Final Project vs. Final Test

Final Project vs. Final Test

Many students in paragraph writing class prefer working a final project to a final test. There are many reasons why they choose to make a final project, such as extended duration to work and easier credits. One example is Lukman Hidayat, a student in English Department in State University of Malang, said that working a final writing project will provide the writers more time to think and to find the mood to write something. This statement is backed up with some similar statements from some other students in the same department.  Actually, those eases in working final project are just stereotypes. The period given to do writing final project is a kind of demands for us to make it nearer to perfection. The harder the job, the more time needed to work.

            Even though many students would like to choose to do final project, the fact is this kind of final assignment has its own impact to them. An example taken is in Mr. Gunadi’s writing class 2010 whose students got this kind of project. In case of doing final project, many students are found stressed. Some of them look so pale because lack of sleep. Some other students look untidy, or at least more untidy than usual. Maybe we can take a bumpy conclusion from this situation that doing final project is much wearing up, but is it true? Will it be different if they chose the final test? To answer those questions, let us give some attention to discuss about this kind of final assignment from the problems to face, the effects given, and the solutions.

The problems to face

            As we know, final project has more time to deal with than final test which looks like an instant game. We can bring the final project home and do it at home. Everybody knows that home is the coziest place for every people. That is the reason many students like this order to do final project at home with the reason it will drive the mood up. Despite the more time given, doing final project needs time management because the students also have many other subjects and assignments to deal with. Usually, students do it in the night until late time, and that is clearly not a good habit. When you sleep late, your body unleashes a ton of destructive hormones like cortisol, into your bloodstream. Cortisol is a stress hormone; too much of it, and it can seriously affect your cell health. (http://www.sleepenough.com/). Besides, students, as they are still young and full of love, may have other plans such like dating. Those all are the impacts in positive and negative points according to time management in working a writing final project. Thus, we need to be stricter in time managing when we choose to do it than a final test which maybe only requires some time to memorize the writing rules to do the tests.

            As it is stated in last paragraph, an inappropriate management in time while working on a writing final project may lead into a stress. Actually, that is not the only way stress may come. The pressure in working such project is a piling up kind of stress. It looks easy in the start, but then the pressure keeps growing as the time until the deadline. In final test, the pressure can be said the same kind, but the difference is the period. Final test takes shorter period to do. Thus, the pressure in working final test would only feel like a big smack rather than like lifting up a jar which keep filled with water in working a final project. So, actually which kind of stress is more tolerable is various depends on the personalities.

The effects given

            Look back to the problems we have discussed above, in this part of essay we will discuss about the effects given. As the creator, the worker, students will be the first ones to get the impact. Working writing final project will decrease their free time. Decreased free time means decreased time for refreshing that may lead to another cause of stress. We can say that writing final project stores many risk, in this case, risk of getting stress. However, working such assignment is a kind of drill for the students. As we often hear from people, experience is the best teacher. The more often we do the training, the more experience we get, and the more expert we become. So as the students who are working the final project. Much training in the shape of working this assignment will increase their ability in writing.

            More to the point, as final project is giving some effects to the students; the teachers are also the other ones that should get the effect of having the final project as the final assignment. The teachers who give this assignment should examine the works of their students really thoroughly as the responsibility for giving the pressure to their students. The teachers must not only sit down behind the table and say “Anybody who do this assignment will get an A mark.” The teachers must also take part as the pressured ones to make it fair. Thus, like the students do, the teachers will learn to recognize and to correct the common mistakes also they will memorize the characteristics of good essays from the experiences they get from correcting their students essays.

            The other group that will get the effect is the readers which are not least important in role. They are the objects that the essays will be presented to. The effects the readers get would be different from the effects the writers and the editors, or in this case the students and the teachers, have. The effects the readers get cope with the mindset they get after reading the essays. Then, what is the link between the readers and the final project? The cable that connects them is the quality of the result essay. Without underestimating final test essays, final project essays are demanded to be perfect in addition to the extended time given. Thus, usually the final project essays are some steps closer to perfection than the final test essays. The information that readers get from final project essays is likely more accurate and clear.

