ENGLISH FRANCA : Academic Journal of English Language and Education Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018, STAIN Curup P-ISSN 2580-3670, E-ISSN 2580-3689 Padlet as Media to Improve Writing Mastery of English Department Students of Uniska 2015-2016 Pritantina Yuni Lestari FKIP, UNISKA Kediri, Indonesia pritantinayl@gmail.com Erwin Hari Kurniawan FKIP, UNISKA Kediri, Indonesia erwinharikurniawan@gmail.com ABSTRACT Multimedia has been spread out and used by many students in their live, but it is rarely to use multimedia as one of media used in teaching learning process. The objective of this study is to know whether the use of Padlet as media can improve students’ descriptive writing mastery of students of English Department of Uniska in the third semester. The research design used is Classroom Action Research consisting of two cycles. Each cycles consisted of three opportunities for students to have interaction using Padlet. The cycle consisted of planning, implementing, observing and reflecting. The instruments used in this research were observation check list and writing test using Padlet. Padlet was introduced from the first time of teaching learning process in the class and the following interactions were using Padlet without having direct interaction in the classroom. The first cycle was not successful because of the students got difficulty in managing time in accessing Padlet and some errors in their grammatical used. Then in the second cycle, the result showed that 18 from 20 students passed the minimum score and all students did all assignment using Padlet. From the result, it can be concluded that the implementation Padlet as media can improve students’ writing mastery. Keywords: Padlet, writing mastery, descriptive writing INTRO DUCT ION English as one of the international languages in the world should be mastered by people from many countries in the world to communicate each other. They may know and understand what they speak communicatively because of English. Because of the reason above, English becomes the first foreign language that is taught in Indonesia 2 | ENGLISH FRANCA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 from elementary school up to university. Writing is one of the four basic language skills: listening, writing, reading and speaking. Teaching writing is the process of giving the English lesson, from the teacher to the students based on the material in order that the students are able to absorb it and they will be able to communicate by written text. Writing is a way of gaining control over your ideas and getting them down on paper. There is nothing mysterious about this process, and you can learn to write effectively and feel confident about your writing if you are willing to put in time and effort. Many people find it necessary to write at one particular place or with a certain color of ink or a special type of keyboard. Having these things may help you write, but more important than these is developing the ability to concentrate. Sometimes it will be necessary to tune out everyone and everything in order to reflect inwardly and recreate incidents that you have read or heard about, experienced, or observed. With total concentration, you can "replay" these incidents and share them with your reader. For instance, if you want to remember that first day of school long ago when you were six years of age, all you have to do is close your eyes until a mental picture enters your mind. That room, that teacher, that moment of fear, happiness, or excitement can be a video played in your mind. And from your "mind's video" you can write your thoughts on paper to share with your reader. (Wingersky, 1992) In writing, people learn better from words and pictures than from words alone. Multimedia instruction consists of words and pictures rather than words alone. The case for multimedia learning rests on the premise that learners can better understand an explanation when it is presented in words and pictures than when it is presented in words alone. (Mayer, 2009) Relating to writing, descriptive writing appeals to the senses, so it tells how something looks, feels, smells, tastes, and/or sounds. A good description is a word picture; the reader can imagine the object, place, or person in his or her mind. A description usually follows a pattern of organization that we call spatial order. Spatial order is the arrangement of things in space. As you read the model paragraph, notice how the description moves from the bottom of the stairway to the top. Also notice how the description of the woman moves from far away to near. (Oshima and Houge: 2007). In descriptive text, the generic structures are identification and description. Identification describes the identification of object mentioned. Then, descriptive text describes the characteristic and description of the object. Language feature using Pirantina & Erwin: Padlet as Media to Improve Writing Mastery |3 attributive and identifying process, adjective and classifiers in nominal group, simple present tense the term generic structure refers to the series of requirement of elements in constructing descriptive text. In Uniska, especially the students of the third semester had problem in writing, especially in structure and developing idea to be a good composition. It was known when they submit paper of the descriptive text to the writing lecturer. The dialogue of the writing lecturer with the researcher tried to think the alternative solution of the problem above. Based on to Jacobs (1982) in ESL Composition Profile stated in Safitri (2008), there are five aspects in scoring writing. They are content, organization, vocabulary, structure/ language use, and mechanic. From those it can be inferred that students’ score in writing descriptive is lower than the minimum score criteria. Suherdi (2012) states that the 21st century world is characterized by the emergence of the second wave of globalization if the first was triggered by technology, the second by ICT. Now ICT has made distance face to face communication possible. ICT has led teachers to take new perspective in their teaching. ICT makes teacher aware the using of multimedia in teaching learning process. Before it, multimedia has been part of our language since 1950s. It has been used to refer to great many aspects of communication and technology and is therefore difficult to precisely define. According to Rada (1995), multimedia refers to any synchronized media stream. One example is that of moving images synchronized with sound. In other side, Heinich, Eds. (1999) states