Short Paper—Perception and Acceptance of Padlet as a Microblogging Platform for Writing Skills Perception and Acceptance of Padlet as a Microblogging Platform for Writing Skills

This research is intended to answer the question, how are the students' perceptions of internet technology in learning and how is the acceptanceof Padletas a microblogging platform for writing skills in German language level A2-B1 CEFR standards for the student. In summary, 21 students within the range of 19-22 years participated, whichconsisted of 2 males and 19 femalesdata obtained through opened and closed questionnaires. The results of data analysis showed that students had positive perceptions using internet technology in learning. However, students cannot accept Padlet as a microblogging platform in learning German writing skills due to several factors that influence it. This research has an essential finding: before conducting online learning, lecturers have to consider internet availability and the adequacy of reviews to their smartphones as a learning infrastructure. Keywords—Perception, acceptance, Padlet , microblogging, writing skills


Introduction
The use of technology as one of the learning media has been widely implemented in education. It is essential to implement Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the teaching-learning process because internet technology has great potential to revolutionize the learning process in academic institutions [1]. Technology can support the teaching process in the classroom. Internet as a technology of Information and communication facilitate students to improve their learning outcomes. Jones, in his research, found that internet use changed the way for most students to interact with other people [2] and information while undergoing their studies.
There are student's perceptions of the use of the internet as a learning medium. Their perception determines the importance of the internet and how often they access it to get information [3]. Nowadays, many students use the internet to access lecture material. Students with a positive perception of the internet use it as a source of information. In other words, those who have the skills to operate technology can keep up with globalization, especially in the field of education. Shuell & Farber suggest that student's perceptions of the use of technology can be interconnected, so it is found that students' perceptions depend on how technology is used [4]. Students who actively use technology have a positive perception of technology, while less active students could have obstacles. The use of internet-based media can be a constraint if resources do not have a sufficient understanding of their use [5].
One form of utilizing internet technology is microblogging, which can be a medium for learning to write. Students generally prefer methods that are fun and practical. Similar to the use of media for education, microblogging is one of the most successful innovations in the Web 2.0 era [6]. Research work by Ebner et al. has revealed that microblogging media can be viewed as an informally convenient form of communication outside the classroom [6], and improve critical thinking skills as well as evaluation skills [7]. Besides, microblogging is an activity to convey aspirations and stages in communicating using application assistance and internet access [8].
One application that has a microblogging platform is Padlet, an online virtual bulletin board, where students and lecturers can collaborate, reflect, and share links and images on a platform [9]. The application Padlet has two forms, i.e., desktop with pc and with smartphone/mobile device as a social media. In this study, students use smartphones to get writing assignments, do writing assignments, and interact with other students, because the use of social media increases collaborative learning, supporting student learning, and simplifying the teaching and learning process [10]. Padlet allows users to create hidden pages with a URL, so only individual lecturers and students have access to the page. This is the advantage of Padlet as one of the learning media because using Padlet in instruction offered a non-threatening space for gathering and restoring collaborative classroom work [11]. With Padlet, the teacher can create and moderate posts, delete posts, and manage the page freely. This provides an opportunity for lecturers and students to use Padlet as a means of learning and communication academically, in this case, as a microblogging platform. Previous research has shown that the use of Padlet can increase student grades, foster interest in learning [7], motivate students to address the subject effectively and to engage in the completion of classes [12], and improve student writing achievement [13]. In addition, students give a positive attitude towards Padlet as a medium of learning [14].
Based on the explanation above, it is known that the use of Padlet could have a positive influence on students in the learning process. However, is the use of Padlet in the learning process acceptable? So far, there have been many studies on the use of mobile learning, such as application-based and web-based, but how do students accept the use of learning applications or online learning? Thus, this study seeks to answer the question, how are students' perceptions of internet technology and Padlet's acceptance as a microblogging platform for writing skills? What is the student's attitude toward the assignment? This research needs to be done because the use of Padlet should be directly proportional to acceptance [15] and also their satisfaction in using it [16].