            The solutions

            Considering that final project of writing has some troubles to face but in other case it also has some benefits, some solutions are needed to repress those problems. Thus, we can minimize the hard things, yet we get the benefits. The students seem to have the biggest problems as they are the ones to do it. Actually, the problems they face are just old schools, time and stress management. The condition that they look messed up in class is evidence that proves they have not applied the right time and stress management. To overcome it, those students should learn to manage both their time and stress. Final project is not a burden, it is an art instead. Arts need to be done in the best condition of ourselves. The suggestion is do not be burdened by this assignment. Take some time to refresh, but still be responsible with the tasks undone. Do the tasks little by little in spare time or take it step by step anytime the situation allows.

The long deadline given should be exploited. It is better to do such tasks pieces by pieces than to push yourselves to do it in a time. Final project is not alike as final test. In final test, students should finish their tasks in some period of time which usually is short. In addition to that, final test only has the short stressing period, so the stress it causes is not as big as the other one may cause.

In conclusion, from the problems to face, the effects given, and the solutions, we can say that final project is a kind of masterpiece that needs a hard work. However, the hard work worth it. The final project will outcome the better result in value because the time given. That’s why, final project is the best assignment to be used in writing.

satria akbar 109221426106

Benefits of Internet in Learning Process

Internet is a computer system that can connect one computer to other computers through links. Almost everybody have ever heard the word internet, but not every of them use internet. Nowadays, internet not only can be accessed through computers, but also through mobile phones. People who do not have a computer or mobile phone but they want to get information from internet can access internet in the internet cafe. The internet cafe has provided an internet access with different charges and facilities. Internet is not only used for single person, but also for institutions. If internet is used to connect in a world wide access, there is intranet which is the system of computer that connects one computer to the others in a local area. Usually an institution uses both of internet and intranet to do its job. There are many benefits of internet to people or institutions. For educational institutions such as schools, they use internet to get information in the worldwide and intranet to teach ICT. There are several benefits of internet to students in the learning process such as: get information or materials of the lesson, get attracted in learning second language, and get an easier mobility.

First, the main benefit of internet in the learning process is that internet gives information and materials about the lesson. Of course students need sources for their study. Usually, the materials from books are not enough yet, so they have to find other sources. For example: students learn about bones in human body and they need to find the name of bones in human body. They can look for the materials about bones in their books. The materials have not enough yet, so they need to find another source. They can look for it in the internet. If they do not know about the website which provides those materials, they can look for it by using a search engine. The materials that they get can be more up to date than the materials from books. Beside they get the materials about the lesson, they also can get the exercise about that lesson. Sometimes, websites also provide electronic books that well known as (E-book) for free.

Second, by learning from internet, students will be attracted to learn second language. It is caused by the language that is used in internet is not always their mother language. Most websites use English to give information for students. As an illustration, students need to find information. They have found one, but it was presented in English. If they do not know English, of course it will be hard for them to understand the contents. Through internet they can try to have a conversation with natives to increase their English abilities. Students can get information about the culture in some nations in the world. This will give more courage for students to know and learn second language.

Third, learning through internet can get an easier mobility. Sometimes by using internet, we do not need to buy books for reference and sources of study. They can get more up to date information than the information from the books. This is caused by the information from a book has not enough yet, that is why student need to find another book to complete the information. Students do not need to bring many thick books because they can download e-books from internet and save it into flash drives or disks. Students just need to bring notebook or open the e-book in the computer at the library.

In conclusion, there are many benefits of internet whether for students or everyone who use internet. Three of them have been mentioned above, they are get information or materials of the lesson, get attracted in learning second language, and get an easier mobility. It will be wise if students use internet for educational purpose and do not access the websites which have certain terms and conditions to access. Because the websites that have certain conditions like age contain information for people who have reach that age. Students also have to maintain their schedule in access internet. It is not wise if they keep access internet and forget their responsibility to study.

Moehamat Hendrik S.

