The learning process requires clear, specific methods to achieve effective and efficient learning goals. The learning methodology is a way of carrying out activities between educators and students when interacting in the learning process. Educators need to know and learn teaching methods in order to deliver material and be understood well by students. Teaching methods are practiced at the time of teaching and are made as attractive as possible so that students gain knowledge effectively and efficiently.
Ancient technology is different from today’s technology. People used traditional tools to do activities before modern tools were founded. Formerly, people only used one method, or known as the conventional method in the teaching and learning process. This conventional method only uses lecturing or conveying information verbally to students. This method is the most practical and economical method, it does not require many tools.
Advances in technology bring the Internet as a sophisticated tool that improves time-to-time. In the beginning it was only used to communicate, it connected people around the world through several simple applications via computer. Nowadays, the use of the internet has been increasing not only limited for communication, but also for business, education, healthy, employment, entertainment, publication, etc. Nothing can be separated from the internet in today’s life.
Time-to-time, the field of education leads to changes, especially for the current millennial generation. The millennial generation is a generation that replaces Generation Y. Children who were born between 1982 – 2004 will mature in the millennial era, so they are called the millennial generation. The interest of the millennial generation in changes and technological advances is quite high, especially in the use of internet-based telecommunications media such as smartphones for various purposes. Smartphones are used to make us easier to access information. The internet allows students to study completely online while still socializing with classmates, watching lectures, and participating in subject-specific discussions.
Online learning offers all the benefits of learning with the convenience of a study experience tailored to your schedule. With courses available in nearly every subject, and flexible schedules to suit nearly any lifestyle, students are increasingly turning to online learning as a viable alternative to studying on campus. That could allow you to study abroad remotely, at a university not in your home country.
While some consider online learning to require a higher level of self-motivation, institutions recognize that educational support is just as important as tutor feedback, and take great care to ensure that their students receive the same level of support they will receive on campus. In general, when taking an online degree program, you may find resources such as Ebooks, Journal, video, recorded lecture, quiz, discussion forum, live question and answer session, and interview. The main advantage of using these media (especially eBooks) is the fact that they are completely portable, allowing you to study on your computer, phone, or tablet.
The use of smartphones has been exploited by millennial generations not only for entertainment such as playing games, listening to music, chatting, social media, but also as an e-learning-based learning tool, which functions to receive and send emails, and downloads podcasts. This is because the use of a learning application based on an Android or iOS smartphone (iPhone Operating System) is easy to use and flexible. Smartphones as mobile-based learning media or ordinary ones called mobile learning, have several advantages. One of them is that the smartphone is a mobile device that is connected to the internet, so both students and teachers will have no trouble finding various fields of knowledge that are widely available on the internet to be applied in the learning process. Furthermore, through the use of smartphones, students can study anywhere and anytime without being limited by place and time. Smartphones are affordable mobile devices that people can buy and almost everyone has them. Smartphones as mobile learning offer learning media that can improve Higher Order Thinking Skills or HOTS. HOTS requires students to think critically and as problem solvers, able to collaborate, communicate, create and innovate, which are various examples of activities using educational technology via mobile smartphones.
One of the uses of educational technology through smartphones is the use of the Quizlet application which is available on Android and iOS mobile devices as an online-based learning medium. Quizlet is an online learning tool developed by a high school student in California named Andrew Sutherland. This application is mostly used for language learning, but its function is not limited to other subjects (Kalecky, 2016). Quizlet was designed in 2005, but then released to the public in January 2007 on a website. Furthermore, in August 2012 Quizlet was launched as a mobile application for iOS (Iphone Operating System). The following year was followed by the Quizlet application for Android in August 2013. The Quizlet application is a breath of fresh air in the world of education, especially for online-based learning media. The Quizlet application has the main function of developing linguistic intelligence, however, the fact is that Quizlet can be used for all subjects including economics-accounting learning. The use of Quizlet as one of the online-based learning media is interesting to study, especially for the millennial generation who are almost never far from their smartphone in their hands. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe the functions and strengths of Quizlet as a medium for mobile learning suitable for students in the millennial era. This research has general benefits for readers, especially for teachers and students to be able to choose the appropriate learning media and in accordance with the learning objectives.