Methodology of Research
This research used a descriptive qualitative approach and was conducted to students of the German Language Education Study Program Universitas Negeri Malang. The Students have Geman competences at the A2-B1 level CEFR standard. Sources of data were obtained from Aufsatz II class students, totaling 21 students, consisting of 2 men and 19 women, with a range of ages 19-21 years. Primary data were obtained from a questionnaire in the form of students' perceptions of Padlet. Secondary data in the form of students' attitudes towards writing assignments were obtained from questionnaires, text written by students, and metadata from the Padlet. The research procedure starts from giving a tutorial on the Padlet platform and giving writing assignments through Padlet, and finally, students fill out a questionnaire. Primary data were analyzed using a Likert scale, while content analysis techniques analyzed secondary data and described by descriptive analysis techniques.

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Results of Research

Student attitudes toward use of padlets in writing activities
Students get the writing task essays two times with different themes. In the first assignment, the theme of the essay was Kommentare schreiben (writing comments), and the second theme was Unterhaltung am Wochenende (entertainment on weekends). Each writing assignment uses the outline guidelines, called Leitpunkte. With this framework, students write texts.
After getting a writing assignment, students upload text, photos, videos, and other files into the Padlet platform, while other students can comment on each other writing. There are no time restrictions for uploading essays and commenting. Comments provided on the forum by students may be in the form of queries, statements, or other non-linguistic comments. Thus, communication and interaction between students are expected to be created.
The next phase is filling in a questionnaire about using the Padlet platform in writing skills. The following is data about students perceptions about the internet:  The internet can provide online learning activities 15 6 3.
Learning to use the internet can be positive for me 7 14 4.
Being skilled at using the internet can improve my academic qualifications 13 8 If the statement strongly agrees (SA) and agrees (A) is interpreted as a positive response, and disagree (D) and strongly disagrees (SD) is interpreted as a negative response, it can be seen that all respondents have positive responses about the internet. Students think that the internet has great potential as a learning medium. Students believe that the internet can provide online learning activities, and learning to use the internet can be positive. Besides, the use of the internet can improve the academic quality of students.
Next, in the following table, students' experiences in using the internet in the form of blogs are presented in any platform for writing skills.

Student attitudes toward use of padlet in writing activities
The activeness of students in providing comments in this study was classified into two, namely academic and non-academic comments. The attitude of students towards the use of Padlet in writing skills, seen in the description below: In the first question, how often during respondents using blogs for academic purposes, 15% of respondents stated never, 15% of respondents stated very rarely, 70% stated rarely. Meanwhile, in the second question, how often during respondents using blogs for non-academic purposes as many as 25% of respondents stated never, 15% of respondents stated very rarely, 50% of respondents stated rarely, and 10% of respondents stated quite often. These results indicate that most students do not use blogs, both for academic and non-academic purposes.
The results of writing German are as follows, based on the analysis of the words count in the text.

Discussion
A study on the use of m-learning in different gender, ages, social and cultural influence needs to be reported because that may act as barriers to its implementation [17]. In this study, students of the Department of German Literature, State University of Malang, have a positive perception of internet use, in this case, the use of blogs by students. This reinforces Sudiran's research results, which show that students have a positive perception of the use of the internet as a learning medium [3]. Indeed the use of the internet by students in academic activities has a positive influence because of its ease in finding learning material that can support students to prepare themselves for learning [1].
In addition, most students also have experience in creating blogs, both for academic and non-academic purposes. Most students are also interested in reading other student blogs. Students claimed that they are connected with other students and thanked blogging activities.
However, students' perceptions and experiences about using blogs for academic purposes are not directly proportional to the attitude shown in doing writing assignments. The results of the data analytics show that in the second assignment, the average number of words has fallen from 154 to 104 characters. These findings confirmed the research results conducted by Deni and Zainal that showed that Padlet's positive image as a learning tool did not affect student use rate [18].
In addition, there are other obstacles that students have regarding the use of Padlets, including internet networks and phone devices that do not support them, because the use of outdated smartphones will contribute to a slow loading of menus, which can respond to students not unwilling to use Padlet as a writing tool [19]. The use of internet-based media must consider the availability of internet networks and technological limitations. Otherwise, it will become an obstacle. This is as expressed by Lujan-Mora & de Juana-Espinosa that the use of technology-based media is often constrained by internet access, computer specifications that do not support, and the lack of user knowledge of technology [5].

Conclusion
Based on the results of the study, it can be inferred that the students' have a positive perception of the use of technology in learning German. However, students do not accept Padlet as a learning medium. This opposite the different viewpoints and attitudes about using Padlet. This research is expected to be a reference and source of similar study or research on Padlet. The subsequent analysis is expected to dig more profound benefits of Padlet in the learning process, especially learning to write.