The Relevance of the Internet to Student’s Learning Activity

The societies’ necessity of information nowadays make them cannot live without media. The media has been changed into their primary needs. There are many kinds of media, but the most popular one now is electronic media. Electronic media is a kind of media that using electricity to access the content. It is in contrast to static media (printed media) that generally created electronically but don’t require electronic energy to be accessed by the user (reader) in the printed form. There are several kinds of electronic media. They are television, radio, telephone, computer, and the famous one is the Internet network. In this essay we are going to talk about the popular one which is the internet. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide (Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia). In societies, students were the most affected user by this kind of media. The internet is available around students. It can be find everywhere even in mobile phone. In this writing I would like to describe contents of the internet and their effect in student’s learning activity. There are two kinds of the Internet contents which are the positive and the negative and the advantages of the Internet for students.

The internet as we know has many contents, not all of which are positive for most of people, especially children or students. The positive contents means the contents that are useful for students generally contain information which is needed by the students for their school activity or their life in society, and surely educate them. In the internet, students can search everything they need; there are unlimited sources that provide references and exercises which is relevance to school activity for free. For example, if students need to practice their listening skill in English, they can go to http://www.englishlistening.com/index.jsp or http://legacy.lclark.edu/~krauss/toppicks/listening.html which has a lot of listening comprehension exercises with various levels from beginner to advance. Open http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/exercises to improve student’s skill in grammar, or http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/vocabulary to increase vocabularies with useful exercise. Not only exercises, but we also can find any learning reference or something related to their activity.

The negative content is everything in internet that generates something negative for students itself. The negative contents are diverse or have a variety of form. It can be a video, picture, or article (writing) which contains racism, violence, porn, criminal and other harmful contents. There are large numbers of website that contain harmful contents. Beside the negative contents which I mention before, there are also some people who use internet as cheating place by offering services to do student’s assignment with certain amount of money for return. It is http://essaysreasy.com/ and http://www.assignmentexpert.com/do-my-assignment.html for example. Those two websites are offers to assistance and undertake student’s homework, assignment or writing such as essay, dissertation, thesis, term paper, research paper and other assignment so the student is only required to order, send some money and then wait for the paper or assignment finish, and the student doesn’t need to do his/her task by self. The “instant” way which was mentioned above must be detrimental to students’ mentality because it will become a bad habit for them.

Those contents are packaged which included in the Internet and cannot be separated each other. Each the positive or negative contents must affect the students. The positive side of the Internet is its benefits for the students in study. Students who know about how to use the Internet in the right way can get the advantages of using the Internet, such as makes learning more fun, makes students more interactive, and improves students’ ability in doing research.

The first advantage of the Internet for students is making learning great fun. The use of the Internet network can be a great motivator for students. In the Internet, students can easily find what they are looking for because there are huge numbers of websites which provide various learning sources and references that needed in study. The Internet has made the lives of students very easy. Now students do not have to rush to libraries to gather information from thousands of books. So they are motivated to do their task or assignment as well as possible. On Net, there are lots of reading materials with impressive graphics and sound. They can catch children’s attention at first glimpse and keep children's concentration. In this way, reading become great fun. Children can also learn drawing, pay a visit to some galleries, or make some field trips on the Internet. Participation in these activities keep kids busy and arouse their great interest in learning.

The second advantage is making the students more interactive. The Internet ability to connect computer in worldwide are making their user be able to send data easier to other user. The Internet also offers students opportunities to send and receive E-mails from any friends in the world. Electronic mail, commonly called email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages across the Internet or other computer networks (Wikipedia). There are a lot of websites which offer web based email services for free, for example, www.hotmail.com/ and mail.yahoo.com/ that only requires registering to get a free email account. Using electronic-mail, students are able to express their ideas, exchange opinions with others quickly. These activities are magnetic because of their interactivity. They can help students improve their skills in communication, in understanding and making themselves understood. E-mail makes writing fascinating instead of painful. It is more important that E-mail brings kids a sense of globalization.

The third benefit of the Internet is Improve students' ability in doing research. A study by the CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) summarized that access to online services in the classroom can increase learning. The study showed that students who had access to online services performed better than their counterparts who did not have access. The study compared the work of 500 students in fourth-and sixth-grade classes in seven urban school districts. Half the students had access to online services and half did not. "There was a significant difference in the quality of understanding and ability to gather resources in support of an argument," Skip Stahl, director of training at CAST, said. "Students who had access to online use not only were able to identify and articulate a problem more clearly, but also were more informed and had projects that were more compelling."

