THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL LEARNING MEDIA ON LOCAL WISDOM UNDERSTANDING AND STUDENT LEARNING INTEREST

Abstract

This study examines the effect of interactive PowerPoint (PPT) digital media on students’ conceptual understanding of local wisdom and learning interest. The background of this research is the low level of students’ conceptual understanding and learning interest caused by conventional learning practices that rely heavily on verbal explanations and independent assignments without structured visual support. This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group. The participants were 52 seventh-grade students of SMP Negeri 6 Tanah Putih, divided into an experimental group (n = 26) and a control group (n = 26). Data were collected using a conceptual understanding test (pretest–posttest) and a learning interest questionnaire. The results show that the experimental group achieved a higher posttest mean score (87.76) than the control group (80.28), with a mean difference of 16.346 and a significance value of p = 0.000 < 0.05. In addition, the average learning interest score of the experimental group reached 86.10, which was higher than that of the control group. These findings indicate that interactive PPT digital media significantly improves students’ conceptual understanding and learning interest. Therefore, interactive digital media can be considered an effective instructional strategy for enhancing meaningful and culturally contextual learning.