Digital Media for DIGITAL NATIVES

Reflective Journal II - TLL

Talking about digital media, there are always some characteristics inside it. I love digital media, so I have to know what are the characteristics of it. Reading the article of topic 4 in TLL Module, has let me know what are they. Text, images, audio, video, interactivity, software, feedback, wow! We still have a lot :) Those things are what we usually face in our daily activities. We need those great characteristics in the digital media! Remember, we are digital natives! We are easy to understand the use of technologies.

Then, what would technology be without those characteristics?

I believe, we will get bored! Absolutely.

We, as the digital natives have realized that we need media in order to communicate, to share our thought, our mind, our voice, ourselves!

I love the part of the module, which said 

Communication is at the heart of language teaching and learning.

Yeah! Using technology means it helps us to communicate to others.
It helps us in language teaching and learning *yuhuuu..
Technology is a magic which has come into my life, our life!

We can get lots of information easily.

We can interact to others easily.

We can get any feedback from others easily.

We can distribute any information to digital media easily (as well).

See? How great technologies are!

Sometimes I wonder that computer is smarter than me. I realized that one.

However, in many books I read, they always say human is much better than computer! The one who created computer is a human! Human is always able to learn about computer. Computer is only a smart machine. It is able to be broken (well, I don't want mine to get broken) LOL. 

Whether my computer is smarter than me or not. I love my computer. I am absolutely addicted! And you too #Let's keep it as a secret :)

The characteristics of digital media nowadays have let us get into a modern era.

The information of digital media nowadays is really flexible to be edited, to be used (software), to be mixed (images, video, audio), and even to be plagiarized as well. Hikz -____-"
Our position now as a learner, a teacher, and a digital native needs to make us realize that we have to do something right. It would be embarrassing, once you know that your status as a student is also as a plagiarist. Digital media has helped us a lot in our study, our work, our life!
Then why don't we be thankful and try to appreciate many things we have got?

Again, TECHNOLOGY IS A MAGIC.
It's about how you use it :)
 
Keep Moving Forward, Technology :D

Humanistic Studies – Knowing more about YOU!

Humanistic Studies - Individual Essay I

Once we heard the words of Humanistic Studies, I do believe all of us will think that we are going to study a lot about humans. Then, the next thing to think is have you ever thought why we should learn ‘more’ about humans when we all already know that we are the humans they mean?

One thing which I know very well about the reason of why should I learn Humanistic Studies is because I have a complicated reason, which I got from a roman ‘This Earth of Mankind’ (the best-seller book ever). Read this with all your heart and all your soul, then you’ll find the answer of that WHY?

Jangan anggap remeh si manusia, yang kelihatannya begitu sederhana; biar penglihatanmu setajam elang, pikiranmu setajam pisau cukur, perabaanmu lebih peka dari para dewa, pendengaran dapat menangkap musik dan ratap-tangis kehidupan; pengetahuanmu tentang manusia takkan bakal bisa kemput”  --Bumi Manusia, h. 119

See? Though we are the humans they mean in learning humanistic studies, we need to realize we still do not know about ourselves, or even other’s self. Humans (for me) are the most complicated object to be reasearched. Humans are great to change theirselves, their characters anytime and anywhere they want (meaning it’s us too!). Humans are amazing to adapt their physical environment into human environment (e.g. jungle becomes a city). Humans are the most wonderful creatures in the world, we are the winners which has been born and thank God we are still alive till today!

Well then, do you have any expectations by studying this challenging subject? What’s that?

If you want to know about mine, I myself personally wish a lot for sure! I believe Humanistic Studies will get me to be open-minded and I wish more! I realize by learning this subject I still cannot change the way others’ thinking about stereotyping, majority, minority, etc. That is others’ rights. What I have to do the most is I have to appreciate others more than before. The way I want to change my world is only by one thing, change my thinking first then I will get a new point of view about life. I am proud to be me, and I know you too.

