CD Assessment

INTRODUCTION

Now technology is used not only for business but also for educational purpose. Ballenden (1984) approves that computer will increasingly penetrate all areas of life, including education. Maddison (1983) portrays the education technology and the communication technology as two sides of the same coin. The newest one is CALL that has been used by the teachers particularly for the language teaching. According to Brandl, 1991 and  Hartoyo, 1993:25, 1994; and  Petermandl, 1980; and Davis, 1993,  there are four advantages of using CALL as the teaching tools, such as its interactivity, its usability or  flexibility. The performance and interactive aspects has become the great value in language learning progress.  Here I try to  asses the four CD’S given by lecturer “Hartoyo Ph.D”, focuses on five basic principles, such as : 

1.           INTERACTIVITY (feedback and instruction. Interactivity refers to how the program can stimulate interaction, especially interaction between the computer and the user. It includes the effectiveness of the instructions and feedback provided in the program.

2.         USABILITY (flexibility).Usability (flexibility) refers to the flexibility, ease and inherent interest of the program used, and how easy it is to navigate within the program.

3.         CONTENT APPROPRIATENESS. Content appropriateness is concerned with the amount of material presented in the program, how easily the material is learned and understood, and how far the material meets the students’ need.

4.         EFFECTIVENESS. Effectiveness refers to how effectively the program assists language learners to improve their mastery of grammar.

5.         PERFORMANCE (attractiveness). Performance refers to the presentation, layout of the screen, the color, and the illustrations (picture, diagram, charts, etc.) used in the program.

Now let’s see each of them, as bellows:

NO	SUBJECT	OBSERVATION
A	CD 1 = ENGLISH WORDS
1	Interactivity (feedback&instruction)	Children would need help to understand how to operate the program.
		It can stimulate the user especially for thechildren because  it provides  music, speech and animation which can make the   user feel interact when use it.
		It can grow up the user’s motivation.
2	Usability (Flexibility)	Easy to navigate.
		It easy to use and also easy to understand.
		The games are easy to play .
		The curiousity of the user in every step of the games is deep.
3	Content Appropriateness	The content is sufficient for beginners.
		It provides more than sixty different languages.
		It also provides a voice recording for the users.
4	Effectiveness	Too much gaming part, could distract the learning process.
		It is good for the user to know more about vocabulary.
		The users can enrich they vocabulary by practicing for example the games as much as possible.
5	Performance (Attractiveness)	Colors and music are attractive.
		It provides colourful screen which can attract the user to learn more and more.
		It also provides a clear sound which make the user interested to hear the instruction.
	Conclusion	This CD is preferable for children of elementary schools, grade 2 and up.
B	CD 2 = VOCABULARY
1	Interactivity (feedback & instruction)	The “help menu” is useful to help users interact with the program.
		The user can practice to pronounce the word by repeating it.
		The user especially the children very interested by the sound itself.
2	Usability (Flexibility)	Easy to navigate.
		It easy to use and also easy to understand.
		The games are easy to play .
		The curiousity of the user in every step of the games is deep.
3	Content Appropriateness	The content is sufficient for beginners.
		Its contents are suitable and useful for the user especially for the beginners.
		It is eligible for Educational purpose.
4	Effectiveness	The level of difficulties enable users to select according to their skills.
		It  is very effective to improve the user capability in vocabulary. However,
		This program is not really appropriate for the beginner or children because the vocabularies are quite complicated.
5	Performance (Attractiveness)	Colors, music, and the animations are attractive.
		It  actually provides some interesting games that make the user get more interest to play and learn ,
		It provides a clear sound that make the user easy to follow the instruction.
		It also provides colorful screen that make its performance more interesting.
	Conclusion	This CD is preferable for children of elementary schools, grade 3 and up.
C	CD 3 = LEARN ENGLISH “BEGINNERS”
1	Interactivity (feedback&instruction)	The program provide excellent interactivity facilities.
		The user can learn the pronunciation.
		It has phrases-practice, dialog-practice, phrases-recording, dialog-recording and quiz that can be used by the user to be better learner
2	Usability (Flexibility)	The navigation works well, the users can easily access the menu
		It easy to use and navigate.
		It has beautiful color that make more interesting to use.
3	Content Appropriateness	The content supports users in learning English right from the start.
		Its contents offer so many vocabularies that can be learned by the user.
		The user especially the children can enrich their vocabulary.
4	Effectiveness	Native speakers and quises effectively help users.
		It is effective to improve the user’s speaking skills.
		It is effective for the children especially, they can learn much more by practicing what they heared.
5	Performance (Attractiveness)	Pictures, colors, and the whole composition are very attractive.
		It is interesting and colorful appearance.
		It is useful for the children who actually can directly imitate the speaker how to pronounce the words.
	Conclusion	This CD is highly recommended because the material is most preferable for children of elementary schools,
		grade 4-6.
D	CD 4 = SPEAK ENGLISH INTERMEDIATE
1	Interactivity (feedback&instruction)	Really “talk” to users and “invite” them to get involved.
		It makes the user feel involved
		It also provides a voice recording for the users
2	Usability (Flexibility)	Simple and understandable.
		It is Simple and easy to navigate.
		The user needs recorder to use it
3	Content Appropriateness	The program is well equipped with what user’s need to learn English.
		It has some different topics for making the lesson more challenging.
		Its contents are useful for the beginners level.
4	Effectiveness	WYSIWYG, very effective to support easy-and-fun English learning
		It is quite good for the user who wants to learn English conversation. The difference between American and British in pronouncing word and style of using their sentence can make the user get more of language ability.
		The user can improve their speaking by hearing and practicing the program itself.
5	Performance (Attractiveness)	The whole appearance is awesome, incredibly attractive.
		It has a good design that make the user feel interest to learn more about speaking.
		It also provide some attractive and beautiful pictures.
	Conclusion	The use of this CD  is highly recommended because the material is suitable for children of 9-13 years old, (elementary  grade 4-6, junior high grade  7).

CONCLUSION

Referring the above CD Assessment, it is concluded that in facing the 21^st century today the teachers particularly the language teachers should be self-active in penetration the teaching and learning activities. Now they do not need to bring so many books or using old fashioned way for teaching. Using CD is the best one in making a new teaching penetration because here teachers do not have to produce so much energy. However, here  teachers have to choose the appropriate CD for teaching. It means the good teachers will always update their knowledge and make a new penetration for giving a good result in teaching and learning activity. Thank for a God Blesses us all!!!