that multimedia relates to any combination of two or more media formats that are integrated to form an informational program. Concerning to the multimedia used in teaching, Padlet (http://Padlet.com), formerly WallWisher, is a web space where the admin can add files, links, videos, and more. By using this, tutor can create various walls to add your favorite content. Tutor/teacher may develop the above wall to collect and share a few of his favorite technology resources. People can also collaborate to continue adding to the same wall space. By using this, it can create a live discussion among the tutor and students and also co-tutors. (Klein, 2013) Further, Fuchs (2014) gives comment related to the implementation of ICT that when using technology as a means to encourage whole-class participation in classroom activities, there are benefits and risks to consider. First and foremost among the benefits is the idea of technology as the great equalizer, particularly when the http://padlet.com/ 4 | ENGLISH FRANCA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 participant has the option to be anonymous. If students are not confident in their ideas or not sure if they have the right an-swer, any chance of failure is minimized when no one knows what answer they typed. This realization can allow more freedom and experimentation in the learning process. In addition, students are drawn to the novelty of the technology and seem to want to participate just to have the opportunity to use it. A final benefit of real-time participatory technology is that it can give the teachers a more complete picture of learning from all stu¬dents, rather than from a handful of the most vocal or most confident ones. The teacher can then use that information to inform lesson development, creating a more targeted and authentic interaction between teacher and students. Fuchs (2014) also states that there are some problems. The first, technology is fickle and unpredictable, as any instruction librarian can already attest to. Internet access comes and goes, and sites go down for maintenance without warning. When teachers use technology in the classroom, they are at its mercy, and that fact alone may be enough to repel people from using it. With so many unknowns already existing in the classroom, it may seem to some like an act of sheer insanity to knowingly introduce yet another one. Another risk is that real-time means real-time. Students may use the ability to instantaneously see other students' responses as an opportunity to use the technology as a personal stage for silliness. A final risk is that some may perceive the use of new technology in the classroom as educational "smoke and mirrors" and may question its value for teaching. In an effort to be an intentional, purposeful teacher, he considers it important to explain to classes the educational significance associated with activities, so he also makes it a point to explain the rationale behind the classroom use of this technology with students. Based on the explanation above, the researcher wanted to apply Padlet as media used to improve students’ writing achievement. Before applying it at first the researcher did a study to operate and understand the typical of Padlet and compare it with other on line media, such as WhatsApp, email, moodle, etc. After knowing the characteristic, some advantages and disadvantages of using Padlet and how to operate it in teaching learning the researcher conduct a research using Padlet as media to improve writing achievement of the third semester of English Department of Uniska Kediri. The formulation of the research was: how Padlet was able to improve writing achievement to the third semester students of English Department of Uniska Kediri. Pirantina & Erwin: Padlet as Media to Improve Writing Mastery |5 The type of writing used in this study was limited in mastery descriptive text studied by the first semester of English Department Uniska Kediri of the 2014-2015 academic years. The stages of writing process applied were pre-writing, continued by drafting. After that the students should do proofreading and editing before they publish their writing. The findings of this study are expected to have theoretical and practical contribution. First from theoretical view it was expected to support the theory of applying padlet in teaching writing. Then, viewed from practical this research gives meaningful contribution to the lecturers, students and future researcher. The students can apply padlet as media used in learning writing. Then, for the lecturers this media is useful to help them in teaching learning practice. The role of the future research of padlet, this research will be the consideration in applying padlet for other research. METHOD The design of this study was Classroom Action Research which has four steps in each cycle, which consist of: planning, implementing, observing and reflecting. This cycle was adapted from the model proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1992) which focused on a particular group of students in the third semester of “A class” of English Department of UNISKA Kediri in a certain classroom. Thus, the classroom action research in the study was implemented for the purpose of improving writing achievement of the students in descriptive text by using Padlet as media used. The implementation of it was expected to improve the students’ writing achievement. The setting of the research was done in the third semester of academic year 2015-2016. The class had 17 students who had low in mastering descriptive text. This study was associated with the general idea of improving the students’ writing achievement in descriptive text. The general idea focused on improving the students’ writing achievement by using Padlet as media used in discussing, doing assignment, and commenting their duty submitted among the students and lecturer. Then, the preliminary study phase was conducted. After that the researcher implemented the research. In preliminary study, the researcher did some activities as follows. The first step, researcher did pre-observation. This activity was done to know the pre-condition before the observation, especially the result of the students’ writing achievement. It was taken from the score 6 | ENGLISH FRANCA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 of paper submitted to the third writing lecture. In this time, the researcher tried to find out the problems that made students feel difficult in writing. It could be taken from the interview and direct observation. Having