People who live around us (for me) are the special creatures (ever). Whether we get pissed off with someone or get happy a lot because of them, it is a miracle from God. We cannot live only with some people who are the same with us. Never! Though we have the same color of skin, the same religion, the same ethnic, or anything we have to realize we are all actually different! We are all from the different DNA. We are all from the different family background. We all have different characters. Then? What life is about? It is not about the differences of us. It is about how we can appreciate each other to make a better life. Do you think so?

LET’S LEARN HUMANISTIC STUDIES!

ROCK IT!

Developing Self-Concept to Success in School

by Merry

Each student studies at school as a unique individual. There is tremendous interest to know more about their uniqueness by knowing their self-concept and self-esteem and also its impact in education today. “High self-esteem and a positive self-concept are important characteristics of children’s well being” (Donnellan, et al. 2006; Harter, 2006 in Santrock, 2008), but when we talk about academic achievement, self-concept is a better factor for being success at school. Marsh (1992) in Huitt (2009) showed that the relationship of self-concept to school achievement is very specific. It is time for the educators to pay attention with students’ self-concept to make them have a maximal school performance.

Most of all, we should be able to differ between self-esteem and self-concept of students. Santrock (2008) demonstrates that investigators sometimes use the terms self-esteem and self-concept interchangeably or do not precisely define them, but there is a meaningful difference between them. Self-concept is a cognitive or thinking aspect of our social, physical and academic competence. It refers to domain-specific evaluations of the self. It describes how good one is in math, language, science, etc. “Self-esteem is the affective or emotional aspect of self and generally refers to how we feel about or how we value ourselves (one's self-worth)” (Huitt, 2009). For example, a girl might perceive that she is not simply a person, but a very good person.

“The relationship of measures such as self-concept and self-esteem were only weakly correlated” (Hansford, et al. 1982 in Huitt, 2009). “In fact, there are only moderate correlations between school performance and self esteem, and these correlations do not suggest that high self esteem produces better school performance” (Baumeister & others, 2003 in Santrock 2008). Having high self-esteem will make the students have some positive things, but it also has some negative things for them. For instance, the positive things that it will happen are the students will feel confidence with themselves, they can express their opinions, and even they will have greater initiative. Whereas, the negative things that it will happen are they might have some positive perceptions in themselves but actually it is not match with the reality and they will give some excuses of their failures. This case represented by the title of a book, “Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can’t Read, Write, Or Add” (Skyes, 1995 in Santrock 2008).

A good school achievement is the result, which every family hopes from the children. Hamachek (1995) in Huitt (2009) asserts that self-concept and school achievement are related. Self-concept is the way to see ourselves and how people look at you and tell you what you are for them. This thing is more important to make students know the fact of them. It can be very specific on every subject that it has relatively strong relationship between self-concept and academic success.  

According to Chaika (1998) these are the ways for educators to improve students’ self-concept. First, in the beginning of year activity, asking students to do interview with someone who doesn’t already know well. Then they will interview each other. It will make the students get a new point of view from others. Second is accentuating the positive, breaking the class into groups, all the students in the group tell all the positive things they can about that person. Third is write yourself a letter. At the end of the school year, asking students to write themselves a letter and also the goals they would like to accomplish by this time next year. No one will read its letter besides themselves so they can write anything they want.

Education in today’s world has a big responsibility to make students have a maximal school performance. School is the place for students to study and develop their characters. Educators at all levels are under pressure to make students think more, learn faster, and hopefully become a better generation for the future. Developing students’ self-concept is one of the ways for making them to success in school.

References

Chaika, G. (1998). Ten Activities To Improve Students’ Self-Concepts. Retrieved January 18, 2011, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson085.shtml

Huitt, W. (2009). Self-concept and self-esteem. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved January 18, 2011, from http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/regsys/self.html

Santrock, J. W. (2008). Adolescence: Twelfth edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Santrock, J. W. (2008). Children: Tenth edition. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.