students perception and ultimately change their habit about social networking. Another
immediate effect of MOODLE was the change of attitude in the class. Lia is definitely not very active in class. She can speak fluently but lacking in
confidence when participating in writing class discussions in the first three meetings of the course. This is due to the lacking of knowledge in terms of writing
text types, admittedly. Well, speaking and writing? I think writing is more difficult, because of the
amount of rules that we have to follow other besides that generating ideas can be really difficult sometimes. AL-BEL-D10
After the third meeting of the course, MOODLE was in full effect and surprisingly she participates much better in classroom, responding to the question
given both teacher and classmates alike. Yeah, like they said, practice makes perfect. I think Im a little bit better
now in terms of joining the big discussion in class. If you asked me, I think I prefer the virtual class..hahaha AL-RED-AP-D16
This change of attitude is a direct consequence of being exposed to a more learning materials, by having more knowledge students will know what to say
98
rather than know how to say. She also underlines the contribution of video conference, where she regards it as a benchmark for future discussion in writing.
4.2.6 Role modeling
