Tugas Pengganti CAR

Journal 1

The Effectiveness of Digital Storytelling in the

Classrooms: A Comprehensive Study

Storytelling, in general, is a powerful pedagogical approach that can be used to enhance learning outcomes for general, scientific and technical education (Sharda 2007). A digital story can be viewed as a merger between traditional storytelling and the use of multimedia technology (Normann 2011). Technological advances, such as digital cameras, editing software and authoring tools, have increased the use of technology in the classroom to help students in constructing their own knowledge and ideas to present and share them more effectively (Standley 2003). Normann defines digital storytelling as “a short story, only 2–3 minutes long, where the storyteller uses his own voice to tell his own story.

This research involves a multi-site case study of an Australian P-12 school, and explores the use of digital storytelling within the primary and secondary curriculum. In order to enhance the reliability and validity of the research, both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis were used. A rubric was used to collect quantitative data, while interviews and observation were used to collect qualitative data.

The results of this research indicate that digital storytelling can provide support to students with special needs, such as ESL and VCAL students. In addition, digital storytelling can help students to improve their confidence, and can contribute to better social and psychological skills.

Reference:

Smeda, N., Dakich, E., & Sharda, N. (2014). The Effectiveness of Digital Storytelling in the Classrooms: A Comprehensive Study. Smeda et al. Smart Learning Environments, 1(6), 1-21.

Journal 2

Taking Social Media to a University Classroom: Teaching and Learning Using Twitter and Blogs

According to Jones (2015:93), social media technologies such as blogs and Twitter are no longer only used for leisure. Menkhoff et al. (2014) find that among other benefits, Twitter enables students to have “a voice, to be more engaged and to interact more freely with both their peers and the instructor via knowledge sharing and twitter discussions”. Blogs are described by Wheeler (2010:106) as web tools that promote reflective learning while as wikis are meant for collaborative learning.

This study was inspired by various earlier studies (Barczyk & Duncan,2011:271; Jones, 2015:101; Menkhoff et al., 2014). The study incorporated Twitter and blogs into two undergraduate courses offered in the Department of Library and Information Science at Mzuzu University which is a public university in Malawi. Data were collected in two ways: first, analysis of blog and Twitter posts by students and second, a questionnaire was sent to 64 students to find out their perception towards the use of blogs and Twitter in a classroom environment.

The findings of this study are: (a) using Twitter the students were able to ask me any question anytime as long as they were connected to the Internet (b) using blogs, students could post their assignments anytime without being worried that they could find the lecturer’s office closed or, there was nothing like racing against the official working hours.

Reference:

Chawinga, W. D. (2017). Taking Social Media to a University Classroom: Teaching and Learning Using Twitter and Blogs. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(3), 1-19.

Journal 3

Supporting the Argumentative Writing of Students in Linguistically Diverse

Classrooms: An Action Research Study

Many English language arts (ELA) teachers may worry bout effectively delivering writing instruction to their ELLs while still meeting the needs of their proficient English-speaking students. Proficient writing is vital for success in school and in life beyond school. Teachers in today’s classrooms are expected to effectively deliver instruction to linguistically diverse students who may be proficient in English or are still learning English as a second language. Regardless of language proficiency, all students are expected to demonstrate competent writing across various genres and are held accountable to the same standards as proficient English-speaking students (Trumbull & Pacheco, 2005).

The study examined the effects of strategy-focused writing instruction on the argumentative essay-writing skills of 47 linguistically diverse seventh-grade students. The students received the strategy-focused writing instruction five days per week for 40 minutes over a 16-week period. The study used a one-group, pretest-posttest design with a within-subjects t-test (paired samples) to analyze the data and to answer research questions one and two

Analyses of the data revealed that students’ overall writing performance increased significantly from pretest to posttest. Students also made significant gains across the pre- and posttest period in the following two domains: (1) Evidence and Elaboration and (2) Conventions of Standard English, but not on the Purpose, Focus, and Organization domain.

Reference:

Campbell, Y. C., & Filimon, C. (2018). Supporting the Argumentative Writing of Students in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms: An Action Research Study. RMLE Online, 41(1), 1-10.