done the observation, the researcher identified the problems happened in their writing. The problems appeared were: The researcher stated that the students were weak in writing. It can be identified from their grammatical error, developing idea to the composition and coherence and unity in their paper. The achievement of the students; writing can be identified as below: Total 1124 Mean 66,11 Min 55 Max 80 Median 65 N 17 Having been identified, it can be concluded that the students’ writing achievement was still weak and under qualified, because there were 11 students from 17 students got score below 70. If it is clarified and described, it can be elaborated as below: the students got difficulty in grammatical, developing idea, coherence and unity in their writing. Besides that most of students got difficulty did not have any bravery to ask to the lecturer if they did not understand to the lesson given. Based on those two facts, the researcher decided that the students’ organizing ideas skill needed to improve. In this research, the researcher and his collaborator prepared instructional materials used in implementation in every teaching learning process. Firstly, the researcher and the collaborator prepared the materials which support the teaching learning process, especially related to Team Pair Share. The researcher and the collaborator prepared the books supported the analytical exposition text and the questions given. The researcher and the collaborator tried to make interesting media to support teaching writing using Team Pair Share. The students were considered successful, if they met the criteria of success as follows: (1) More 75% students were actively involved doing the teaching and learning process using Padlet, (2) The students’ writing comprehension improved which could be seen from the result of Pirantina & Erwin: Padlet as Media to Improve Writing Mastery |7 each cycle, (3) All of students could achieve the passing grade of the writing achievement in writing, that was 70. FINDINGS Findings from Cycle I The Students' Achievement Concerning to the research on the students' writing in Cycle I it can be stated the students' achievement in writing descriptive text in Cycle I was not adequate yet. It was found that the average score of this cycle was 66.11. it was greater than the preliminary study that was 65.00. Then, if we compared this condition with criteria of success viewed from score, it could be stated that the students’ achievement in writing did not achieve the criteria of success. This condition happened because of two factors. First, some students got difficulty in differing the using of “be” and “verb’ as predicate in their sentence. The second, the students still got difficulty to differ whether fragment or sentence. Some of them got difficulty in run on sentence. It could be seen from their writing starting from pre writing until publishing their writing in padlet. The Students' Involvement Based on the result of analysis on the data gained from the observation checklist in Cycle I, the findings show that the students' involvement in the writing activities was categorized as fair . There were 2 of 17 students did not follow the first meeting, so the procedure of teaching learning process using Padlet could not maximize used by students. Some of the students directly write without passing the steps of writing. The following problem was some students were late in submitting the task on time, although there was a message sent using short message service to all students and message posting in the Padlet about what should they do and the deadline of the task that they should submit. In this cycle there were only 15 students participated in this research where 2 of 14 students were late in submitting the final task which was used as treatment score. Revision on the Strategy Based on two conditions above, that the criteria of success had not been achieved yet, so the following cycle should be done. From the scoring criteria it was known that the problem of the students in 8 | ENGLISH FRANCA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 grammatical error, fragment, and run on sentence should have been reduced in the following cycle. Giving explanation related to grammatical error and giving exercise would be the first consideration. At the first day students should read the example and discuss with their friends. The following day the students would do some exercise related to grammatical error. The third day the students would be given some explanation and exercise related to the fragment and how to overcome it. The third day the students should observe the run on sentence and how to overcome it. Then on the following day, the students were given some artists’ pictures to be created into pre writing, continued to be created in to drafting and pasting in the padlet to be read by thir friend to get some input and revision. Then they should edit and publish their revision writing in to the padlet to be taken the score. Related to the students’ motivation and participation, the students were gathered to get explanation and how to have interaction in teaching learning process using Padlet. All students were given motivation the importance of their participation in order they could pass the cycle by getting the satisfactory score result. The researcher asked their mobile number to be contacted if they were not submitting their participation by the date line. Here the researcher also emphasized the process of writing starting from the pre-writing by using picture as brain storming, drafting their idea, asking their friends to read and comment, and editing their writing before they posted it. Those activities were done before implementing the teaching learning using padlet. Findings from Cycle II The Students' Achievement Based on the analysis on the students' compositions in Cycle II, the findings show that the students’ average writing achievement increased from 71 in the first cycle to be 76 in the second treatment. 