The Effectiveness in Fun Writing Learning Activities by Using Storybird

Anisyah Pratiwi

Universitas Jember, Jalan Kalimantan No.37, Jember, 68121, Indonesia

anisyahpratiwi060@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

In this globalization era, technology, especially Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is
growing rapidly, which forces the world of education to have positive innovations for the
advancement of education and schools. In this case also, the effectiveness of the learning process can
be created in the classroom, especially in writing activites. Writing activities are known to take a long
time, besides writing activities can be said to be a tedious activity for some students. They feel bored
with writing activities because all they do are write using a pencil or pen and write their story on a
sheet of paper. To overcome this case, one of the web application, storybird might be one of the
learning media that can provide effectiveness and fun activities in the classroom. Storybird itself is a
web application designed to make easier for students or users to create stories based on pictures. They
can pour imaginations that are in their mind and later will produce a work. A variety of writing
options are available in storybird such as comics, flash fiction, picture book, longform story and
poetry. Beside that, after they have finished making a work, they can upload their work and peers or
teacher can give comment. By using storybird, students are expected to be able to improve their
creativity in writing, tell a clear stroryline based on pictures and feel enjoy in writing class.

Keywords: technology, writing activities, storybird

1. INTRODUCTION

Writing is a skill for someone to convey ideas or imagination that will be explained later. If
students can write clearly, they can express their ideas convincingly to others – in college, on the job,
and in their personal life (Kirszner and Mandell, 2011). In collage, students will encounter writing
activities such as write an essay, a short paper, or a research paper. It is strongly supported by Zemach
and Rumisek (2005) who said writing is a very important part of univeristy study. On the job, they
will encounter writing activities such as write a proposal, or a report. In their personal life, they will
encounter writing activities such as write a letter or an email asking for information, or just post a
comment on a media social (facebook, instagram, twitter, etc). If they can write, it indicates they can
communicate; if they can communicate, they will be successful in the learning process.

Writing skills take a long time and intensive training (Tarigan, 2008:2). In that case, students are
required to concentrate and pour their ideas in sheets of paper using ink strokes, in addition students
must also be required to summarize, analyze, and criticize an article. As a result students find some
obstacles or difficulties in writing, such as lack of concentration in writing because they feel bored,
lack of interesting ideas that will be written in their writing and sometimes most students feel hesitant
to choose vocabulary. In addition, they feel that writing is a tedious activity because they only do it on
sheets of paper and always use a pen, and writing activities also take a long time. From the
explanations above, it can be seen that students lack motivation in writing activities because teachers
often provide writing activities as usual and there are no challenges for them to motivate.

To overcome this kind of thing, the teacher needs to change his mindset and start making new
innovations for writing activities that are more enjoyable and more effective. One way to make
students move in writing activities is to connect the learning process to technology. It can be seen that
now technology is inseparable in human life, almost all fields are using technology, especially in the
field of education. One web application that can be used in the learning process is Storybird.
 Storybird is a free digital tool that allows you to write stories based on pictures. Storybird
provides many opportunities for students to start writing fun activities and build student creativity.
The number of pictures presented in this web application allows students to pour their imagination to
start making a story. Accessing storybirds is also very easy, users (lecturers or students) only need to
become members and register to website -www.storybird.com-. If the users have registered their
account, they will give with three types of accounts; ordinary users (any user), school users (lecturers
and students), and professionals (artists and writers). Many kinds of writing choices are presented by
storybirds, there are comics, flash fiction, picture books, longform stories, and poetry that can be
chosen according to student interest.

2. RESEARCH METHOD

2.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

The understanding of the survey is generally limited to the research whose data collected
from samples or populations to represent the entire population. With thus, survey research
is research that takes samples from one population and use the questionnaire as a basic
data collection tool (Singarimbun, 2006). I used a survey research design to make
observations where the respondent was answering the answers to the questions given. I
collected data from one population (n=30; a grade student of English Education who has
taken a TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) course).

2.2 COVERAGE AND LIMITATIONS

In this study, the 4th semester English Education students in class A (n = 30) at Jember
University was the main target for conducting the survey because in the previous
semester they had taken TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) courses. With
those who have taken TELL (Technology Enhanced Language Learning) courses, it will
be easier to find out how far they know the world of technology, especially a web
application that can be applied to the learning process of writing.

2.3 SETTING OF PLACE and TIME

Data collection is done in 2 days, the aim is to collect as much data as possible from
English Education students in class A, they can provide responses via mobile or laptop as
an intermediary because in this study using a questionnaire.

2.4 TECHNIQUE of COLLECTING DATA

Questionnaire is a technique of collecting data by giving a set of questions or written
statements to the respondent to answer them (Sugiyono, 2010). The questionnaire became
one of the data collection techniques that I did in this study and in research it also needs
to be a measuring instrument which is usually called a research instrument, a tool used to
measure natural and social phenomena observed (Sugiyono, 2010). The research
instrument itself is a questionnaire that has a side of profit and a side of loss.

2.5 TECHNIQUE of DATA ANALYSIS

Quantitative data

3. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION