There are many social networking sites now, for example, facebook, twitter, glogster, kaskus, and wikispaces. Social networking sites can be accepted by decent among Indonesian people. According to statistical data from http://www.checkfacebook.com/, in 2010 Indonesia was the second country with the largest number of facebook user after United States, with a total of 31,858,700 facebook users. This data shows the interest of Indonesian people in using social networking sites for finding friends. Today, social networking sites not only used in business of looking for friendship, but social networking sites began to be used in education. Social networking sites are able to seize the attention of young people the majority of them are students. A variety of features available in social networking sites can be an effective media for learning.
We can take the example in http://www.wikispaces.com/ site, various features provided by the indigenous peoples used to support learning. In Wikispaces site, the admin can upload learning materials within the site. The materials presented not only in the form of text, but can also be a slide presentation, audio, and video. Admin can also share links as references that can be read by the readers to deepen their subject matter. This type of learning helps students to learn independently at any time without having to be forced. Without leaving the elements of collaborative and cooperative, on the discussion board feature, students can discuss on this site discussing the topic and find the solution of a problem via post comment and reply in order to deepen their understanding of the material being taught. Through this web 2.0-based site students can interact with the teacher at any time without having to hesitate, if they feel less understand to the material being taught in class. For teachers, this site can facilitate their work in teaching. Wikispaces has a feature where the files are posted by the admin can be systematically arranged, so students are not confused to access a file that can be downloaded every time.
Unfortunately, Wikispaces site is still rarely used in teaching in Indonesia. It is probably that the Indonesian people do not know this site and do not know how to use it. To optimize the use of social networking sites in learning, Facebook should be considered use in learning as a means to convey the subject matter. Keep in mind that Facebook is a popular site among students. Facebook has many features that can be used for learning, such as: Group fan page, chat, messages, links, photos, discussions, and even now there is Facebook mobile version that can be accessed via mobile phones either online directly or via SMS. As it can be more easily to access, Facebook will certainly be very helpful in conveying the material. Through facebook, teachers can create a group fanpage where all students can become members and facebook can serve as a forum for discussion on air without the need for meeting face interaction at all times. With the chat feature, both teacher and student can do online conference all the time, this chat feature can also be accessed via mobile phones with the help of supporting softwares, such; ebuddy, nimbuzz, etc
Teachers can share links that can connect with some other information sites such as blogs, news sites daily, magazines, and video sites. The majority of students now have mobile phones, of course it is easier for teachers to use facebook for learning. In this way, students can learn in a way that they enjoy doing with a tool that is a trend of among them.
The picture was retrieved from: http://speedtest.net/global.php#0
In indonesian context we still encountered many obstacles, from the picture above we can see how bad the quality of the Internet in Indonesia, which ranks 150th in the world with a speed of only 1.23 Mb / s. In optimizing e-learning by using the Internet social networking sites we need prime quality with the high speed internet. Of course, in using social networking it spends more bandwidth to access all the features available. With the quality of the Internet as it mention above, it will spend a lot of time when accessing social networking sites, either as user or admin we do not want lots of waiting and make the learning situation become boring.
Internet inability to reach isolated areas is also a drawback in the use of networking sites for learning. As we know that Indonesia consists of several islands, to the internet with the best quality can only be accessed in big cities, like Jakarta, which is equipped with HSDPA for internet facilities and internet broadband. The problems also become more complicated with teachers who have not been able to apply this system in their teaching, there are many teachers who have not literate with the technology. All these issues will certainly preclude the use of social networking sites in teaching in Indonesia. However, there is no harm if we want to try to apply this way of teaching us with all the limitations.
In indonesian context we still encountered many obstacles, from the picture above we can see how bad the quality of the Internet in Indonesia, which ranks 150th in the world with a speed of only 1.23 Mb / s. In optimizing e-learning by using the Internet social networking sites we need prime quality with the high speed internet. Of course, in using social networking it spends more bandwidth to access all the features available. With the quality of the Internet as it mention above, it will spend a lot of time when accessing social networking sites, either as user or admin we do not want lots of waiting and make the learning situation become boring.
Internet inability to reach isolated areas is also a drawback in the use of networking sites for learning. As we know that Indonesia consists of several islands, to the internet with the best quality can only be accessed in big cities, like Jakarta, which is equipped with HSDPA for internet facilities and internet broadband. The problems also become more complicated with teachers who have not been able to apply this system in their teaching, there are many teachers who have not literate with the technology. All these issues will certainly preclude the use of social networking sites in teaching in Indonesia. However, there is no harm if we want to try to apply this way of teaching us with all the limitations.
3 komentar:
Good writing kiss. Hmm yes, i agree wiki spaces is still rarely used by Indonesian teacher. I think it is also because the available design in this site is not too interesting and is very limited. So, the people who have already now probably are not interested shareing to share this usage.
I don't really agree with een's comment. every platform has limitation also in wiki. but in wiki we can use some feature to make the appearance good and catchy.
kiss you said that wiki unfamiliar in Inonesia and why don't we use facebook as a tool otherwise wiki.
the advantage of fb is now we can online fb by cell phone but for tools of learning fb have some crucial issue.
i think use fb is when we can not to find the other which better than fb as a learning tools.
thanks een, somehow we also need eyecatchy performance in wikis, right en?
that's wikis didn't give us in its platform. performance effects to our interest to use something...
btw, kaka ocha,, considering about using FB is very good now,
i think it shouldn't be the last way we can try it now. i also think it will also cause some new problem like our student will get busy on their narcism instead of our class discussion. however, it gonna be a new challenge for us as teacher, right?
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