ASK.FM AS MEDIA IN ENGLISH LEARNING

Whether we realize it or not, we have entered an era of globalization where everything will continue to evolve without stopping, not to mention technology. Technology from time to time will evolve according to its era. One product of technology is learning media. Learning media is a tool used as an intermediary to achieve learning objectives.

Learning media is really needed because it is very helpful in the learning process. According to its era, learning media will continue to grow up. In the first era, the most popular media is a book but in the modern era or the future maybe the book as a medium will be replaced by other learning media. It cannot be denied that there are no fixed learning media. There must be progress or development of every learning medium, whether in terms of modernity, effectiveness, optimism, etc.

Today one of the learning media that can be used is Ask.fm. Ask.fm is one of the social networking websites where users can ask anything to other users without giving our identity (Anonymity) but we can also show our identity, by disabling its anonymity. We can create directly an account of ask.fm. But, we can also enter it through Facebook account, Twitter or Vk that we have. In Ask.fm we can only see the profile, the questions that are answered, and like from each question that has been answered. We cannot see followers, following, or existing friends, different with Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and others. Then, how to apply Ask.fm in learning and teaching activities?

In accordance with its usefulness, if we apply Ask.fm in learning activities, it will more emphasize students to write a particular context maybe in narrative, descriptive, and others. One example of learning activities using Ask.fm that can be applied by teachers is the activity of making descriptive text. The steps can be begun by the activity where the students introduce themselves, then followed by describing people who have introduced themselves, and it is done in pairs. Each student should create a descriptive text using Ask.fm as a medium. Here, students can comment or discuss without anyone knows their identity. It can be an effective medium because we know that there are still many children who actually want to deliver their aspirations or ask some questions but still embarrassed to do so. Here, ask.fm is functioning as a medium of discussion, question, and answer.

There are many excellent media that can be applied in learning activities, one of them is Ask.fm. Ask.fm itself is a good medium because it is able to accommodate students in exploring their writing without anyone knows who the writer is. Especially for students who actually have a talent in discussion but embarrassed to express their ideas, Ask.fm can be the one of breakthrough media to minimize ineffectiveness in learning activities.

Here is the video that you can watch for more information.

Ask.fm as English Learning Media