In concluding the Internet actually cannot be separated with our society, especially for students. The unlimited features and contents of the Internet can be useful or even can be awful for its users. It all depends on how the user “exploits” the contents of the advanced worldwide network. Students should use this source of knowledge wisely, to get the benefits and useful features and also avoid all of its dangerous contents. Control from parents and teachers are indispensable to prevent students from negative things of the Internet.

Biyantiko Galih

Teaching English Using Games

What should a teacher do if their students get bored? Using varietis type of games can be an alternative solution to handle this problem. Games, as a matter of fact, can help and encourage many students to sustain their interest and work. There is a common perception that all learning should be serious and solemn in nature, and that if one is having fun and there is hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning. This is a misconception. It is possible to learn a language as well as enjoy oneself at the same time. Teaching English using games is fun. There are several  activities we should do when we apply  teaching English using games, three of which are important. These are preparation, teaching process, and evaluation.

            First, we talk about preparation of teaching English using games. Before we start the activity in the class, it is better if we prepare the media. The media must be related to the games that we will use in the class. For example, we can use puppets, cards, or pictures. When we use those kind of media, absolutely we have to prepare puppet, cards or picture. Then, when we go to the class, we ready to use those in front if the students before he main subject begin. Games can be used as warming up before students study in the class. They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings (Hansen 1994:118). That is why, we are as the teachers give the games for the students. Furthermore, a good preparation, must be combine with the good teaching and learning process.

Not only preparation, but also we also have the process of teaching and learning. In this step, we must able to manage the class in games session. We can devide the class into several groups, or make it individually. The purpose of the games is create the enjoy atmosphere,  before the students study in the class. In this step, we have to use the media well. We can take the example, when we use puppets, we can ask the studets to make their own puppets. It will help them to be more creative and they can interpret what thaey want to make. On the other hand, we can divide class into several groups. Then, give them several cards with pictures on it. After that, call the name one of the picture. The group which the name called, have to explain the picture well. That is the simple example of games. However, do not forget to give a simple gift to the winner of the games.

The last step is evaluation. After we do the preparation and teaching process, we have the eveluation step. In this step, we can get feedback from the students. In the end of the class, ask students to write their short comments and suggestion about the games session. It is useful for us to know wheather  they love our games or not. If they like it, we can use it in other classes. But, if they do not like it, we can make other games like they suggest. It is important to use the games in the class, because sometimes students get bore in the class. It can be caused by the boring teaching and learning process. Games are fun and children like to play them. Through games children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment (Lewis, 1999).

            Teaching English using games is the effective way to create an enjoy atmosphere in the class. There are several effects of teaching English using games for the students;fun, enjoyable, and easy to understand.

Teaching English using games ia really fun. Besides they are studying, they also can interact with their friends when play the games. It can relax their mind from their assignments that given by their teacher. The useful of games can attract the student to learn English because it is fun and make them want to have experiment, discover and interact with their environment (Lewis,1999). Moreover, students are able to communicate with their friends, even with their teacher.

Besides it is fun, it is also enjoyable for them. Playing the games do not need hard thinking. That is because games always offer the relaxation for the students. They will apreciate our effort to make an interesting games for them. English is difficult for students if they never practice. However, if we give them games, they will enjoy to play it, and an educational games help them to studying English easily. Through the games, they can both study and play. The hope is they can laern something from the games. Not only play it, but also they can think about what thay have done.

The last is teaching English through the games is easy to understand. Students need an easy way to understand the lesson. One of the best ways is using the games. They can understand the games easily. As a teacher, we have to provide the simple games to make them do not boring when they play it. An educational games must be related to their subject. Here, we study English, so we have to give them English games. Then, give them easy vocabulary which can make them memorize it easily.

From my explanation above, we know that the things we should do when we apply teaching English using games are preparation, teaching process, and evaluation. Those things will help us as a teacher to deliver our information to students easily. Beside that, the effects of teaching English using games for the students are fun, enjoyable, and easy to understand. Students need the fresh atmosphere in study English. Here, teaching English using games is one of the best ways to make students enjoy to learn English.

Resources:

http://www.teflgames.com/why.html

http://www.scribd.com/doc/9639825/Teaching-English-Vocabulary-Using-Games

http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/index.cfm

Diska Fatima Virgiyanti