The Gist of Digital Technology for Local Culture Preservation: Intriguing Fairy Tales

Abstract

Fairy tales have long been used as learning materials for Indonesian as well as English subjects in secondary schools to instil and preserve local wisdom and culture in addition to enhancing students' linguistic competence. Based on classroom observation and interview, current practices in schools show that learning activities developed out these materials revolve around students' involvement in reading, comprehending, appreciating, and identifying moral stories of the tales, be it orally and or in written form. Through R & D procedure, involving several junior high school students in Yogyakarta Special Region (DIY) and Central Java (Jateng), a digital media called "SoON" (Story on Odyssey Naturally) was used to develop those tales into more interactive and cognitively engaging learning materials (Littleyoung, 2015). Learning activities involve students not only to find information, retell, and identify moral story but further to enhance their soft skills and creativity PEOPLE: International Journal of Social Sciences ISSN 2454-5899 423 through responding to the tales depending on students' creativity. During the tryout, it was observed that the students were occupied doing all activities. Their high enthusiasm was observed in the last activity in which they got space/freedom to express themselves/their dreams. From students' worksheet, it could be inferred that the resulting materials were also effective in exercising students' creativity, and were effective as a means of character education. Based on the findings, the researchers contended that more folklore materials need to be converted into more innovative and interactive digital materials which are effective model not only for their preservation but for richer educational values.

Teaching Reading Using Storyberries for Indonesian Young Learners

“…As real-world material is close to students' real-life context, it benefits students since they can imagine what happened in the story's plot. It is such a familiar context that it eases students to get the pivotal point authentically to interpret the educational character and value (Rochmiyati et al, 2020) from the young learners' perspectives in the reading classroom. The students were then assessed in the True-Flase method by considering validity, practicality, reliability, and washback, including their age-based characteristics.…”

Promoting Character Education Through Genre-Based Language Learning: A Digital Reading Box in the Spotlight

“…The primary feature of effective teaching materials is that they must accommodate blended learning approach and individual differences (Sabah, 2020) and affective attitudes. Character education is a system of naming character values (Halimah et al, 2020;McGrath et al, 2022) that includes components of knowledge, awareness or willingness, behaviors, cultural concepts (Agus et al, 2021), local culture aspects (Agus et al, 2020) and locally rooted culture preservation (Rochmiyati et al, 2020b). It is critical to honor God Almighty, the environment, oneself, others, and nationality to implement these ideas.…”