The Implementation of Digital Media in Islamic Religious Education Learning at SDIT Bunayya Gayo Lues

Abstract

This study describes the implementation of digital media in Islamic Religious Education at SDIT Bunayya Gayo Lues. A qualitative case study design was used; informants comprised two Islamic Religious Education teachers, the principal, and three students, with data collected through participant observation across one semester, in-depth interviews, and study of lesson plans and teaching materials. The findings indicate that digital media in this school function primarily as an instrument of concretization rather than of interaction. Video and presentation supply a visible referent for abstract religious content, while the learning itself occurs at the moment when the teacher stops the material and connects it to what students actually do. The rise in student attention during playback is real but does not by itself become understanding; change in understanding occurred only in lessons where the teacher supplied a closing commentary. The intermittent internet connection, ordinarily treated as an obstacle, pushed teachers to download and reuse a small selection of media, with the result that materials became better refined and more closely integrated with lesson plans. The study concludes that the quality of digitally supported Islamic Religious Education is determined by the quality of the teacher’s commentary around the media rather than by the quantity or sophistication of the media used.