The Use of Media in Teaching – Learning Process

Learning is a process to acquire knowledge. It needs hard work and sometimes will make students frustrated and get bored, so that they lose their attention to a lesson. In this case, the use of media in teaching- learning process is needed to attract students’ attention and to make teaching- learning activities more interesting and also effective. The use of media in teaching- learning process is not a new thing. Many teachers know that media will be helpful. Media give students something new, but not all of teachers know how to implement it correctly, so sometimes media disturb learning process instead of helping students in learning process. This situation causes a problem. The use of media is questioning whether it really helps teaching- learning activities or not. Based on that assumption, the writer wants to find out the fact of the use of media in teaching- learning process, whether media can help teaching- learning process or not. By reading this article, readers will get a real experience of the use of media, which can help learning process. Besides, they will also know some obstacles that may arise from the use of media, how to overcome them, and detail example of how to conduct teaching- learning process by using media, especially globe and map. This article will provide an interview of a teacher’s experience in implementing media for teaching social studies.

Media are the means for transferring or delivering messages. Li-Ling Kuo states that a medium is called the educational medium when the medium transfers message for teaching (Li-Ling. 1996). He adds that the use of media is important and it is impossible to coordinate teaching with learning without using media (Li- Ling.1996). Media are flexible because they can be used for all level of students and in all subjects. Teaching media also can encourage students to take more responsibility for and control over their own learning, engage in joint planning of the syllabus, and take longer-term perspectives on their own learning (Masterman. 1999). Since media give many advantages, a teacher should consider a medium to be used in teaching- learning process.

Two weeks ago, I interviewed Ida Yudiarini, S. Pd. who is a teacher in Springfield International Curriculum School, Semarang. The students of Springfield International Curriculum always use English as their language to communicate in school. Ida has been working here for two years as a class teacher of primary 2. In this class, there are six students and most of them are seven years old. Ida, who also teaches social studies, said that she is happy to teach primary 2 class because the students are very active and smart. They are always interested on every lesson, including social study, and always give good response. The students have good motivation to learn. It can be seen from their presence. They rarely do not come or come late to class. However, Ida said that teaching children needs more patience. “Sometimes, the students make me angry, but sometimes they also can make me laugh,” Ida said. Like any other children who like to play, the students of primary 2 class also do the same thing, especially when they get bored with the lesson. “When they are fatigue, in their mind only play and play, while the lesson has not finished yet,” Ida added. Besides, Ida admitted that getting students’ motivation would be hard if they are fatigue. In this case, she usually uses media to attract her students’ motivation back. “Basically, media are needed in teaching- learning process,” Ida said. According to her, teachers need to use media in teaching in order to make teaching- learning process more interesting.

Ida, who was preparing materials for teaching when I interviewed, defines media as teachers’ helper tool in conducting the teaching- learning process. In her opinion, media can be teachers’ best friend in teaching because they will help teachers to control students’ attention. However, the teacher has to choose the right media, Ida said. A medium itself must be meaningful. Similar to Li-Ling, what is meant by meaningful here is that medium should deliver the purpose of teaching.

Discussing about media, Ida shared her experience in teaching her students using media. Ida told me that she usually use media to teach social studies. “I use pictures from encyclopedia or else, a globe, a map, and internet to teach social studies,” Ida said. She also explained how the lesson conducted. First, she gave her students a brief explanation about Asia in general, such as location, boundaries, regions, weather, crops, etc. using the map, globe, and pictures of crops. Then, she asked her students one by one to come in front to point on the location of Asia on the globe and on the map. “In the third meeting, I asked the students to make a project,” she explained. She divided the class into groups of two students. Next, each group will choose a country in Asia by picking a lottery. Then they had to search the information about the country from internet, encyclopedia, or newspaper and then printed it. “I have prepared the internet and the students only type the name of the country and then all information will be on their monitor.” Ida added that the students had to find all-important information including the map, flag, landmark, famous buildings, mountains, traditions, etc. After all done, the students stick their findings on the cardboard and decorate. The last, they started the presentation. They have to tell others about the country and how did they make the project (what are the sources, etc.) and the problem in doing the project. “In this part of learning, the use of media is really helpful. They help me to give clear information to the students. Besides, they also attract students’ attention,” Ida answered a question about her reason of using media in teaching social studies.

When Ida was asked about her students’ responses of the use of media, she said that the students were very excited to learn about Asia. “I came in to the class and put the media on my desk. Then you know what did my students do? They came to my desk because they wanted to know what I brought. They were so excited! I told them to go back to their seats and I will explain later,” Ida described how excited her students were. According to Ida, since a globe and map tell exactly where a place located, it helps students to have clear description of the real thing. It makes teaching- learning process became more effective.

By using media in teaching, students’ improvement can be seen clearly. Ida said that the learning result is different when she uses media to teach or not. The use of media leads students to learn by doing. In other word we can say that in learning by doing process, students improve themselves from know nothing to know something, from know something to understand the concept. When students use media in learning then they will have the experience of learning and directly involve in the learning process. It makes what they have acquired will be saved in their long- term memory. As a result, students get good mark on certain subject and enhance their thinking skill. It is different from the result of non- media learning that leads students to get good mark and rarely enhance their thinking skill.

Similar to other learning processes, learning using media also has obstacles. Ida as a teacher also experienced it. She said that there were some obstacles when she taught students using media. The first obstacle was the letters on the globe, which are too small to be read by the students. When the students were asked to point on the location on the globe, they got confused because it was hard for them to read the small letters on the globe. The next obstacle was students became too interest to the media. “Once I came to class with a globe, my students were too excited to the media I brought. In break time, all of them wanted to touch the globe and then one of my students broke it, so that I could not use the globe to explain the materials for a week,” Ida explained. Even though there are a lot of obstacles, Ida said that she could overcome those obstacle. She overcame those obstacles by changing the media. She replaced the globe with a map.

The use of media in teaching- learning process has also several advantages. Ida mentioned some advantages. She said that media could raise the students’ interest of the lesson and media is important to lead students’ attention. The last advantage, which is similar to Masterman’s opinion, is that media increase students’ responsibility to control their own learning. In brief, we can say that the use of media in teaching- learning activity is good.

From the interview, we can conclude that the use of media really helpful, but it depends on how teachers implement them. Ida, a teacher of Springfield International Curriculum School shared her experience of how to implement the media, especially a globe and map in the proper way. Media can help teachers to get students’ attention back and to make learning process more effective. Therefore, the use of media really helps both teachers and students in teaching- learning process.

References:

Li- Ling KUO, Christine. 1991. The Importance of Educational Media in Teaching. Buletin of Social Education, Volume 20, pp.61-88.

http://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/en/bse/9120/9120061.htm