16 students got score above 70 and only one students got score 68. The maximum score was 85. The mean score was 75. Even though the students' achievement in writing improved, it was still found the certain types of mistakes made by the students in the students’ writings. two students were gotten problem in run on sentece, 3 students got problem in fragment and one students in verbalize the picture into writing. Overall the students could achieve their writing, especially in descriptive text. Based on the condition of the students’ achiement the process of classroom action research could be stopped. Pirantina & Erwin: Padlet as Media to Improve Writing Mastery |9 The Students' Involvement Here the researcher observed students’ activity during the implementation of Padlet as media in teaching learning process using checklist, form the checklist known that all the processes were using the Padlet. The weakness about participation of the students in the first cycle could be overcome by doing the second cycle. And the students could write and develop their idea using the step of writing a text passing pre-writing, outlining, proofreading, editing and publishing. In this cycle all students participated in teaching learning process using padlet as schedule given in the first meeting of this cycle. The explanation and motivation in the first meeting given by the lecturer gave positive effect toward their participation. Besides that the given of message using WhatsApp group and short message service every morning to remain students toward their task that they should do could maximize their participation. DI SCU SSION S From the research above it provides more information and data that the implementation of Padlet as media in teaching learning process of writing descriptive text can improve students’ writing achievement which was indicated by the result of each cycle. From the observation checklist, it could be known that students’ activeness improved in the second cycle if we compare from the first cycle. The implementation of sending message and giving interesting topic could drag motivation to participate and study using Padlet. The using Padlet as media forum in studying English could make students and lecture study together without having time and place border. It is in line with Klein (2013) statement about the advantages of Padlet as media in teaching learning process and Suherdi (2012) statement that the implementation of ICT in teaching learning process can change new perspective in teacher’s teaching. Then related to the result of cycle, it could be seen from the graph below that in the preliminary study, it can be concluded that the students’ writing achievement was still weak and under qualified, because there were 11 students from 17 students got score below 70. Then in the first were 3 students got score under 70 and two students did not submit the task on time so they did not get score. In the last treatment, the criteria had been achieved well, so the researcher could stop the cycle. Students’ participation reached 100% it could be seen 10 | ENGLISH FRANCA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 from all students participating in discussion, submitting the second until third task on time. The error made during the task was falling down. . Figure1. Students Score Related to the students’ participation, in the preliminary research all students participated 100%. Then in the first treatment only 88,23% (15 of 17 students) participated actively in teaching learning process using padlet as media in teaching writing. Then after giving motivation, explanation and guidance using social media and SMS, the students’ involvement could be 100% in the last cycle. Figure 2. Students’ Involvement Based on the condition above it could be stated that by giving attention and intense communication, teaching descriptive text using padlet as media could improve students’ achievement. CONCLU SION AN D R ECOMMENDA TION Based on the implementation of Padlet in teaching writing descriptive text, the researcher concluded that Padlet can improve students’ writing achievement. The problem in the first cycle happened because on the first meeting not all students could come and understand Stu Students’ Involvement Average Score Pirantina & Erwin: Padlet as Media to Improve Writing Mastery |11 the process of learning using Padlet. The choosing of interesting topic and giving awareness to participate and finish the task well and explain gain the process of studying, share, upload, and comment or discuss using Padlet in the beginning of the second cycle and sending message to remain them to finish the task on time also give positive impact for students to achieve well their participation, activeness and finishing the task well. From those it could be concluded and suggested that Padlet can be consideration as media in teaching learning process in other skills by designing interesting layout, well introduction and interesting topic to be discussed and examined. Related to the result, some suggestions are proposed to the lecturers, students and future researchers. The lecturer of writing is recommended to apply padlet by having enough preparation in developing material presented in the class and posted in the padlet, to have clear explanation before asking students to do the activities related to teaching learning process and to give feedback to the students’ work and to control students’ participation by using short message service to the students who do not understand or do not do the task. To the students, it is suggested that they follow all the process of teaching learning process both in the classroom and in the virtual using padlet. The following researchers are expected to do some innovation in other text in writing process or in other subject which may appropriate. The last, the researcher gives gratitude to those who contributed in this study, and who concern with its recommendation. REFEREN CE S Fuchs, B. Online (2014). The Writing is on the wall: Using Padlet for Whole-Class Engagement. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/102ajRlZ0bDby07M hC79NdxyTSMLHXuT-bZNJ4fpsYHw/edit?pli=1) ((Accessed on 21 August 2015) Green, TD and Brown, A. 2002. Multimedia Projects in the Classroom. California: Corwin Press Heinich, R., Molenda, M., Russel, J., Smaldino, S. (1999) Instructional media and Technologies for Learning (6th ed.). NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall. Kemmis, S & McTaggart, R. 1992. The Action Research Planner (3rd edition). Victoria: Deakin University Press. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/102ajRlZ0bDby07MhC79NdxyTSMLHXuT-bZNJ4fpsYHw/edit?pli=1 https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/102ajRlZ0bDby07MhC79NdxyTSMLHXuT-bZNJ4fpsYHw/edit?pli=1 12 | ENGLISH FRANCA, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2018 Klein, E. Online. 2013. Using Padlet in the Classroom to Collaborate & Create Interactive sticky notes! (online) URL: http://www.kleinspiration.com/p/ (Accesed on 21 August 2015) Mayer, RE. 2009. Multimedia Learning. 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